As most of you already know Tim & I will be returning to Virginia as soon as possible because I just had emergency back surgery. Tim & I can’t thank you enough for all of the love and support that we have been shown over the past two weeks, and the really cool thing is that it created connections between my East Coast family and my Yellowstone Family. The question, of course, will now be whether we come back to the park next year—since this one was cut so short. I have a visit with Dr. Speth tomorrow (Tuesday) and we will begin to plan next steps. Dr. Speth diagnosed some of my initial back problems 4 years ago) For most of you, that is enough information. (except that this is a Montana doctor–do he wears cowyboy boots and big belt buckles to work and goes home every night to “rope a few cattle” just for relaxation.
I know my friends and family, though, and some of you want the gory details—so, here goes-please feel free to skip the rest of this post So…here’s a detailed timeline
• June 13/14 (Thurs/Fri) We came back from our weekend and I had a mild intestinal bug….given that the Noro virus was showing up in the park it made only sense to not go to work even though what I had was clearly not Noro.
• June 15 Basic back pain—I thought it was probably a result of having spent a large part of the previous 48 hours in bed; By that afternoon the pain was such that, if I got out of bed I could barely walk—as long as I stayed in bed there was no pain. We went to the OFI clinic where she gave me Valium and Teradol in hopes of cancelling the pain cycle and relieving the muscles. I managed to walk from the clinic and went straight back to the dorm.
• June 16 Extensive back pain that radiates down my right leg and casuses it to collapse Every time I get out of bed the pain goes immediately to a “10” on the pain scale with nausea; crying and using pregnancy breathing to try and control the pain. NPS transports me to the clinic—where they load me up with more pain killers to get to Bozeman. The drive to Bozeman isn’t difficult, but when we get to the hotel the only way I get to the hotel room is because Tim goes and gets a room chair that rolls
• June 17—after trying for 2 hours to contact the orthopedic and make an appoint for that day we just go to the emergency room; there is, of course, immediate admission and an attempt to control the pain. The odd thing, of course, is that because I have no pain when I’m lying on my right side there are some personnel who doubt the severity of the pain—until they see me try to get up.
• June 18—the MRI takes place around 4 or 5; by 7 pm Speth is in my room and looking fairly worried. He says we have 3 options “Surgery, surgery & Surgery ). Based on the MRI at that point, there are several possible causes of the pain, numbness and lack of foot control which range from an infection at the base of my spine to more disks having ruptured. As the numbness and lack of foot control are now spreading to my left foot, he would have preferred to do the surgery that night—but because I had been given a blood thinner that morning he couldn’t do it until the following morning so….the question, at this point, is are the nerves just being compressed or are they being damaged in a way that may permanently damage them. My last reminder to him is that I need 2 working feet to using my spinning wheel.
• June 19—8 hours of surgery and a night in the ICU—just as a precaution. Net results—a 3 vertebrae fusion @ L4/L5/S1. There was no infection but one of the lower disks had literally “exploded” and wrapped itself around the outside of the vertebrae. He is fairly confident that the surgery has gone well—and there’s an 80% chance that I will gain most of the functionality of both feet over the next 6-9 months. There’s an 8” incision in my back, with 39 staples and 2 drainage holes. In addition I have an arterial IV in my jugular vein that feels like a small bat is attached to my throat…
• June 20 OMG—the pain is horrid—and my right foot doesn’t work at all—it just hangs there and I can’t apply pressure with it to anything—but Speth says that at least I have more sensation (even though I can’t tell) than I had on Tuesday. In addition, I’m also given this lovely back brace that almost functions as a bustier that I get to wear night and day for the next 18 weeks….I can only take it off when I’m flat on my back in bed.
• June 21-June 24; PT twice a day—my right foot still can’t control itself but at least I can walk 20 feet in a walker; the depression comes in huge waves and I begin to think about all the things I may not be able to do—but apparently the nurses & PT staff still think nice things of me—and even come from other floors to see how I’m doing. The nurses at Bozemann-Deaconess Hospital are amazing. Then, off course, there’s all of the bodily functions that aren’t working—if I never see another bedpan—it can’t be soon enough.
• June 25—Move to a rehabilitation/nursing center in Livingston, MT—the choices out here are few and far between—and none of them appealing. When we finally arrive, they are clearly not ready for us—I’m in pain and Tim is angry because things are not going as he was promised so…..with my alternating between having a complete hissy fit and crying because I’m in pain and Tim getting angrier every minute—they make some major changes to accommodate our needs.
• June 26– The next morning things are much brighter, however, as we begin to meet the staff that will actually take care of me. They are competent, friendly and it’s a delight for them to have a patient with whom they can communicate in something less than a loud voice (I’m 20 years younger than the next youngest patient.
• The next 3 days are a blur of PT, bed pans, walker, wheel chairs and, what appear to be, slowly improving foot control. For many days I couldn’t even feel the sheet on my feet and I had the weirdest set of tinglings in my feet. My left foot is now somewhere around 60% back—the right foot only about 10%–but at least it’s moving forward….if there had been major spine cord damage there wouldn’t be improvement this early….so
• Where do we go from here? Possibilities include:
o Staying here for another 2-6 weeks
o Flying home to Arlington sometime in the next week or two—either to an in-hospital rehab situation or an outpatient one. If this happens we will need to coordinate with my GP to take over monitoring of my care and get a new Spine guy at home.
Don’t hesitate to call, knowing that some days it’s too tiring to even pick up the phone (or there’s a nurse waiting to do some horrible procedure on me)….the facebook posts are a delight and bring smiles to my face and….please know that I will be happy to provide with any more details that you want (except for gory pictures of incisions)…and a special thank-you for the flowers and stuffed critters…
