Recovering After Surgery

25
May 22
1

Recovering After Surgery

The back surgery I had at the beginning of the month marks my very first surgery.

Unless you count wisdom teeth, which they did put me out for, but certainly wasn’t anything like notching a couple of vertebra to scrape out a cyst that was pushing on my spine.

I learned a few things.

First, general anesthesia and I do NOT get along.

I get famously motion sick, and should have told them to give me everything they could to douse the nausea. Instead, I got the normal dose of whatever and ended up throwing up my guts for 20 hours.

Well, only when I moved my head more than a few inches. So if I sat perfectly still I was fine. Ish.

Second, I drop a lot of things on the floor. (The hubby affectionately calls it my flinging tendency.)

Items include, but are not limited to, contact cases, pills, wrappers, blankets, socks, pens, tissues, lotion, my phone…

When you can’t bend at all, the floor may as well be a hundred miles away. Sometime after I stopped throwing up I decided to fetch the longest pair of tongs we had in the house. They’ve become my grabby thing.

Mental note to me: I need an actual grabby thing.

Third, practically everything in the world that you can sit on has lower back support.

That’s great, until your lower back has a 6″ incision up your spine. Then the last thing you want is extra pressure in the area.

Fourth, don’t watch sappy movies when you’re still under the influence of pain meds.

Holy emotional Batman. Next time only comedy or action shows. Nothing of the “tender” sort.

It’s been three weeks since surgery, and I’m actually doing well.

I can drive again, I haven’t taken the big pain drugs in almost two weeks.

I can pick things up off the floor. I know because I dropped my debit card at the stupid gas station the other day and had to get it. (I really do have a flinging problem.)

I’m walking a few blocks a day and adding to it each time I go out.

Here’s hoping the surgery gets rid of most of my pain and I can go back to exercising! I miss doing more than lapping the block.