Surgery story

I'm home after being away from Carter pretty much for 30 hours. It was a little tough as I was getting ready to fall asleep. I started thinking about him and got a little weepy. But thankfully the exhaustion overcame me pretty quickly.

Anyway, enough about me. Here's where we've been the past two days.

Chris was called back to the surgical holding area around 1:00 on Monday and they did all the usual questioning, poking, etc. The nurses were all great and friendly. They asked him what procedure he was having done. Normal people would have answered "back surgery", but Chris said the whole procedure name (see a few posts ago for what it's called) and they were all very impressed. He just grinned. He was so proud of himself.

They took him back about an hour later and then began the long wait. His doctor said he'd try to do the minimally invasive version of the procedure, but wouldn't know if he could do it until he started cutting. He said if it was the minimal one, it would take 1.5 to 2 hours. If he had to do a more extensive surgery, it could take up to four hours. I braced myself for the long haul.

The hospital didn't have wireless internet, so I was pretty bummed about that. Chris' mom was good company though. After what felt like days of waiting, the doctor came out and told us he did do the minimally invasive version but some of Chris' nerves were all bundled up in scar tissue from his last back surgery, so that's what took so long. He had to unwind them and cut out the scar tissue. He said it would be another little while in recovery before we could see him so we headed to the cafeteria to grab some dinner (it was around 6:00 at this point). After we ate we headed back to Surgical Waiting and the nurse came out and told us he was still very sleepy and in and out of consciousness so they were gonna let him sleep a while longer. Then she basically called him a lightweight and that made me giggle. But she gave us his room number and said we could go wait up there. I was happy about that because a) there would be a tv, and b) I needed to pump again.

When we got off the elevator and saw his room, we were shocked. His doctor had told us that he got the VIP room, but we thought he was joking. (The head nurse in that unit is the mother of Chris' friend that died last year. The one we did the race for the other day.) Apparently, Mrs. S hooked us up with an enormous room with an awesome tv.



You can't see all of it, but it had 3 comfy chairs, plus 2 dining room type chairs, a round table, a dresser (you can see that in the pic), and a flat panel tv. It was way bigger than it looks in the pic. It wasn't until later that night, when we looked at the remote control (it was lost for a while), that we realized it really was the VIP room. The remote said so! (click the picture to make it bigger)

At around 7:30, they finally brought Chris upstairs to us. He was really pale. It's always scary seeing him like that. It took about 45 minutes but he finally started to come around and got some color back in his face. He was a little slow and out of it at first too.

The rest of the night is kind of a blur. There were lots of nurses coming in doing all sorts of stuff. It scared me every time he got up to the go to the bathroom because it was so hard for him, and he was shaky and grimacing and grunting trying to get out of bed and stand up. I felt really helpless. All that exertion made him hot so he had them turn the AC down to 65. The rest of the night is a haze of shivering, runny nose, and drifting in and out of consciousness. I think I helped him go to the bathroom while I was still asleep. We did get a good 4 hour chunk of sleep at one point which was great.

Today the physical therapist came in to help him get out of bed more easily and to help him walk around a bit. She brought a walker and told us she'd order one for us to take home. Before he got out of bed, I had to get a pic of his sexy knee-highs.

Good stuff, right?

Here he is walking down the hall with the physical therapist.


I stayed with him until around 10:30 this morning when his mom showed up, then headed home for a bit to shower and hang out with Carter. I hugged and squeezed that boy like crazy. I missed him so much. I went back around 1:00 and stayed until 5:30 and then left him with his mom. I hate having to leave him to spend the night by himself, but my mom had already been down here for two days helping out.

And now I'm exhausted and ready for sleep. Thanks for all your prayers, well wishes, and all that good stuff!