They wheeled me back to the pre-op room about an hour before my scheduled surgery time. I talked with my orthopedic surgeon about the difficulties of recovery so far, with the worst being the roll from my back onto my side from which I would swing my legs to the floor and simultaneously bring my upper body upright into a seated position. That roll from my back onto my side was the most painful and hardest move to perfect keeping the spine in alignment and without twisting. I expressed my belief that after this second procedure this maneuver would be even more difficult. He assured me that the second bracket they were about to place on the front of my vertebrae would stabilize the spine to an extent that those types of maneuvers should be easier with less potential for pain. He was right, that particular move became one the the easier.
The procedure began similarly to the first, only this time I made it into the surgery room before they gave me the anesthesia, that was a little intimidating. I remember being rolled next to the operation table, but I don't know if I scooted over to it, or if they picked me up and placed me on it, I just remember thinking, "I hope they don't expect me to scoot with my back this way."
They had upped my dosage of ketamine for the second procedure, I also had been on the dilaudid and robaxin drips which made my coming out of anesthesia after the second procedure much different. It was almost as peaceful as waking up from a nap, except for the catheter once again which wasn't as bad but I could tell it was there. Luckily I didn't have to prove that I could walk this time, the nurse tending to me in post-op was working on something for what seemed like 15 to 30 minutes while I tried to fully wake up and keep my eyes open. Once I was totally awake she had me take a deep breath and upon exhaling she pulled out the catheter, yes hurt like hell again, this time the pain during urination lasted most of the day but slowly got better each trip to the bathroom. The good news was with this new surgery the pain in my back from the first surgery all but disappeared and my pain was all in my abdomen now, temporarily. All of the pain seemed to radiate from the 4 inch vertical incision starting 2 inches below my naval. The doctor gave me the option of a vertical or horizontal scar, i had no preference but females may consider the horizontal to be less noticeable on the bikini line. I had covered my lips with chapstick this time before the procedure and woke much more comfortable from that aspect, still a dry mouth but the ice chips the nurse gave me in the post-op was sufficient to help that.
I returned to my recovery room, and went to town hitting my pain button which delivered my dilaudid. They kept my Roxi's coming along with the stool softeners, robaxin and Tylenol. I was able to make it to the rest room to urinate as I wrote earlier, moving from the laying flat position up to sitting upright had become much less painful having my spine more stabilized by the bracket on front. The biggest hassle I was having at that point was the back brace sits right on the incision area under my belly button, so that hurt when putting on and taking off the brace, but not too bad from walking with the brace.
I had bought a package including a sponge attached to a 3 foot plastic handle for cleaning lower extremities and back, a special soft contraption which makes it possible for me to put on my socks, an extended shoe horn to help me get into sneakers, and the extended gripping arm to grab things out of reach. It was 25 dollars sold to me by the occupational therapist who came into the recovery room to cover different ways to do common everyday tasks. These are worth every penny especially the grabber tool as I carry that with me everywhere I go.
My surgery was at 7:00 am, I was limited to clear liquids until about 5:00, which was fine as the pain medicine had lessened my appetite. They listen with the stethoscope to my bowels, when your intestines and organs in that area are manipulated during a surgery they tend to shut down, they take a little while to become active again and when they do the nurses can hear the movements and churning through your stomach area. They heard them start to me so i got a couple cups of jello at around 5:30. After I ate the jello they listened again and everything sounded normal so they took the restrictions off my diet and I ordered a full dinner. I had no cramps, pains, or nausea from eating.
I was warned that the testicles can be a drainage area under a procedure in that area where they were working and that the possibility of significant swelling could occur there, I did not have that. There is also the minimal chance of a nerve being damaged leading to impotence, and a chance of a particular adverse affect of ejaculation exiting inward rather than through the tip of the penis. This isn't harmful and usually reverses itself on its own with time. Obviously I cannot answer that one yet, but as to the impotence, I'm safe there.
That night while on all the higher dosages and strong pain medicines I was able to do everything without nurse assistance. I had told the staff that I had adverse side effects to a certain antibiotic which they usually use in this procedure as it a wide spectrum strong antibiotic. I believe there was a miscommunication because I discovered that they had used it during the first procedure and I hadn't noticed the side effects. Since it wasn't a long term dosage I let them use it again on this second procedure, and I did have the adverse side effects this time. This antibiotic doesn't allow me to sleep, If I do happen to dose off I have such vivid and overwhelming dreams I immediately wake up after less than a minute of sleep. So I was awake the whole night but I cared for myself as I was sufficiently drugged and felt great. I began to get a little itchy toward morning and started getting hot spots but the antibiotic treatment was almost over so I toughed it out. I felt as if my recovery was going to be a walk in the park with how far I was just 16 hours out of the second procedure. It was mostly due to the drugs tho as the next morning would provide a little reality check.
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