Ooh, oww, ouch. I'm learning new moans and groans.
For 30 years I've fought a bad back that kept getting worse and worse. I hurt it in a skiing accident in the 70s. Back then the doctor advised to avoid back surgery as long as possible – so I did. Then, this last year it became harder and harder to even walk very far without pain so I decided that I had put it off as long as possible. Now the back surgery isn't nearly as invasive as it used to be. I was on the table for over 3 hours, but able to walk the very next day. They let me out of the hospital after 24 hours and sent me home to recuperate. I was in fine shape until the pain medication wore off. Apparently the pain will be with be for a matter of some months as the bone grafts merge with where the steel plates were screwed in. Once my body adapts and adjusts to the new status and the effects of being cut open and being stretched and hammered on subside, I will enter into physical therapy (about 3 months after surgery). Until then, I'm supposed to not do anything strenuous or any lifting that puts a strain on my back. In other words, I'm supposed to be a bum for about 3 months and moan and groan a lot. I can do that.
Already I can tell that where it hurt before (down deep in the lower part of my back) doesn't hurt now. Right now my back is black and blue and hurts in many other spots, but I'm hoping those pains will subside.
Maybe I'll be able to get out and go skiing again? I don't think so. Most people I know skied until they got hurt and then quit. Same as me.
I can really get into this being a bum under doctor's orders. It's hard, but someone's got to do it.
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you forgot to mention that you've adapted to the years of mobility lost & haven't been able to do real "dad" & "g'pa" stuff since nearly the time of the accident... nor did you mention that your daughters & sisters & other asst'd friends & family had been after you to get an additional opinion about getting that back injury treated... love you but you are a stubborn one sometimes (not like that might be a family trait or some such...)
ReplyDeleteMy doctor, whom I really trust, always advised not to have back surgery unless the pain and mobility got to be too bad. When I went to the orthopaedic surgeon, he told me exactly the same - only have surgery as last resort. He first recommended pain management which is just what my regular doctor had been doing all these years. My mobility became such a problem that I had to have the surgery or become chair bound. Time will tell if this surgery helps or not. I did have the 2 vertebra anchored together with plates and bone graft. Currently I am dealing with nerve pain in my lower back/hip, which the surgeon said was normal and will eventually diminish or disappear.
ReplyDeleteSO, all along I was following the right procedures according to the doctors. Neener, neener, neener. Who says I'm stubborn? I thought all along I was just a pain in the backside.