Back surgery

Had the joy of sitting in the hospital for 4 full days.

Wife had two disc cages installed and vertebrae fused, L4-L5 and L5-S1.
Two day staged surgery and second day had complications with leaking dura so she had to lay flat, immobile, for 24 hrs. That alone slows recovery due to stiffness/swelling during this period.

Glad we're finally home.

I hope she's quickly back on her feet and free from pain.

They are doing some pretty amazing stuff these days. I hear they can puff up and infuse cement-like material into crushed vertebrae.

I hope she starts to feel better soon. Back surgery is not something I am looking forward to, but may have to get it in the future. At least she is home and can rest. I have spent a week in the hospital on 5 occasions and you never get any rest.
Good luck.

Taking 2 weeks FMLA to take care of her.
Really glad I did, never left the hospital for 4 days but really didn't have a lot of spare time to want and to go places. There is always little things you can do to make the patient more comfortable that the staff really can't do.

Yes, I know the feeling. One time I spent a week in the hospital in Philly and I told my wife not to come up. It was a long drive, then at night getting in late and having to get up early for work, not necessary. I had that surgery 3 years in a row and stayed a week each time. She would bring me up, stay for the surgery and then come take me home when it was time. I was so drugged out anyway, it didn't matter.

How is your wife? Back healed?

She is doing very well.

No infections at the incisions been off the oxy for some time. Think she only needed it for just over a week. Should be getting some PT in a couple weeks.

She has no regrets at this point.

Glad to hear that. You hear so many stories about having back surgery.

When is your next trip to Nashville?

My daughter didn't get accepted to Vanderbilt and is now waiting on a reply from Dartmouth. I haven't decided if I'm going to Georgia on Spring Break in April. 18 hours is tough to do twice in 6 days.

Yea, I've done several 3 day weekends that had 12 hrs of driving.....each way.

A year ago December, my son and I brought my daughters car from the west coast of Fla to NJ. We stopped for the night in Lumberton NC after 11 hours of driving. That was okay but I wouldn't want to stretch it too much longer. 1320 miles one way.

Wife doing really good BUT do have complications.

Stems from the scar tissue from a surgery last year. Back brace was wrong sized and cause herniated incision where the old scar was. Had to cut out the scar tissue and has a gapping wound that has to heal from inside-out now. Total incision was about 6" and the newest 3" and other incisions are all healed up nicely now. Just the old one is a PITA, luckily it doesn't hurt much. Here skin is hyper sensitive to all the adhesive from the band aids though.

.....and back in the hospital.

Fever, chills, rash all over spending night in the hospital now. Tomorrow they are going to open incision. If they find an infection inside it could be a couple weeks stay in the hospital.

This week has been a wash, 4 of 5 days driving 1hr + into Nashville.

When I was young my dad had back surgery and got an infection. It took quite a long time to get rid of it. Good luck to your wife, hopefully they can get it out of her system quickly.

Keep us informed on how your wife is doing.
Rich

She came home tonight.
Has an IV PICC inserted and gets 3 units of IV antibiotics per day for next 6 weeks along with one oral tablet. Infectious disease DR thinks the infection was down to the hardware and might be hiding out there. Hence the aggressive treatment. The IV fluid gives a bad taste in her mouth and upset stomach, not fun.

One upside is now the wound is closed up and should heal at a normal rate now.

When my gall bladder went bad in 2002, the infection got into my blood and damn near killed me. Antibiotics left a metallic/oily taste in my mouth for weeks afterward. Hoping she gets past it soon.

I know there's always a chance of infection but it really sucks when it's operator error. Someone other than the patient should cover those costs. Gawd knows they blast surgical patients with antibiotic cocktails before and after procedures so that should cover incidental infections. Unfortunately bug colonized hardware is tough to treat. Good thing they caught it in time.

When I have IV antibiotics, I get a copper taste. It goes away when the IV stops.

I hope she gets better soon. I'll be praying.

How is your wife doing?

Getting acclimated to taking the drugs but they did have to up one of them.
Have a follow up this week and more blood tests by in home nurse Monday.

Sounds like they are doing what they should be. Good luck with the blood tests. Wife is heading to Georgia on Friday, I still don't know how many of the kids are staying home so I may end up not going again.

The RN came out today, wifes veins are so hard from the meds the RN wasn't able to draw any blood at home today.
Finally received ok for drawing through the PICC but it didn't work, lets meds in but couldn't get enough blood out.

Tomorrow we go to local hospital to see what they can do. Wife not looking forward to this since even pushing on the veins with your fingers is very painful.

Sorry to hear that. I remember being in the hospital and they had a special team that could get the veins when the regular nurse couldn't. Good luck.

When I was in for my bypass surgery on about the 4th or 5th day in, they needed to change the IV and couldn't find a vein so they brought in a machine with some sort of ultra-violet light and placed over my arm and hand. It showed all the veins like my skin was clear.

Wasn't the regular nurses though, it was a special team that came in and did it.

I've got deep veins, always been a bitch to find one of mine.

They were able to get blood today, back of the hand this time.

Dan, haven't been around here much but hope this finds your wife doing much better.

Thanks, hope things going good with your family too.

So far they increased one of the meds 3 times now.
Stiches are out now from second surgery and healed up good.

Just hoping she kicks this infection, still 3-6 weeks to go of IV fluids.