Jst83 wrote:Any word on Karl haven't heard from him in a while
Hello Scott & Bob,
Thanks for your concern. I didn't even realize this post was here until a few minutes ago or I would have done an update already.
I've been home for about 3 weeks but with taking Percocet, Soma, and Oxycontin (plus morphine IV pushes every couple hours while I was in the hospital), the last 4+ weeks has been a complete blur. Hopefully, I'll be off my pain meds in a couple weeks since I HATE how they make me feel. I've never understood how people can take this crap for recreational purposes but to each their own, I suppose.
My surgery was a lot more involved than originally anticipated. There was much more arthritis to remove along the spinal column (can you imagine how steady of a hand you need for that?!?) and a lot more work involved with delicately prying two vertebrae apart so as to do the fusion of L4, L5, and S1. So, I was under the knife for 8 hours instead of 6 and was laying on my stomach with my arms out to my side and hands pointing up toward my head (as if I were being robbed). I now have 6 screws, a metal cage or two, plus a paste of crushed up bone and bone marrow so as to fuse everything together. And, I even got a card for my wallet in order to explain to the airport security guards why I set off their alarms with my lower back!
Upon waking up from the surgery, my right arm and leg wouldn't move and they thought I might have had a stroke. Fortunately, a CT scan shown that was not the case but when they were pulling out the table from the CT scanner, my right arm came loose from the strapping and my hand caught on something, which jerked my previously-injured right shoulder pretty badly (two surgeries on it...the last for a torn rotator cuff). I barely remembered that occurring since when transferring me back to my hospital bed a minute later, they banged my head pretty hard on something else! Ugh! I'm getting some movement back on my right side and they keep telling me it will improve over time. But, aside from all that and forgetting about them not having an accurate list of all my medications for the first two days despite me giving them a written list three times (and they still never got me two of the meds) plus trying to give me insulin despite me not being a diabetic, things went smoothly … if you also don't count them dropping and breaking my CPAP machine, constantly giving me my pain meds 2-3 hours late all the time, and in general, not having a frickin' clue as to what was going on with my case, plus a few more things I won't bore you with. This was the fault of the hospital, not the surgeon. I must say, though, that the hospital food was very good! <g> 4 stars on the turkey lunch. <g>
I am getting around the house with a walker, a back brace, and a bone growth stimulator, and am assuming that by the time of the Michigan TD gathering in mid-July and the Indiana TD gathering a couple weeks later, I should be doing pretty well. Tentatively, I'm camping in my Little Guy at the Holly Recreation Area in Holly, MI (about a half hour north of my home) over Memorial Weekend to see how I do and if that goes well, I might try to make 1 or 2 TD events in June, if possible. Time will tell.
I think my friends are now quite clear on why I gave up tent camping and moved up to a Teardrop.
Take care everyone.
Posted: Tue Feb 24, 2009 7:33 am
