I am now finally home! It may have only been 4 days in hospital but honestly it felt like much much longer. Through this post, I want to write a little on my operation and about my stay in hospital, what it was like and what anyone having the same operation can expect. For anyone new let me catch you up - I suffer from grade 2 spondylolithesis and have had a lumbar spinal fusion L5S1.
So firstly I went in on the Monday morning, my admission time was midday, however I could not eat after 7am or drink after 11am. Part of my morning also consisted of drinking a watery lemon concoction (slightly gross) which made sure I had enough energy until I went down. Once checked in to the hospital I was shown to my room and told I would be seen by my surgeon and anesthetist very soon. Sure enough it wasn't long before my surgeon came along, went through the procedure and told me I would be going down to theatre first ('ladies first' - how gentlemanly). I was very relieved for this as waiting around is awful! I then had the anaesthetist come and check that I knew what I was having done (ya know - just in case) and he ran through what would happen. I then changed into a very sexy backless hospital gown with some charming knickers that I can only discribe as looking like a plastic shower cap and lastly stocking which I have learnt to hate and off we went.
The walk to theatre was scary. There's no sugar coating that. I walked into the anaesthetists room and layed on the bed. A needle was placed into my hand whilst happy chit chat was made surrounding the topics of my life and the nurses travels. I was then told 'its time to go to sleep' and I don't remember anything else.
I woke up in the ICU around 3-4 hours later. I have little memory of this now however I can tell you the basics as I wrote notes on my phone at the time. I felt relieved that the operation was over (although in truth that was the easy part), the morphine was doing its lovely job of making me feel very happy and I felt comfortable - if a little sore. I was able to see my parents briefly however most of my time in the ICU was spent sleeping. On my second day post surgery I started to feel and be sick. Anyone who knows me, knows this is a phobia for me, I hate it and I will do anything to avoid it. Therefore when one of the nurses mentioned it could be due to the morphine, I stopped using it all together. Once I was 12 hours free of morphine and in a fair bit of pain the nurses were great in finding an alternative (unfortunately though this didn't help my sickness). Also on my second day, the physio came around and got me out of bed for the first time. All I remember from this was eye watering pain. The physio told me I could cry but I remember breathlessly saying 'that hurts even more!' I didn't manage to walk on that day only stand for a couple of seconds.
Day 3 was my last morning in the ICU before being moved to my own room back in the wards. What we hadn't realised before was my epidural was leaking and my spinal block was becoming ineffective. (Which was probably why I was in so much pain when I stopped using the morphine!) This led to my back becoming swollen with the epidural fluid however once the epidural was taken out, the fluid slowly leaked out too and my swelling went down. As I said before I do not remember much from the ICU apart from a lovely nurse called Loraine who gave me my morning wash, my first attempt standing and feeling very nauseous in general.
My last couple of days in my own room can be quite easily described as a mixture of 'I'm in pain' , 'I'm going to be sick' and 'I want to go home.' Being brutally honest I felt very lonely, I saw people only when I called for help, when someone gave me food or took my stats, my physio and the couple of hours my family came to visit. I had physio once daily (which can be fairly awkward when someone has to carry your pee!) However, I quickly learnt the best way to get out of bed and be slightly more mobile so they could take out my catheter and I could be slightly more independent (Minus the fact I had to say when I needed to pee as they wanted to measure it and the oh so charming question of 'have you opened your Bowls today?') By this point, around day 3/4, my medication started being reduced and I was in a lot of pain and struggling to both eat and sleep due to nausea and pain however I coped and if anything this made me more determined to get out of hospital and go home where I knew I would be more comfortable.
I was told I would be in hospital 5 nights, it turned out to be 4 and for that I am thankful. Although I know I have a long way to go in terms of recovery, the worst is now over and I can see slight improvements every day.
So there it is in a nutshell. Please comment with any questions or anything in the comments below! My next post will be a little bit more in depth about the things they don't tell you before you have an operation as there are definitely a few things and hope someone finds them useful. 😊😊
Ttfn
Hannah
Xoxo
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