There is light at the end of the tunnel

August 24 – 27

Nothing to eat after midnight last Thursday. On Friday I enter the operating theatre around 3 PM. Around 7 or 8 PM the nurse gets me up for a small walk. Surgeons had said my leg issues would be over as soon as the pressure was off that nerve. Ten feet into my stroll the pain kicks in. Yep, same pain. This is a family blog so I will refrain what is going through my mind. It bloody hurts a lot.

Around midnight I feel some hunger pangs.

Saturday morning Dr. Shields comes in with his entourage of residents. Asks me how I feel. He knows that I’m gonna tell him everything is better.

Nope.

Doc, I feel like a hundred dollars. It didn’t work. Finds the issue in a second MRI with contrast. Let’s try this again on Monday.

My brother Jim comes by to cheer me up. Gotta admit I do get a laugh out of him sleeping with his mouth open.

Friday 4PM, lets try this one more time.

SUCCESS! Came back to my room about 8pm. Odd, no extra pain from the second surgery. Matter of fact, feeling pretty good. They won’t let me up till 7 this morning to see if it actually worked this time. It did. Whew! These guys are great. They did a splendid job of using small words and hand puppets to explain the odd issue I had. I will try to ‘splain it here. Each vertaibrae has a canal in each side. The spinal cord goes through the center of the vertebrae. The canals that exit each vertibrae on the left and right side are the channels that the nerve roots come out of the vertebrae and radiate out into your body. The “disc”material had put pressure on this nerve root inside the channel and ALSO on the outside of the vertebrae. Kind of off to the side. It is quite a rare occurance. Fortunately Dr. John Johnson’s services were not needed but he was on hand should I need to have a disc/vertebrae (not sure) fused. This will cut my recovery time by half.

If your back is a wreck there is no better Doc out there. My friend Dr. John Johnson.

This guy literally changed a flat tire in the rain for me.

Had a meeting with both docs today. I can drive in a week. Stitches out in 2 weeks. Three weeks back on the boat!

This guy has never taken a drink of alcohol in his life. Surprised he would cut on the likes of me. He feels that alcohol kills brain cells. Just wants to be a great surgeon. He certainly is.

However I might debate the alcohol with him.

I tend to agree with Cliff Clavin from CHEERS! Click on the link.