Aww! You guys!!! :tear:
Thanks to everyone, for real. The support here in the training forum has always been a huge inspiration for me and others.
Everything went extremely well. mad props to Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC and my doc, Dr. Farmer. The entire staff was awesome and friendly and caring and helpful. The procedure took about 2 hours. It was really cool to experience the whole thing, from the 5 billion different staff members you have to talk with during the prep time to the being woken up every 2 hours post-op.
They did a microdiscectomy on both sides, L4 / L5. Grafted some fat over my nerves apparently to help with the scar tissue. Went in to the hospital at about 2pm and was put under at about 3:45pm. Woke up in recovery at around 6:30pm (right during Yankees pregame show), in a TON of pain. They gave me a few shots of Morphine, which did absolutely nothing. So finally they gave me some Dilaudid, which was just short of heavenly. For what seemed like an hour, I had my eyes closed and was in some sort of conscious sleep/meditation mode. With a huge smile on my face. The nurse was very funny and gave me another shot right before they were ready to take me to my actual room (she laughed and said in broken English, "If my patient happy, I happy!"). An adorable Latina nurse wheeled me to my room as she joked around and told me, "Now we bring you to the room with all the dancing nurses!".
Got to my room and the long night ahead began. I had a roommate who I didn't get to talk to til the morning, but it sounded like he was in a ton of pain (more on him in a bit). Lots of nurses came in throughout the night and woke me up every couple hours to perform vital sign tests on me and make me jump thru all different hoops. Passed all the tests pretty well. Had difficulty peeing, but managed to force that one thru when the threat of a catheter was presented (no thank you!). Woke up at 7am and was put thru more tests. Had a decent breakfast and then got to see the PT guy at around 10am. Passed that final test (walked around a bit and then walked a few stairs......veeeeery slowly). Then got discharged around noon.
Now I just have to be super careful. Can't really sit for longer than 15 minutes (it hurts too much anyway). Have VERY limited movement - can't bend, twist or lean. Have to "log roll" out of and into bed. Can only sleep on my back. Can't put my own socks or underwear on yet. No shower for about 5 days. Change bandage daily. Have really minor exercise to do while I am laying on my back (only position I can be in yet). So now it's just eat healthy, be very careful not to overdo anything and try to stay sane while home for 2 weeks. See the doc again in two weeks and then start PT and the very long but opportunity-filled road back to health and a Roman God-like body. On Percocet too, but I have never been one to react to pain medication. Doesn't do anything for me, unfortunately.
Now I need a favor from all of you:
Please take all those well wishes and good energy and send them the way of the gentleman I was rooming with in the hospital. His name is Craig, probably late 40's. He was in the WTC tower when the first plane hit. When the floors came crashing down he got thrown across the room and through the turnstiles, which shattered his vertebrae. He was in the hospital for his 3rd surgery, a spinal fusion on 4 levels. He was in a lot of pain and is there for at least 7 days. He was a sweetheart and wished me well too much. I can only hope that guy recovers well this time and is able to move on without any more physical pain from that day.
Thanks again everyone - I'll update with some pics of the incision site later today! lol.