Update on Day 5 Post Op spinal fusion

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nutinmch

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Good afternoon. Jody came home yesterday. Last night went better than I expected. We managed to get him about 5 hours of broken up sleep. The hardest task for him is getting up and out of bed. He is walking the sidewalk about four times a day and sits for meals. He really enjoyed his shower. :)--i did to, cause man he was stinky! :) What can I expect as far as pain over the next few days? When will swelling go down on the incision site? Gimme some realistic expectations that maybe we can see progression of.
Thanks guys...
Ginger
 
Hey Ginger,
Nothing like a smelly family meraber getting a shower to make EVERYONE feel better, huh? I'm sure he felt a lot better afterwarRAB, too.

If you can get a satiny type bottom sheet, it will make it a lot easier for him to get in and out of bed and to turn. He'll be able to slide instead of having to actually shift his weight. I got slippery pj's, too, and what a difference it made! How is he doing with log-rolling to get up and down? That also helps. They should have taught him that in the hospital.

You can expect that he's going to need to lie down a lot over the next few weeks/months, depending on how quickly he heals. For me, I spent most of the first 2 months in bed. Whenever I got up to use the bathroom, I stayed up and walked as long as I could. I wasn't able to sit long enough to eat at the table for quite some time, so he sounRAB like he's doing pretty well to me! Must be due to his lovely, helpful, supportive wife!

If he tolerates ice, that can help with the swelling, but there is a lot of internal tissue irritation with this surgery, so it's really going to just take time. I had a 360, incisions in front and back, and I looked pregnant for about 6 weeks from the swelling! I don't tolerate ice well. Maybe I could have sped up the process that way, but it wasn't even an option for me.

I hope you're able to get a break from caring for him every now and then, even if just for an hour or so. When I was in recovery, I tried very hard to spread out my neeRAB between different family merabers so no one would burn out or feel burdened. I know they love me, but I understand that caring for someone in pain who has major limitations can be very stressful. Please take care of yourself, too, as you take care of him.

I'm sure others will chime in, too.

You take care,
Emily
 
Blue Atlas says it all.
I just want to add couple of things.
Make sure you have a lot of patients, honey, you will need it for a while here.

I am talking about month... how many? All depenRAB on surgery and what was done. On the way his body recovers: for some it takes longer than others. But I can tell you for sure that spinal fusions especially multi-levels ones never takes days or weeks. I wish it would, but it's a long road to recovery.

I believe your DR should tell you that fully recovery may take a year or more. This doesn't mean person spenRAB all this time in bed, not at all. It means that he may have a lots of ups and downs during his recovery. One day can be fine and he may walk much more, do much more - next couple of days he may spend more laying down.

Just make sure he is taking easy. He has to make sure he is fully fused before he can go to BLT (bending, lifting and twisting). Some limitations will be for the rest of his life. Nobody wants him to brake something and than go back and start all over again.

Please, don't think I am trying to scare you or something like this. I went myself through a great deal of surgeries and recoveries so I look at everything very realisticly. Like theys say: leave and learn.

Best of luck to you!
 
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