When I awoke after a drug filled sleep, the nice lady from the kitchens was coming in to set my room up for breakfast. She asked before pulling back my curtains to show the big glass windows and two 800 year old oak trees, a woodpecker was climbing up one of them....it was a sunny day!
She asked me politely if she could move my laptop and told me she would put it on the chair, and then she brought me some rice krispies and a croissant as ordered the night before. And of course my usual apple juice!
You get really used to drinking everything with a straw when you are in hospital, as of course you cannot drink normally from a laying down position, and my bed can only be tilted 30 degrees which is hardly anything, as my spine is not allowed anything else.
I lay and watched the news as I ate, and that was the first proper meal I ate in full since I got there. My sickness was well and truly gone!
I knew that today (Saturday) was most likely going to be going home day, but I didn't want to risk not being allowed home, so I made sure to eat it all and look a bit more lively. I felt good that day, weak but good!
At 9am Carl arrived, I was so glad to see him. It made my day to see him when I was in there! My parents too, it was nice to see people I loved when I was in there! It's a lovely hospital, but like every surgery, and even more so with spinal surgery, you are scared and aprehensive, and smiling faces of people who love you really take the edge off :)
The physio came in and he told me that I could try stairs today. He said if I mastered the stairs, he would sign me as fit to go home. I felt good, and was sure I could manage the stairs!! He got me up, and helped me with my brace. He was from somewhere European and had a nice accent, maybe Scandinavia? He was very nice.
As we (and Carl) walked down the coridoor he asked me twice are you SURE you don't feel pain in that leg still? I said that definately not as far as I could feel, only when I was laying down could I feel slight pain. None when I was up and about or sitting! He said I was not walking right, and that the months of walking in pain had changed the way I walk. He said I put the toes down first instead of the heel on my left leg and that I drag it slightly. He said not all the time but a few times a day, make a concious effort to walk heel to toe, and it will eventually correct itself!
We got to the stairs and, carefully, I started going down holding onto the banisters with my right hand. He taught me "BAD leg goes down first to hell, GOOD leg goes up first to heaven" and it's always one step at a time with both feet, not like normal stair walking. I have to do one at a time. Left then right then pause, then the next step! I went down fine and he was impressed. Then up fine, it was all fine!!
He shook my hand, told me that the leg and back pain may still last for up to 6 weeks because of all the bruising, and that also during the surgery they had to pin back the nerves in order to operate so they would be even more sore. He told me this 6 weeks, especially the first 2, were absoluely crucial to my recovery.
Lying down for most of the day. Walking etc for UP TO 45 mins at a time after building it up day by day to that maximum eventually, and 10-15 mins ideally but 20 mins MAX of sitting at any one time.
Then.....he signed me off!
I got back into my now newly made new sheets bed after quickly having a wash and changing out of my hospital gown and into a sun dress. I had another nap and felt SHATTERED by my walk and stairs...it took it out of me completely!! I was amazed! :) I suppose your body is so weak and drugged and that was the most I had moved in days!
My favourite nurse was off that day, so another nurse came to see me and unusually, she asked me "when do you want to go home" and I said whenever I can! She said she was happy for me to go today and she would sort my paperwork out and take the cannulas out of my arm. My last drip had been at about 10pm last night and I was now on solids and solid meds etc.
She took out the top smaller blue one first and I didn't feel it until she turned to speak to someone who had come in asking for her keys to the drugs cabinet and she pulled the needle in my hand as she turned! LOL!
Then the big one in the side of my wrist came next.....the needle was a white plasticy material and it was....3 INCHES LONG!!! It was MASSIVE! And that had been in my wrist for days! Wow! lol
I still sounded raspy when I spoke, from being intubated, but slowly my voice was improving and wasn't so dry etc, and as I signed the paperwork and she gave me all my stuff and explained the next appointments to have the wound re-dressed, see my consultant etc. Carl packed the car and headed to the pharmacy to pick up my meds (only 6 days worth?! WTF? lol! Long story but is ok now) and then, after getting up slowly and doing my corset brace up tightly. Carl and I walked down the coridoor, and I thanked the nurses station and we went to the carpark. By the time I got to the car I was exhausted and on the journey home, every bump was petrifying to me, but Carl was SO brilliant and he drove me home without even ONE painful jolt. He didn't care if people thought we were going too slow and he was so careful with me. He looked after me so well.
It did take a while to get me out of the car though!
When we walked slowly in, Carl took Maisy by the collar and she had missed me so much, she was so upset that she couldn't come and see me. Now I am just gonna say that, anyone who has met Maisy will know she jumps at everyone in excitement and barges around and has a good old play. But ever since I walked into this house, she has not jumped at me once, she has stopped jumping on the sofa with me, she has stopped jumping onto the bed with me and she follows me everywhere and licks me when I lay down....she KNOWS...Mum and Carl said they had a little chat with her before I came home...but I tell you that dog knows....100%/ She jumps at everyone else, but never at me since my surgery.....
I couldn't sit on the sofa as I was sore and it was too low so regretably I had to head straight upstairs and into bed. I was so tired and a little bit over emotional so Carl came and gave me a hug and got me a ribena and I slept until the afternoon.
I may have been sore, but I had gone through alot, and anyway...
I was home.....
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