Another Update

My over night procedure wound up being another two night, three day vacation at one of our not- so- pleasant hospitals, (none of them are pleasant if I have to be a patient...lol) due to a couple of unforeseen complications.

The first that I was told about was that my heart started to skip beats during surgery. I told the doctor that I was not always able to stay with the beat either...lol.

The second was that he felt I was too hard to wake-up after surgery. Well, that is nothing new; once I get to sleep, be it for surgery or not, I am hard to wake-up.

The third reason, the one that concerned him the most is that I leaked more spinal fluid during surgery than normal. I continued to leak this most important fluid till late into the evening. When I did wake-up, I told him the headache is back. He said I know and ordered a shot of morphine.

I was released on Friday the 6th with orders of strict bed rest. With a spinal tap headache, if you lay flat, the pain is nowhere near as bad is if you have to stand. If I had the headache still on Monday, I was to call the office. By the time Monday came around the headache felt so bad that I did not think anyone could move fast enough to help me.

Finally, the blood patch procedure that I explained in a different update was preformed. I felt as though there was relief right away. I was still to be on bed rest for a couple of days, then allowed to make the drive back to Tucson.

I stated that I could still feel what I called a residual headache; however, nothing like it was before. However, I think I still took the two hour drive home too soon after all of this. The night that I got home I found myself at the U of A hospital. At least there I know they are still learning and not practicing yet...lol.

After examination, it was discovered I was again leaking spinal fluid. The doctor said the most he could do for me was to put me back on bed rest and give me pain meds. He would not do another spinal tap for the blood patch procedure because that would have been 5 taps in a month's time. The more holes there are in your spine the less the chance of the blood patch working. I had the choice to be admitted for bed rest or go home; I chose to go home. Who wants to be woke-up every four hours for vitals check, and then one extra time in between to take your sleeping pill?...lol.

Anyway it seems that I am past the worst of it all. It is now 1:20PM, I have been awake since 8:00AM, and the headache is very minimal right now.

I have my three week post-op surgery on the 20th of December; just think, we are actually nearing the end of the "Baclofen Pump" saga. What ever will I be able to do to entertain you all after this?...lol

Corenna

Reach Corenna by email to comment: teddybear621@msn.com

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