- Joined
- May 18, 1999
- Messages
- 15,395
Hi Gang!
And a huge Wado Equa for all the Smoke, Song, Prayers, Positive Thoughts and What have you!!!!:thumbup: And many thanks too my Uwinv Nasty for keeping y'all posted! It was really good too hear his voice last night!
As Nasty said I was indeed in a great deal of pain beforehand! My neurosurgeon told Barbie and then me, when I had recovered enough the next day, "That there was no way he could understand how I was able to get around even as well as I had been because of the amount of pain I must've had because of the damage in my low back and SI joint!"
The pain level is now a lot lower than before surgery and is of course a 'different kind of pain' that is more easily tolerated.
As the days go by now things should be a whole lot better as I get stronger.
One of the many benefits so far is that I am walking more upright than I have in ages and ages and hopefully that will continue but a lot of muscles need retraining for sure.
The Tulsa Spine and Specialty Hospital *IS* indeed everything their website says it is!!!! The food is much better than just *Good* and there was plenty of it, much more than I am used to eating. I'll see if I can stand steady enough on our very sensitive scales in the morning to see where my weight is and if it has changed over the last few days.
For instance yesterday I had a huge piece of Baked Salmon at lunch that was the absolute best piece of Salmon I've had since I was a wee lad and we got the beautiful *bright red fleshed* whole Sockeye Salmon when we lived in the PN!!!! It took all I had to get every bit of it down but I did even if I didn't eat the soup du jour, didn't even look to see what it was. ;-)
The rooms are really nice and as I said before, "All private rooms" and I was surprised at the size of the bathrooms! They are *HUGE* and instead of a standard size shower stall theirs must be at least 3' X 6' and without a "lip" to step up and over to get into, same level as the floor but with of course a sloped floor behind the shower curtain. Also the bathroom door is way over sized compared to the rest of the hospitals in our area!
When a back surgery is performed there you are gotten out of bed about eight hours after your completed surgery to at least stand at the side of your bed.
When they got me up I told the nurses it would really be nice if I could set down on it for a little while and too my great surprise I was told that I could if I needed to.
When I got myself turned over and set up on the side of the bed prior to standing we discovered that my dressing had failed big time and had leaked miserably, which was even more reason to allow me access. While I was there doing my business the bed got changed, I got cleaned up all the way down my back and beyond and I got a brand new dressing on my wound that no longer leaked.:thumbup:
There are also physical therapists assigned to your case and they come by twice a day to help you walk as well as to show and help you do special back exercises. Each day I made myself go a bit further and yesterday I walked and exercised three times with the last one thanks to Barbie's help yesterday evening.
I still have one more walk today and we're just waiting for it too cool down a bit more outside even though I doubt it helps much.
The temp and humidity are both at 79 with a heat index of 82 degrees, not bad for the usual person but heat is one of my big enemies!:grumpy:
Well that's it folks and once again Wado Equa for all the Smoke, Prayers, Positive Thoughts and What have you!!!!:thumbup:
And a huge Wado Equa for all the Smoke, Song, Prayers, Positive Thoughts and What have you!!!!:thumbup: And many thanks too my Uwinv Nasty for keeping y'all posted! It was really good too hear his voice last night!
As Nasty said I was indeed in a great deal of pain beforehand! My neurosurgeon told Barbie and then me, when I had recovered enough the next day, "That there was no way he could understand how I was able to get around even as well as I had been because of the amount of pain I must've had because of the damage in my low back and SI joint!"
The pain level is now a lot lower than before surgery and is of course a 'different kind of pain' that is more easily tolerated.
As the days go by now things should be a whole lot better as I get stronger.
One of the many benefits so far is that I am walking more upright than I have in ages and ages and hopefully that will continue but a lot of muscles need retraining for sure.
The Tulsa Spine and Specialty Hospital *IS* indeed everything their website says it is!!!! The food is much better than just *Good* and there was plenty of it, much more than I am used to eating. I'll see if I can stand steady enough on our very sensitive scales in the morning to see where my weight is and if it has changed over the last few days.
For instance yesterday I had a huge piece of Baked Salmon at lunch that was the absolute best piece of Salmon I've had since I was a wee lad and we got the beautiful *bright red fleshed* whole Sockeye Salmon when we lived in the PN!!!! It took all I had to get every bit of it down but I did even if I didn't eat the soup du jour, didn't even look to see what it was. ;-)
The rooms are really nice and as I said before, "All private rooms" and I was surprised at the size of the bathrooms! They are *HUGE* and instead of a standard size shower stall theirs must be at least 3' X 6' and without a "lip" to step up and over to get into, same level as the floor but with of course a sloped floor behind the shower curtain. Also the bathroom door is way over sized compared to the rest of the hospitals in our area!
When a back surgery is performed there you are gotten out of bed about eight hours after your completed surgery to at least stand at the side of your bed.
When they got me up I told the nurses it would really be nice if I could set down on it for a little while and too my great surprise I was told that I could if I needed to.
When I got myself turned over and set up on the side of the bed prior to standing we discovered that my dressing had failed big time and had leaked miserably, which was even more reason to allow me access. While I was there doing my business the bed got changed, I got cleaned up all the way down my back and beyond
and I got a brand new dressing on my wound that no longer leaked.:thumbup:There are also physical therapists assigned to your case and they come by twice a day to help you walk as well as to show and help you do special back exercises. Each day I made myself go a bit further and yesterday I walked and exercised three times with the last one thanks to Barbie's help yesterday evening.
I still have one more walk today and we're just waiting for it too cool down a bit more outside even though I doubt it helps much.
The temp and humidity are both at 79 with a heat index of 82 degrees, not bad for the usual person but heat is one of my big enemies!:grumpy:
Well that's it folks and once again Wado Equa for all the Smoke, Prayers, Positive Thoughts and What have you!!!!:thumbup:
