Change in plans

After a very hard night Friday, I woke up Saturday morning and said, "Okay, I'm sick here and I am going to start acting like it! I'm going to take it easy, walk slowly, sit around a lot, lie down as much as I need to, stay in my pajamas most of the day."

I started weaning off the Percocet, knowing I was running out of it. Started having a lot more pain and that all-over burning electrical feeling that I get when there isn't enough medication in me to mask it. But at least those symptoms make me stay home and lie around. Be sick. Be a person who's recovering from a surgery.

It's amazing to me that an online friend of mine who lives in Oklahoma, and myself, who lives in Washington, ended up having our surgeries at the same time on the same day. We were in adjoining operating rooms. We talked today for an hour, rehashing events. And she said, "You had an ATYPICAL tethered cord surgery and it's going to take a long time for you to get back on your feet." That really stuck in my mind. Words that I needed to hear and heed.

So, things are changing for awhile for me. I'm going back to being that recovering patient. If lazing around all day will make it so that I don't wake up with burning hips and thighs at night, then it's a good thing, Martha!

I'm over five weeks post op and my surgical site is flat as it can be when I wake up in the morning, but in an hour or two, it is again very swollen. Not the incision itself, that has healed very well, but just that large area in the lumbar region. The physical therapist looked at it and said, "So you had a fusion of several vertebrae in your lumbar spine?" and I said, "No, I only had a laminectomy of L4, then the tethered cord surgery." He said, "THAT incision is big enough for much more than that!"

Of course, I doubt the nice PT guy in our little town has dealt with TC before. In fact, I know he hasn't, because I asked him.

No, the incision is very nicely healed, it's the stuff down deeper that is taking longer. That's what they say, that you heal from the outside in. At least, I think that's what they say!

Anyway, not to worry, I'm doing better than the last post. Just readjusting my days and my medications and my way of thinking. It all seems to be working. I feel good about it.