Fusions Surgery

 alright so a lot of things have happened since my last post and I am kicking myself for not keeping this thing updated.  It really helps to write things down.

I flew back out to South Carolina to see what the next steps were going to be and since this surgery didn't improve a majority of my symptoms with physical therapy it was time to schedule my fusion surgery.  I had my fusion surgery about 6 in a half weeks ago and it has been a beast to recover from,  Again I was in a lot of pain in the hospital, they figured out it was a migraine with surgery and had me on caffeine tablets.  It helped a ton! It was really weird.

  Narcotics are also awful... I am very sensitive to most and I was put on a pretty strong one.   I tried going cold turkey and that made me end up back in the hospital....that is a long story and I am not sure, I want to write here. I am still debating, because what if it might help someone else who is struggling.

As for healing from my fusion, I can tell many differences! I am not far a long in my recovery, but my arm pain has improved a lot, and also my black outs have improved a ton too, so here is to hoping I can continue recovering.

life went crazy again...

 Life went crazy............

I maybe will have the brain  power to write it out properly someday ,long story short:

I flew home 3 days later, Sat around on my couch/ bed for 6 weeks. A bump started forming a day before we left, but was assured by the on call doctor that it was normal and it was probably just a bruise forming. I watched that grow in size for six weeks...finally got a hold of the actual doctor, and had to fly back to SC to have emergency surgery because it was a spinal fluid leak.  Went in on a Monday to have it repaired, didn't find a leak, was still leaking spinal fluid and had another Emergency surgery on Thursday, where he was finally able to locate the leak, which was actually two leaks..... UGH... my husband catches covid and is quarantined to his hotel room, and I get to lay in a hospital, far from home, all alone....for 7 days. 

I get out, had to uber from hospital to hotel, stay in a different room and recover enough and wait for my husband to not be in quarantine anymore.. Flew home, which seemed bumpier then normal and I was nauseous half the flight.

 I finally made it home and took things really slowly, made sure to not twist, bend, pick up anything for six weeks. Then slowly started progressing back into doing some things. I was cleared for physical therapy and started that in April. I am sad to report that my POTS is still just as bad as ever. I am gaining muscle and getting stronger, but it has not helped my POTS at all :(  I have about 3 weeks of PT left and I am assuming it is not going to change it.  I have my next appointment coming up with my Neurosurgeon soon and I think he will probably schedule me for a Fusion surgery. I will continue physical therapy as long as I can before the next surgery to be as strong as possible for that.

All in all I don't think the surgery was a bust, It has helped with other things, I do feel like it has loosened the bottom half of my body and I have been able to gain muscle from my legs down. Any kind of exercise I do with my arms and shoulders still causes a lot of pain, but hey at least I have a muscly booty now! lolol (ok not really but trying to make a joke). It also really helped with bladder urgency, I won't go into that, but just saying for future reference. I am sorry it took so long to update.....

After the Hospital discharge

My husband drove me the short drive to the hotel. It wasn't to bad because I had gotten a dose of Dilodin before I left.  I was pretty wheel chair bound by this point. Only able to to walk a few steps at a time, so it was nice that I had brought my own walker/wheel chair with me.  Got to the hotel, got comfy and slept really good over the night.   I was supposed go home on Thursday, I should have picked the refundable flight options, even though they are a bit more.  I had a follow/discharge appointment on Wednesday. For the next two days I was on a constant routine of pain meds and I was still having a terrible headache and terrible neck pain.  It was weird, where they had actually cut in to me wasn't that painful, compared to the other pain I was having.   By my appointment time came Wednesday, I was in so much body pain I just bawled through my entire appointment with him.  My appointment was with Dr. Patel's Assistant, but honestly he WAS THE BEST!  He let me cry and listened and understood. and acutally told me what had been going on and what I should be expecting in the near future.  Found out that this surgery is actually a 3 month recovery process! Before I had the surgery, I was thinking it would be about a 2 to 3 week recovery.  We switched up a bunch of medications. My body had so much inflammation, he put me on a short term steroid, and also found another muscle relaxer that wouldn't make me so dizzy!  This is where the decision came that I was not well enough to travel,  

It was within 24 hours of our flight home, and I guess if its in that time frame, it is nonrefundable....