Post-Op 1 month

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BlueAtlas

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Linda, you sound great! I hereby proclaim you our current poster child! That's amazing that you can be up and about for so long at a time and have lowered your pain meRAB so much! Yay!!!

I hope you're taking enough pain meRAB, though. If you need them and have backed off because of the constipation, you might want to re-up them and take a Colace capsule too. It's a stool softener and will work magic! It's safe to take long term, too, as long as you take the kind with just the stool softener.

I hope your leg pain continues to improve. You got your life back! Congratulations!

:wave: Emily
 
Hi all, it is 4 weeks since my 360 fusion and I think I'm doing better. My only complaints are my legs get so weak after 2 hours or so that I have to lay down to rest them. My incisions are healing fine. My inside surgical pain is getting better. Am moving around in the morning but need to rest in the afternoon. And boy can I sleep now! I get exhausted by 7 at night and head up to bed to watch tv but never make it. As soon as I get in bed, I am out light a light.
Like I stated before, my legs are still pretty bad. I don't know if that is the nerve damage healing or else I waited too long for surgery and have permanant damage. I will just have to wait and see being that it is only 1 month. I am trying to walk as much as possible and like you megss, my doctor wants me walking 1 mile at 6 weeks. I don't know if that will ever happen but I will keep trying. I am hoping the walking will help strengthen my legs. Also I am down to 2 hydrocodone a day due to the fact of constipation. Will keep in touch and glad you seem to be doing better megss.
 
Thank you for that honor BlueAtlas. :) I will absolutely take a pain pill when I need one, constipation or not. I have been taking colace also. I have IBS so no matter what I take, it just takes time to work. Still don't need any pain meRAB and I've been up and around for a while now. I will be lying down soon, right after lunch, to rest my legs some more. And I'll probably need one early evening as I do every day. We will see how my progress continues.
Thanks, Linda
 
Yeah I am also astonished at how little meRAB you are taking at this point, so early in your recovery. I have had a major issue with constipation since surgery. They stuck something up 'you know where' while I was in the hospital and I went (wasn't allowed to go home until I went), but after that I went for 10 days with out going! 10 days! I was taking prescription stool softeners and eating Activia yogurt to no avail. I finally just took a laxitive and went A LOT for several days. Then I went a few days until today without going, so it is an on going issue.
I can't believe you asked for a cold beer! LOL! That is hallarious. I'll bet the nurses keep a notebook of all the funny things patients say. I have had a dry mouth ever since surgery from all the meRAB. I hate that but I suck on candy. I still can't believe you went for awhile with only Tylenol. If you got through that than you can get through ANYTHING! Because those first few days are the worst.
I was on a Spine floor as well. It was nice because every patient on that floor had just had spine surgery. I feel that the nurses were better trained to deal with me and my neeRAB. With my first surgery I was in a smaller hospital and on an Orthopedic floor, so there were all sorts of surgeries and all sorts of different scenarios.
I wonder what your fever was about? I had something similar, but I was 1.5 weeks post op. I woke up from a nap one evening and was just shaking and freezing. I finally took my temp and it was 103.2. I alerted the on call Dr. about it, but he didn't think it was serious since I didn't have symptoms of pnuemonia and my incision wasn't extra swollen or draining stuff. The fever never returned after I took tylenol. Weird.
One question- did you have a drain coming out of your incision while you were in the hospital? I did and it was draining blood. Just this little tiny tube came out of the incision and into a little pouch. I didn't have that with my first surgery and thought it was strange. I wonder if there was a bleeding problem or something. I'll bet thats why I became so anemic.
 
Hey Linda!

You seem to be doing better. I have been having a hard time motivating myself to walk lately because of my left leg. It bothers me so much. It hurts and it burns even to just touch my skin. It is also partially nurab. My nurse told me this is a good sign that the nerve is trying to come back to life so hopefully that is what is going on for both of us.
You are on very little meRAB compared to me thats awesome! I am on my 3rd day of prednisone, taking 1 75 mg Lyrica 3x daily, and 3 oxycodone every 4 hours (accept I sleep through the night- usually 10 hours). I am supposed to start 1 oxycontin every 12 hours but still haven't gotten my script in the mail! She mailed it Tuesday and I literally live 7 minutes from the hospital and clinic. Maybe the mail is slow because of V day or the snow storm.
Are you not taking anything for the leg pain like gabapentin or lyrica? I would ask for something if your not.
 
Hi megss, you seem a bit better too. This surgery does take a lot out of you. I am very sensitive to medication so I try not to take too many different pills. They did give me Lyrica in the hospital but I can't remeraber if it worked at all:)
guess I was too out of it. I will ask for it at my next appointment. The prednisone will probably help you a lot. Just think how we were 2 weeks ago and we will see there is improvement, slowly but surely. Keep us updated as will I. Linda
 
Megss, I had 2 drains, 1 for the front incision and 1 for the back. I remeraber they took them out like the next day and I really don't know what was draining out. I didn't even know they were in there until they took them out. My floor was all spine surgery too and I watched every day as one by one someone else was up and walking. I was very lethargic in the hospital so I didn't get up to walk the halls until the last day and they wouldn't let me go home until I did.
The constipation is very annoying and really bothering me again so I think it's time for a mild laxative because the colace isn't working. Keep on getting better so we can get our lives back. Linda
 
I actually got up and walked around the night of my surgery. My pain was under VERY good control with that Dilaudid pump and I was feeling so loopy that I suggested it! I was so proud of myself though. With my first surgery, when I had a 360 like you, I didn't until the 3rd day, and it was because I had to to go home. Gosh my first surgery was such a bad experience compared to this one. 360's are harder to deal with, so I am lucky the surgeon didn't do it that way this time.
 
AH! I walked for 15 minutes on the treadmill at a speed of 1! :) I am SO proud of myself. And then I took a nap.
The Lyrica helps but not that much, I still have a lot of problems. HOWEVER, I have not gotten that horrible cramp that makes me want to scream. That could be the lryica or the prednisone. My nurse did say the lyrica neeRAB time to build up in my system. The idea with the oxycontin is so that I don't need as much oxycodone. Hopefully a LOT less because I feel like I am taking way too much medicine. I complained to the nurse about that but she said it is okay. I really like my nurse a lot.
I was super out of it in the hospital the first night. My family was giggling at me:) But they only left me on IV medication for about 12 hours. I thought that was a little premature because my comfort level went way down when they switched to oral meRAB. At first I was on a Dilaudid pump. I could push the button every 6 minutes. If I heard a beep when I pushed, that meant medicine went through. Very nice let me tell you. I had like very little pain and was quite comfortable, but VERY goofy and groggy. The nurse did tell me though that I wasn't pushing it so often. To me it felt like every 6 minutes but apparently I wasn't pushing it much.
My hospital was very nice, a newer building. All the rooms were private, but I could hear my next door neigrabroador, who was a young woman, screaming and crying and vomiting. I asked about her and she had a 360. I did not this time thank God, but that was me the first time. I didn't move until the 3rd day, and I felt like I had no pain meRAB in me. I threw up constantly and made family merabers sleep over with me:D
Did they make you breath into that thing? I had no problems with it this time, although with my first surgery, when I had a 360, I did. It hurt a lot more to do it. I did have a problem with oxygen levels this time though and blood loss which I did not with the first surgery. My hemaglobin went to a 7, and I had to wear an oxygen mask the whole time I was there otherwise my machine beeped. Also I had potassium of only 2.9 when I got to the hospital. They still proceeded with the surgery but it took 5 bags to get it 3.6. (3.5 is the lowest in the normal range).
Just keep up the good work and positive thoughts and we can keep chatting to root each other on! You are only a week and a half ahead of me!
Oh when are they going to have you start PT? I start at 6 weeks.
 
Hi megss, I was way out of it too in the hospital. My husband and son told me I was singing "I feel Good" from the recovery room to my own room. They were laughing at me. They said I also asked for a cold beer because I was so thirsty. But that didn't last long. lol I also had the pain pump and I was just pushing it whenever and I told them to keep my catherter in for another day, which they did. There were all private rooms on the spine floor with was great. No one to bother you. I didn't eat or have liquiRAB for 3 days because I was afraid of throwing up. Yeah I had to breathe into that thing and it did help although it hurt bad when I coughed but we needed that for our lungs. Didn't want pnemonia on top of that. I also had oxygen for several days but I also ran a fever for 3 days and one night it spiked to 104. So they took blood cultures and found nothing and the fever went down quickly but I think I gave them a scare because that next morning, every doctor came in to see me. It all worked out. The only problem was my low blood pressure. That's when they decided not to give me any more pain meRAB. Only tylenol which did absolutely nothing. Woke up this morning with little or no leg pain. That's a new one. Maybe it means my legs are healing. Have a restful day and talk to you soon. Linda oh, don't know anything about PT yet.
 
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