My Recent Surgery

Well, the good doctor Hadley has completely disassembled my back and put me back together again. And I’m alive and doing better.

My back still hurts like crazy! It’s just that, in theory, I’ve traded a permanent, worsening disability for a short-term, rapidly improving disability.

The doctor said my surgery was “challenging,” and given that he’s one of the very best in the world, it’s like Tiger Woods calling the 15th hole “challenging”–I mean, I must’ve really been a mess!

These surgeries typically take 2 1/2 hours. Mine took 4.

Nonetheless, as unpleasant as the recovery has been, they let me go home in just 2 days–I was in the hospital about 52 hours in total. Which is to say that my recovery has been much easier than what many go through.

I am deeply thankful for the prayers that have been offered up on my account in my home church and by friends across the country–and in other countries. I could tell I was being lifted up in prayer–and it matters. It really does.

Recovery is like this. The first day you are completely doped up on narcotics, you can’t sit up, you have a catheter (for which you are actually thankful, as having to sit up would be painful beyond words), and everything is a hazy blur.

Doctors, residents, nurses, and family give various instructions–which you cannot remember hearing. Oh, and you lose all sense of time–so it’s all very weird.

The next morning, they make you get up and they pull your catheter. The sensation is impossible to describe other than as … well, I just don’t have the words. And with the catheter out, they expect you to pee on your own (not on yourself, but that’s another story). But that’s really, really hard the first day after surgery. And so I’m learning to appreciate things that I once took for granted (The nurse threatened to re-catheterize me if I didn’t get with the program. I found that very motivational!)

A physical therapist comes by to make you get up and walk. It’s like trying to walk on a broken leg, except the broken bone is in your back. So you get to use a “walker” like the old folks use–and you’re delighted to have it.

Oh, and they want you to eat — but, then, they serve hospital food, sending very contradictory signals! I’m very glad my daughter-in-law, who is a nurse in the same hospital, took the day off and, among many other things, brought real food from outside. But even with exactly what I like in front of me, I just didn’t feel like eating.

Last night was the first night I got much sleep. The night-duty nurse was good to keep the pain medicine coming just as fast as the orders allowed! And I finally ate half a meal this morning. That, plus a pseudo-shower, which I took sitting down with a spray nozzle and my wife propping me up so I wouldn’t fall off the chair, put me in shape to put on real clothes (sweat pants and a tee shirt) and be driven home.

I’m using a cane and still have trouble getting up from or down into a chair, but this is WAY better than before. Food is more attractive. The pain is subsiding. And I even feel up to typing just a little.

So I have to wear a brace for 10 weeks, outside my regular clothes. I won’t look very fashionable, I’m afraid. I tried to get a brace in Alabama crimson and white (always in fashion), but evidently “basic black” is all that’s available.

The doctor says I can get back to my usual activities in a few weeks. I honestly don’t know what those would be. For quite a long time, my usual activities have been seeing doctors about back pain and getting tests. I may have to find a new hobby.