A little over 1 month to go.
The last few days have been absolutely horrendous for me.
We're beginning the rainy season, and so my titanium rods just do not like the rainy weather at all.
I have been in incredible pain from my tail bone all the way up.
Yesterday was absolutely miserable, and today when it rained again, I just felt like screaming.
I couldn't get comfortable in bed, on the couch, in my chair here, anywhere.
And I couldn't eat either.
Being in that much pain makes me not want to eat, so taking any of my diet pils or something like nuphedra wasn't needed at all this weekend.
The smell of food seemed to upset my stomach, so I've barely eaten anything since late Thursday afternoon/evening.
In yesterday's mail, I got a letter from Cindy, my surgeon's nurse.
The letter stated all of my pre-surgery dates, and the date of surgery.
I'll be having my pre-op testing and meeting with the anesthesiologist on June 10th at 9:30am, and then I have to go back to my primary care on the 17th, and get surgical clearance from her again even though I already got clearance from her, they want some more blood work done from her, and something else.
My surgery will be on June 29th, and I need to be at the hospital at 6:30am with surgery beginning at 7:30am.
It's all scheduled and happening, so I need to start prepping myself physically and mentally for this.
I have just a little over a month to go before I go in, so I need to get myself ready.
I have no idea how long it will be after the surgery before I can come home, and then how long it will be before I am able to get back up and blogging full time again.
Mentally, I am not ready for this one, spine fusion number 3.
My brain is having a really hard time accepting that I'll be in the halo brace for anywhere from 3-6 months, and the possibility of a trach tube.
And I'm afraid that this surgery will cause even more hair loss.
I lost a lot of hair after the last surgery in September, it's very thin these days, and so knowing that they will be shaving off a lot of hair underneath up to the middle of my skull, and also shaving off some spots in 4 places at the crown so they can attach the halo brace with screws, has me a bit worried that I'm going to lose a lot more hair, have it just fall out.
Maybe I should just shave my head before I go in, that would make it a lot easier on the surgeon I know, and it would also make trying to care for my hair much easier after surgery, I have no idea what trying to brush my hair with that brace on will be like.
Naturally curly and long hair gets tangled very easily, so that brace might just make it even more of a pain in the butt.
It's something to think about anyway.
Oh, if I owe you an email, I'm trying to work on it.
It's still raining here off and on, and I'm hurting pretty bad from just sitting here typing this post out, so I think I need to lay down for a bit again.
Later days.
Comments
Are you needing a ride to the hospital? Just let me know
Posted by: Mindy | May 18, 2009 4:48 PM
Kat, I know I can speak for a lot of your loyal readers in saying that we care about you and you will be in our thoughts as your big day nears.
Posted by: The Constant Complainer | May 20, 2009 2:18 PM
Sending a big hug your way.
Kat, what kind of support plan do you have lined up when you come home? Friends? Family? Have you created a calendar so that folks can bring meals to you? (There are lots of websites that set up calendars for you.)
Please let people help... they want to.
Posted by: Single Mom Seeking | May 21, 2009 2:12 AM
Nope, no plan.
The only family I have in the entire state are my sons and my sister.
All of the rest of my family live in Maine.
My sons will be out of school on summer vacation this time, which is better than the 2 previous spine fusion surgeries where they were in school and I was alone all day every day.
Sebastian will be 16 on June 1st, and Mark will be turning 18 in August, so they are old enough to help me, again.
They helped me both previous surgeries, so they will again.
My sister will come by when she can as she is a private nurse/therapist for a severely handicapped boy, a mom of 2 girls under the age of 6, and she has a lot going on in her life at the moment, and will be busy with that for quite some time.
But she will be here when I need her, if I call her, and will come by before she goes to work, and after work, every single day.
I have my friend Mindy (http://www.mindyssoapbox.blogspot.com) who will help me as much as she can, but she now has her own house cleaning business that is doing extremely well, and I will NOT interfere with that no matter what she says about taking time off to help me. She cannot afford to take too much time off or she will lose clients. People are very strict about their house cleaners and days they expect them to come. I would feel incredibly guilty if she lost even 1 client because she took a day off to help me.
I have my friends Dustin and Stacey, and they have both promised to be here as much as they can be.
They have promised me that they will be here every single day to hang out with the teens while I am actually in the hospital, help them make dinner, go grocery shopping, and just be here to hang out with and talk to.
After I get home from the hospital, they have said that they will also take the teens grocery shopping when we need it, help me clean the house when it needs it, and Stacey said she will help me take care of my personal female needs like showers, hair brushing, leg/pit shaving, all of the girly stuff because we do not know how my body will be able to move, or if I'll be able to take care of those kinds of things with that giant halo brace on.
Baycare nurses will be here 3 times per week just to change the bandages and check/clean the stitches, take blood pressure, temperature, check on my meds, clean the wounds around the screws that will be in my skull from the halo brace, and call the doctor if they have any medical concerns.
As for bringing meals? I will not stop anyone from bringing meals, but I will not ask anyone to do that.
I will never ask anyone to do that because my sons know how to cook, and I want to be back up on my feet and cooking again as soon as possible. Plus, I do have my NuWave Oven Pro that I wanted specifically for this reason and my blogging friends all pitched in and bought it for me for after surgery/during home recovery. I wanted it because it sits on the counter top, is super easy to use, cooks food extremely fast, and is so much easier and less intimidating than the stove for the teens. Our stove is really old, like 1980 old, and they are afraid to use it, so the NuWave is perfect because it's small and see through, it's awesome. You should check out my posts about it, it's seriously awesome...LoL
I really do wish I had more people in my life, but I don't.
I will make do with what I have and who says they will be here.
If any of them flake on me, so be it.
I have been a single mom for 15 years, lived through some really tough and hard time, and I have already been through spine fusion twice now, so I will make it through this one too.
Posted by: Kat | May 21, 2009 3:17 AM