Another update - see #21 - I'm back in DE

[pomtzu]

Just another update: I will be having more surgery in Baltimore on 3/24 to repair the damage to the collapsed hardware and add another level of hardware above what is there - doc will clean up all the "junk" and straighten the spine the way it should be, and decompress what is now compressed and causing all the pain. I'll be in the hospital for 3 - 5 days and perhaps some rehab after that, but that will be decided after the procedure. I'm saying no to that if at all possible - they can arrange some in home therapy until I can get out on my own!!!!! All in all, not too bad - could have been a lot worse. I go back to Baltimore on 3/10 for all my pre-op work at the hospital, and then back to doc on 3/13 for my final pre-op office visit - oh joy - 2 more days spent driving 2 hours each way - like I haven't had my fill of driving with my jaunts to NC and back!!! And sometime before the surgery I have to make one more trip to NC to pick up what I have in storage - like warmer weather clothes, shoes, sandals, handbags, etc - because once I have the surgery I will be 6-8 weeks recuperating and won't be able to drive that distance. I don't think I want to be wearing my Ugg-like boots and sweat shirts/pants in April and May!!! I'm dreading that trip, but I'm going to make it a 2 day event - leave before the crack of dawn one day - get there and get the things out of storage and into my car, (nothing too heavy-mostly space bags), get a motel and something to eat, hit the bed super early, and be up again before the crack to dawn and drive back up here. It will be tiring, but I just want to get it done as quickly as possible. I'd like to do it on the weekend of 3/15 & 16 since there should be less traffic than weekdays and it's a no-brainer drive of all Interstate roads. The best time I drove was 9 hours each way (510 miles each way), but that's because all the road construction between DC and Richmond had shut down in January because of the brutally cold weather. I probably won't be so lucky on driving times when I go down again. But of course when and if I do go down before the surgery, will depend both on the weather and how bad I feel. Wish I could pay someone to drive my car down and do it for me, but the only ones I would trust with my car can't drive it because it's a stick shift - other than my son - and his work schedule gets in the way. Oh well - it will all work out somehow...........

Wolfman will stay here when I drive back down - no sense in dragging him with me for that hectic trip. He needs to get used to not having me around for a few days, since he won't have any choice in the matter when I have the surgery. He's definitely like Sparky - a Mommy's Boy - and mopes and is all down in the dumps when I have to be away for more than a few hours. When I was gone most of the day last week when I went to Baltimore, my son said Wolfy laid on the back of the sofa and watched out the window just about the whole time that I was gone. Yup - shades of Sparky!!!

So that's the story - just want to get it over and done with so I can start to get my life back to "normal". I'll try to check back in next week, and maybe actually get some threads read so I can see what's been going on. Yup - I AM BACK!!!!! Later, kids!

[Freedom]

I'll be in the hospital for 3 - 5 days and perhaps some rehab after that, but that will be decided after the procedure. I'm saying no to that if at all possible - they can arrange some in home therapy until I can get out on my own!!!!!

Please re-think this bit, Ellie. Residential rehab is much more intensive and gives a better outcome for most surgeries. While some of it does depend on the facility, in general you get MORE PT, regular meals (which won't happen when you initially get home and aren't feeling 100%), have folks around you and all in all it is lots better. Most post-surgical rehab is at least 2 hours per day, 5 days per week, possible 6 days per week. One hour of PT and one hour of OT. After 12 plus years of caring for my Dad I've learned: if they offer residential Rehab TAKE IT. Just my 2 cents.

I agree, a novel is what you need to work on!

[pomtzu]

Please re-think this bit, Ellie. Residential rehab is much more intensive and gives a better outcome for most surgeries. While some of it does depend on the facility, in general you get MORE PT, regular meals (which won't happen when you initially get home and aren't feeling 100%), have folks around you and all in all it is lots better. Most post-surgical rehab is at least 2 hours per day, 5 days per week, possible 6 days per week. One hour of PT and one hour of OT. After 12 plus years of caring for my Dad I've learned: if they offer residential Rehab TAKE IT. Just my 2 cents.

I agree, a novel is what you need to work on!

Well, it's not a definite at this point anyway - doc was just tossing possibilities at me. I have been in rehab twice before - the first time was in 2006 after the cervical spine surgery and I was an in-patient for 2 weeks, and then again in 2008 after I fractured my hip and was in-patient for about 10 days. Of course it's more beneficial than just plain p.t., but it's not home. When I had the lumbar surgery in 2010 I didn't need it, so since this is not much more than a repair of that, that got "messed up", I'm hoping I won't need it again.

And no - no book on the horizon. It probably would be therapeutic and maybe I could finally bury all the memories of a nasty situation, but I'm trying to just let it die on the vine. And like I said - I doubt that most people would believe it anyway.

[Asiel]

Was just reading all your updates Pom and I could hardly believe the stuff you still have to go through with that back injury. But, all in all, I guess it's best to take care of everything before it gets worse. You sound just like me... hospitals are not in my "favourite places" to be. I've signed myself out quite a few times so they expect it of me if I do land back in. Nothing that they do, matter of fact they go overboard being nice but I just can't get used to hospitals, never will.
Of course with the big changes out here our hospital is not what anyone would call a hospital so I have to go to another city, my doctor doesn't want me near this one
Make everyone happy and start on that novel... or should I say "series"----- sounds like there's plenty of material there to do it.
I hope everything will get back to normal in a hurry now that you're back home . I was so glad to hear you were coming back where you really longed to be...

[emily_the_spoiled]

You might want to consider getting the stuff shipped up to you. That would save you a lot of driving and discomfort. For small or unusual stuff I have used:http://www.uship.com/

In the past I have had cats transported from NC to the DC region. It generally isn't that expense and they will deliver right to your door (or meet you someplace easy to get to).