Already 2 weeks post-op!

I can't believe how time has recently flown by and I have already reached the two-week post-op mark!  I think back to how I felt after surgery just two weeks ago, and am amazed at how far things have come and what I've been able to regain since I left the hospital.  Unfortunately, the two week mark also marks the time that my mom will be headed back to work and won't be babysitting me at home anymore!  Tomorrow will be my first day without having someone at home with me during the day, but she has already promised to stop by after work in the afternoon to make sure I didn't make a mess of myself or burn the house down!  But things have been going quite well, and I've been trying to become increasingly independent (with her encouragement as well!) and I think that tomorrow will go just fine!  There's no way I would have been at the point that I am without her encouragement and support, offering to take walks with me outside, helping out with housework, and helping me realize what I should and should not be doing. 

The last couple of days have been really good!  On Saturday, my grandparents were able to come from LaCrosse and visit with me at our house, which was a great time!  We had some lasagna for lunch, some grasshopper pie for dessert (it was St. Patty's Day, after all!), and some great conversation.  I think that my grandparents had a good time as well, and I hope that I wasn't too out of it!  I was a little tired by the time that they left, but a good nap helped to ease that!  The rest of the weekend was pretty low-key, but that was just perfect for me.

Mom and I had a great day on Monday, and I cannot thank her enough for helping me SHAVE MY LEGS!!  Hahaha...that's not something I really figured I would have had to deal with this time of year, but with this amazing March weather shorts were becoming more of a necessity, and two weeks of no shaving does not make short-worthy legs!  Luckily, Leo had an electric razor that he never uses, and that did just the trick!  I took an awesome picture of the event, and it makes me laugh so hard whenever I look at it.  She didn't seem to mind one bit, and I asked her what the most disturbing thing she had to do for me yet, and shaving my legs was no where at the top of the list!  It's funny the things that we take for granted until we are unable to do them for ourselves...this has been a VERY humbling experience!!

Today I had my two-week post-op appointment at the Clinic just to check out how my incisions were coming along and to ask any other questions that had arisen.   Apparently, the incisions look awesome, and the steri-strips (which are still covering the incisions) will slowly peel off.  I am still wearing an abdominal brace (for a couple more weeks yet), but the doctor I met with (a member of my surgeon's team) let me know that I could sit for a couple of hours without the brace on to help dry out the wound and help the steri-strips peel as well.  With some prompting, he reassured me that I should not set off metal detectors as the plates and screws are made out of titanium, which should not set off alarms.  He also noted that I shouldn't be taking car rides longer than about 45 minutes without taking a good break.  I also asked about trying to get off of some of my meds, but he seemed to be in no hurry to cut back on everything that I am on.  He reiterated that although I might feel amazing compared to how I felt two weeks ago, this really is only the beginning of the journey for me.  I need to stay aware of my movements and limit any bending, twisting, or lifting, and to try to walk, walk, walk as often as my body allows in the upcoming months.  I will not meet with the team again until four months post-op, at which time they will take additional imaging studies and meet with the docs to ensure that fusion is occurring...and if it is, I will start physical therapy or rehab at that time.  When I feel up to going back to work before then, I just need to call them and come in for an appointment to release me back to work starting part time.  This doctor also reiterated that it is important to not return to work until I am completely sure that I am ready to return...there is no need to rush things, as it will only hinder recovery in the long run!

And the best part of the appointment today:  I finally got to see some pictures of xrays and from the surgery!!  I remember asking about it in the hospital, but I was so out of it that I forgot about it until I was at home after being released.  The doctor printed off a couple of pictures for me, so they aren't the best quality (made even worse by the fact that I just took a picture of them with my phone to get them online!), but I still think that they are super cool, and I learned a little more about what exactly they did in there!  Again, a warning about the below images!  The xrays aren't too gross, but there is an image that the bottom of my backbone through my abdominal incision during surgery (I'm a total nerd...I think it's so cool!!)...

So this here is an xray image taken from the front of my body after the two plates had been put in on the anterior portion of my spine...I think that the two large bones on either side are a good indication of placement, as that is my pelvis!  The top of the two plates joins the L (lumbar) 4 and L5 vertebrae, and the lower of the two plates joins the L5 and S (sacrum) 1 levels.  There are a total of four screws in each plate (with eight screws total).  Bionic woman!!

Now here is an xray view of the hardware from the side...you can see the two plates with the screws from another angle.  Also, between the screws for each plate, you can see where the two discs have been removed, and in their place there has been put a fusion cage, which basically serves as a retainer to hold the morselized donor bone (likely taken from a hip replacement patient, which I learned today!; which will eventually fuse with my own vertebral bones), and also helps to retain the proper spacing between the bones since the disc has been removed.  I had initially thought that they had also inserted screws into the back portion of my bones in order to reattach the broken back part of the bone to the front part, however I learned that they also just packed that area with bone graft in order to increase fusion in that area.  This was a relief to me, especially knowing that hardware placed from the rear side of the back generally needs to be removed due to pain a few years down the road...now I shouldn't have to worry about that!

Alright, here's the semi-gross picture!!  It was so much cooler in color when the doctor showed me on the computer, but this will have to do!  This is an image taken while they were doing surgery from my belly...you can barely see the top plate in the picture under some muscle/flesh?, but the lower of the two plates is right in view.  If I remember correctly, the plates themselves were silver in color, but two of the screws on each plate were blue and the other two were green in color.  I'm not sure if you can tell from the quality of the image, but the plates are even marked with serial numbers!  Again, kind of morbid, but I am SO amazed at how they fixed my back from the front and never thought I would be able to see an image like this when all was said and done!  I'm planning on requesting the images and my medical files after all of my follow up appointments are done so I can have a copy of all of these images (in color, hopefully!).

So, things are still improving quite well!!  I'm relatively self-reliant, but have a feeling I'll be utilizing my grabber/reacher aid the rest of the week, as I have been dropping things like you could not believe around the house and now Mom won't be around to pick up after me!  :)  I'm hoping to write entries more frequently in the next couple of weeks, and wanted to touch on the equipment that I've been using at home to make life easier for me, especially in case people who are going through or planning on going through a lumbar fusion have an idea of what helped me.  I'll be in touch!!