CCF/Decompression Sugery -- Part 8

[Guest guest]

Morning Group Members --

Sorry for taking so long to get back to my surgery saga -- you know

how it goes when recovering !

Once I ret'd home I was able to sleep in our bed, didn't have to

sleep in a recliner. Definitely make one of those pillow with the

indentions in the middle that will cushion your head and not create

pressure on the incision area. I still believe that is why I was

able to sleep in bed.

I also cut way back on the meds -- had all ready stopped the use of

vallium. Recall that I stopped the liquid morphine while in the

hospital, 4 days post op and relied on x-tra strength tylenol. I

relied on x-tra strength tylenol and a muscle relaxer (carisoprodol)

and occassionally phentogen (sp?) for nausea. I took it easy and

used a heating pad on my shoulders -- but, I do admit I have not been

as good about doing the neck exercises as I should have. Spent a lot

of the time laying down and napping. At first I would nap twice a

day and then that dropped off to once a day.

I thought I was really doing great and after about 6 weeks or so, I

started to do a few dishes (only light weight items and didn't

require any scrubbing) and began to scoop the litter box out. Oh, I

thought I was hot stuff ! LOL Look what I could do. Plus, I was

feeding the dogs and cats from the day I got home. I was just going

to town ------------------ THEN IT HAPPENED --------------- the day

after Christmas I was really stressed as my parents were coming down

and then my father-in-law was coming in at the same time and I just

had to try and clean the house and do some laundry -- oh, BIG

mistake, plus the fact that I took a fall didn't help. At least I

didn't knock my head on the wall or floor, just took a little jolt.

Well, the next day I had an absolutely God awful headache and went to

bed shortly after my parents arrived. Then that following morning I

was sick as a dog -- cold, hot, cold sweats, nausau, vomitting and

spent the whole day in bed and didn't even get to visit with my

parents. I did learn one thing, it is possible to throw up with all

this metal in your neck ! This was also the day my father-in-law

arrived. So, my parents left the next day to journey on to AZ for

the winter and father-in-law stayed the wk'd to help my hubby build a

fence for the dogs. By that day I was able to get out of bed for a

little bit at a time, and then that Sunday I was able to get out of

bed for a couple of hours at a time.

Well, it gets better -- I started PT the following week and got a

TENS unit, too. Let me tell you, the ultra sound tx and the massage

felt quite nice and the TENS unit was okay -- BUT -- that just didn't

last. I started getting the daily headaches back and they were back

with a vengence ! The TENS unit actually would intensify a headache

or bring one on. So, after a couple of weeks of PT and dealing with

the horrible, horrible headaches again, I contacted the docs at TCI

and explained the sequence of events the past two weeks.

Getting the horrible daily headaches back has been really rough on

me, esp. after having about a 3 week period where I had NO

headaches. The headaches have been the biggest cause of my absence

from the group and corresponding with everyone.

Part 9 coming next.

Grma Lee