Just because...

I haven't blogged in a couple of days so.

My back is feeling great, all the old pain is gone. There is nothing left except the incision, and even that is feeling 100 times better then it was on day 1.

The incision...

WARNING: Below are the pictures of my incision.

Day: 1

Big round of thank you.

There was a problem with the Van today, making for a rather shitty morning. So, I'd like to give out a big round of thanks to all the people who helped out.

First, to Cameron for coming to the rescue of my wife and child when I was not able to. For sitting out in the freezing cold trying to get the tire off, and when that didn't work you brought them home. After which you came to the rescue again when the Jeep wouldn't start, not only helping to try to get it started, but to take her to her appointment when it didn't start. Even though it meant missing part of work.

Secondly to Liz, for taking Jen back to the van when she needed to meet the tow truck. And also for the yummy corn bread muffins and chili, which hit the spot at exactly the right moment.

Third, but not last. Dad and Chris, who not only paid to have to van towed to the shop, but paid for the work to be done. Going one step further to buy us a new tire to replace the bald one. And for getting the Jeep running, even though it required buying a new battery to do so.

And my last, but biggest thanks goes out to Mike. Without whom I don't think I could have functioned at all today why Jen was doing the running around, then sleeping. My little buddy was running around all day making sure I had everything I needed, from getting me drinks to just handing me my computer. He's quite the little helper. To bad he probably won't get to read this.

Surgery, the complete saga.

Surgeon General's Warning: Reading this post may make your eyes blur, the length, content and number of links are not suitable for anybody that isn't interested.

It started as a early day. We had to be there at 5:30 so naturally we had to get up really early. Our alarms started going off around 4:00, and about 4:30 we drug our selves out of bed and managed to get dressed. I started the van to warm it up, which was a stroke of luck that I could think clearly enough first thing in the morning. I think we made it out the door at 10 to 5. Jen was hungry, and being the day after Christmas, and 5:00 in the morning, nothing in our path, be it ever so short, was open. So we detoured a bit to the 7-11 on Lee road, where Jen picked up some stuff to eat. I wasn’t allowed to eat before the surgery.

We made it to the hospital at about 5:20, got checked in on the ground floor and sat down to wait. It couldn't have been more then 10 mins later they took us up to the surgery waiting room. Now, in general hospital waiting rooms suck. It’s like they are built to make the time drag by, and for people to be uncomfortable. The new one in St. Joe, Ann Arbor rocked. It had 3 plasma Tvs. Full size couches, recliners, actual table you could sit and eat at. It had it’s owns set of bathrooms, and a vending room. To top it all of, it also has WI-FI.

When we checked in at the desk they gave Jen a pager like you would get at a restaurant, explaining the rules of the pager. First page means its time for the patient to go back, second page means she can come back to see me, third page was because they where coming to tell her how things went.

We wait about 15 mins before they took me back, I sat in a cold chair in a new freezing room. The nurse was friendly enough, she took my blood pressure checked my pulse, and then handed me a plastic bag with instructions to “Take it all off”. Then she left the room. So, I stripped. Everything, even my hair tie went into the bag. I put on the gown and was pleasantly surprised that it fit. Being 265 pound, you don’t normally get hospital gowns that are big enough. It appeared that someone read the chart before prepping the room. I climbed on to the bed, covered my self with the blanket and laid back. She came back in to start the iv.

After it was in, which was rather painless, she got Jen and we waited for the doctor. Before he made his was in the nurse came back and asked me some questions. Then after the nurse left the Anesthesiologist came in and asked me the same set of questions. Then the Nurse Anesthetist showed up and asked me the same questions. For those of you that do not know what these people are, I have enclosed links. Gotta love Wikipedia! Then the Nurse Anesthetist’s helper asked me even more questions. They told me what they where going to do, how it was going to happen. Then they told me they couldn't do anything until I saw the doctor. Fun, Fun. So I waited for the doctor, who showed up a little later. He told me basically the same the as the other 4 people, I was going to undergo a Lumbar Discectomy. After asking me what side we where working on, which I hoped was just to check my understanding and not because he didn’t know, he rolled me over put an X on my back and left the room. I should mention, this is the first and only time I got to meet the doctor. Previously I had appointments with his nurse, and PCA.

The Nurse Anesthetist came back with her helper, put a shot into my into my I.V. to “Relax me.” Then carted me down the hall. I remember reading the sign that said “Surgical Staff only behind this point.” We turned a corner to the surgical wing, the last though through my mind was, “Hmm, wonder what room I’m gonna be in.” Then I woke up in post-op.

I say “Woke up.” But what I really meant was that came aware of someone snoring, and sat there for a good 5 to 10 minutes listing before I realized it was me. Then I came all the way awake. There where two things I realized right away. First, my back fucking hurt, a lot. It felt like someone had stabbed me right in the spine, which in essences they did. Secondly, my legs and butt did not hurt. After 2 months of dealing with the pain, it was gone!. I could deal with the pain in my back for a few weeks.

I have a patch over the incision at the moment. Tomorrow I am allowed to remove it and even shower. Once it is removed I will post a couple of pictures of it. But until then, you'll just have to wait to see how it looks. Just like me!

I'm home...

I'm home from surgery, everything went great.

I feel a ton better then I have in months.

I gotta go lay down and sleep some more, didn't get enough last night and I'm still groggy from the surgery. I will blog more specific details later.

A laugh out loud comic...

At least for us nerds.


Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

We live in the Matrix, and it was written in HTML.

Thanks Babe!!

The jimburger.

Ahh the jimburger. Taste it's delightful flavor, allow it's wonderful aroma to tingle your senses.

Seen here with pickle, mustard and a side of fries the jimburger is available with any number of condiments and side dishes. Notice how the burger fit the exact size of the bun, so each bite is filled with burger goodness.




Each burger is custom fit to the size and shape of it's owner mouth and hand. Built for maximum enjoyment.




While available pan fried, the jimburger is best sampled off the grill.

My Back.

Just to show the condition my back is in I have uploaded a couple of pictures. If you have a sharp eye you'll notice the it's curvy. But rather the curving to the front or back, it goes to the left. See if you notice it in this first picture. You may want to click on it to get an enlargement.

Now, in this second picture I've added a few lines to illustrate my point. The vertical line start at my tail bone and goes straight up. In a perfect world it would go right between my shoulder blades and into the center of my neck. You can see that it is off center. The horizontal line show how far off center it is. Now keep in mind, this is my spin. It's supposed to curver forwards and backwards, not side to side.

Yea...

It's 6:18 in the morning.

I have officially been awake for over 24 hours now. It's strange how my back and leg pain works. It seems to come and go a lot, with no relevance to my drugs. I take Motrin and Neurontin every 8 hours, as directed. I also take Darvocet or Vicodin as needed. But it doesn't seem to matter. I can take a Vicodin and have it kill the pain completely, or not at all.

The pain seems to be worse at night. I don't know if it's something I do or just my body being worn out and needing rest. But even that's not a fixed thing. Last night I slept like a log. I passed out at 10:30 when Jen left for work and didn't wake up until 6:00. Yet tonight I can't sleep at all, every time I try to drift off my legs act up and the pain get bad again.

It's been over 24 hours and I'm still awake, I am exhausted. I can feel the headache building behind my eyes. Yet sleep eludes me. I have managed to watch 3 Die Hard movies in the course of this night.

I just wish I could find sleep, or in lieu of that some sort of relief from pain.

Surgery

Well, after seeing the specialist yesterday it appears that surgery will be the best option. She said that the shots I took at the pain clinic might help. But then they might not. The only way to know is it wait a month then go for my second shot, then after another month a third shot. She said she had seen them this bad get better that way before, but then she has seen them not get better too.

Surgery will mean that I'll be laid out for a few weeks. Then a month or maybe too before I'm back to full capacity. But the pain should be gone after the first week. Basically they are going to go in and cut out the part of the disk that's bulging out of my spine, then let it scar over. That will release the pressure on my nerve and thus allow me release from my pain.

Question will be whether or not I'll have to change jobs.

Obsessive Compulsive??

Does it make me obsessive compulsive because I have to have Milk any time I eat a cookie!?!?

Cookie!!!

C is for Cookie, that good enough for me.

Charlie Brown Christmas Tree?

It's Christams Tree Time...

Here are some photos of the tree going up...

It's official.

My phone is trashed, won't work at all.

Guess I'm gonna have to go get it fixed.

Now accepting donations...

To the fix James' phone fund.

It's really quite comical how it worked. I decided to take a shower, and to throw my cloths in the wash before hand. Cause lets face it, I smell after a few days of not being able to shower.

Took my pants off, checked my front and back pockets for stuff. Removed my wallet and keys. For got to check the side pocket of my pants. They are carpenter pants, with a side pocket around the knee, that my phone fits perfectly into. And, when it's there I don't sit on it, or get poked by it, which is why I keep it there.

In my drug/pain induced haze I didn't even think about checking that pocket until the wash was already running. 2 minutes into my shower I realized I hadn't check for my phone, I hopped out and bam there it was, submerged in the washer water.

The phone was off, which isn't a good sign. I popped the back open and removed the battery. It's currently on the table drying, I'm going to get it 8 or 10 hours before I try to turn it on. With luck it will still work, it's newer and more water resistant the the older cell phones.

But if it doesn't, I'm gonna have to pay to get it fixed. We have insurance on it, which is good. But it's still gonna run $35.00 to $45.00 to get it fixed. (As apposed to the $150.00 it would cost to replace it.)

Seems like nothing ever goes right.

But at least I don't smell any more.

Today is the day...

I get to go get a needle shoved into my spine...

In theory this will get rid of the pain. Though it seems like it would only make it worse.

We'll see...

I love you.

Who, What, Where and When?!?

I have to be in Ann Arbor tomorrow at 7:30am for my consultation with the pain clinic. Apparently now that we know it's a ruptured disk, as apposed to just a pinched nerve Dr. Mika feels I need better pain control medicine. I'd like to point out that both my wife, and my physical therapist have been saying it was a ruptured disk for weeks now.

So now I get to go to St. Joe on Ann Arbor and get them to give me good drugs. It's a strange thing the way things work. Until I was 18 or so I would never touch any kind of drugs, even for a headache. I refused even Aspirin, instead choosing to relax or sleep until the pain was gone. Which, with my history of chronic migraines was not the best choice in the world. I'm sure some of you out there know how it feels to have you head pound bad enough you want to vomit, and every movement you make sends bolts of pain in a spiderweb through your head. These are the headaches I've dealt with sense I was 8 years old, and to date I've never been able to solve them. Needless to say, when it comes to my headache, I have an enormous tolerance for pain.

But my back is something diffrent. I need a darvocet/vicodin and a Motrin just to be able to function.

But tomorrow I get to go see a Dr. that will tell me what he's going to do to solve my pain issue. And then on Friday I get the procedure done. Jen explained it all to me, and it makes me a bit nervous. I've never had anything remotely like surgery done. Well that's not true, I've had my tonsils out. Not that I remember it, but they are gone so someone must have taken them out at some point.

After the pain clinic I get to go see a specialist on the 14th, again at St. Joe in Ann Arbor. He's going to go over the MRI results with me and find the best option for recovery. And I'm praying that it's not surgery. I don't know if I can deal with that.

It's official, my butt is broken...

My MRI results came back today, or at least I went into the office to see them. It's official, I am broken.

According to the MRI, I have two bulging disks in my back, and one that ruptured. Which basically means I'm in pain, and unable to really do anything.

And my course of action?

For the moment I get to continue my physical therapy, and I'm being sent to a pain clinic. I'm also scheduled to go into a surgeon to see if that is the best option to fix the problem.

Until then I guess I just get to grit through the pain.