I will be having back surgery on Jan 15. It is called L3,L4,L5 fusion. It is supposed to be just overnight, but I have been hearing that some people have to stay longer.
A whole bunch of stuff leading up to the surgery coming up. MRI tomorrow. Pre-surgery testing on Wed and Cardio wants to see me before surgery.
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Dec 31, 2018
MRI today at OSC. They have an "open" MRI - much better than going in that tunnel. Still noisy. 30 minutes always seems to take an hour.
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Jan 1, 2019
I ordered a bunch of stuff from Amazon that is supposed to help with rehab.
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Jan 2, 2019
To MIH for pre-surgery testing. Blood draw, nose swab for MERSA, EKG. Lots of instructions. The nurse was very nice and helpful.
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Jan 3, 2019
To the monthly retiree luncheon. I got there early cause I had a doc appt at 12:55. Fair show up. I sat and talked with Mikey and Tom Ezell.
The cardio doc said that my BP looked good, but I told him that sometimes it was fairly high in the mornings. He didn't seem worried too much about my BP. He cleared me for the back surgery.
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Feb 6, 2019
Dr. Patel the pulmonologist said my CPAP report looks good.
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Feb 19, 2019
Back surgery today at Mary Immaculate. Very nervous.
Arrived on time - we had a little later surgery time, so we did not have to get up too early.
Everything went smoothly. They took me to the OR and did something a little different. Rather than hold the mask over my nose and mouth they just laid it sideways over my upper lip. In EMS we would have called this "blow-by." Of course, it did its job as I don't remember the doc giving me anything IV.
I woke up in recovery with not much pain. Susan was there. They took me to my room after about 45 minutes. I had an MS pump which I was allowed to "hit" every 15-20 min. I was in a lot of pain, but not too bad. As I requested they left the Folley cath in place.
Feb 20, 2019. I'm in a tremendous amount of pain in my left hip/groin area. It was suggested that I sit in the chair to eat my breakfast. The pain is so bad that I cannot eat. Dr. Carlson came in to do his rounds and I told him about the pain. He said - "This happens sometime and it should go away."
