Back Surgery

Thoughts come flooding back from a time in my life where stupidity was running rampid. My stupidity to boot! I was very much the tomboy growing up...much to the dismay of my mom and later my mother-in-law. As we go throughout raising our kids we always try to get them to understand the things they should and/or should not do... listen, do as I say not as I do, someday this will come back to haunt you etc.

I didn't always listen (putting it mildly, mind etc. Many times I thought I knew best...this trait has shown up very much in all three of my sons! Anyway, between a couple of falls down a mountain at a couple of different times in my life and getting my neck shut in the trunk of a car and the many "hits" that go with being in sports I gave my body, my back in particular, a run for the money and ended up with major problems about the time my youngest was 1-2 years old. I sat down on the sofa to change a diaper and could not get back up...that was around 1983-4.

In 1991 I finally had to succomb to having back surgery. I had done fine with everything until the insurance at work changed and I no longer had insurance coverage for chiropractors. Somewhere around 1989 I got to the point of slowly putting parts of my life on hold...as the pain got worse the less I did in/with my life. By the time March of 1991 came around I could not lay down, sit, stand, could barely walk... I was in constant pain and popping Advil/Tylenol so fast it wasn't even funny. A naval doctor we went to church with cut through the red tape and made an appointment for me to get x-rays...the doctors and tech doing the work just about fell over from shock! Considering it hurt like hell to get the x-ray done...xrays do not hurt you say? You're right! They don't! But having to stand still, when you are used to being in constant motion, hurts like hell. After I was dressed again and went to join Dan (the dr. from church) and the others standing around gawking at my pictures they turned when they heard me and made comments such as...you shouldn't be standing, I don't see how you can even walk, how in the hell can you even move, or how have you managed to live your life with this many problems? Good questions all! Stubborness got me to that point in my life and stubborness got me through it. I don't recommend that process to anyone, by the way! The fact was...I couldn't truly walk, could barely stand, my movements were from constantly changing positions trying to get away from the pain. Sleep came from crying myself to sleep. This kind of sleep was good for maybe 30 minutes, if I was lucky! The CAT scan was done, painfully I asure you, and an appointment made within one hour from leaving the naval hospital.

My first appointment with the surgeon was short and sweet...I couldn't sit still...he looked and me and told me to leave! I ask why? What is going on? He replies that anyone stupid enough to get to that point in their life and not see a doctor by then isn't worth the problem. Well strike me dumb! He then tells me when I get tired of the pain to let him know and he will schedule the surgery!

I go home. The house is empty. Everyone else is on an extended canoe trip down the Colorado River. I was to be on it also but...didn't I didn't want to continually capsize the canoes and keep everyone cold and wet. As I sit at the kitchen table contemplating what I need to do and beg the Lord to help me figure things out my answer comes...GET THE SURGERY! Not what I truly wanted to hear. Surgery scared the daylights out of me. Took over a day to get through the phone lines back to the surgeon to schedule surgery...AND...I was going to have to wait an additional week! What the hell? Why??? This surgical group was a very good group and their schedules were always FULL. There were 25 surgeries scheduled for that day.

I went into the hospital on Sunday...the nurse first working with me actually listened to me when it came to trying to take blood and get IVs started. My veins are a pain in the posterior. She did a great job. Surgery was Monday. I was the first to go in. Dear doc (not the surgeon) was totally ticked when he showed up to get me and they haven't got me hooked into the IV...not that they hadn't tried! Many times! That doctor took three times of JABBING that stupid needle into me before getting the desired results. Hi ho! Hi ho! It's off to surgery I go!

Surgery took longer than expected. And for all of the things listed in my 20 minute pre-op lecture of what could go wrong...muscle spasms were the one thing not mentioned. I woke up and found that I could lay still! And not hurt! I was not in constant motion! Hot damn! This is great. Then came the "command" of you have to get off the gurney yourself and get into bed. Say what? Are you crazy? I moved...and...every muscle in my body went into overtime on the pain scale! What the hell did you do to me? What went wrong? I asked. As one nurse is jumping down my back and yelling at me to stop screaming...I can't be in that much pain!... another nurse finally figured out that muscle spasms were the culprit and hit me with a shot of morphine! You know, that stuff burns like hell going in BUT...I can see why people get hooked on the stuff...within seconds the pain was gone! Where had this stuff been for the last two years?

I was up and around on Monday...drove the nurses crazy. Got tired of walking in circles around the nurses station...so...Larry and I walked out towards the elevators to watch the people outside...nurses went nuts! They couldn't find me so they called the doctor in! I really felt sorry for him...I could finally move and had freedom from my own stupidity and the nurses want to confine me to the "prison" ward. He finally just asked me to be patient (and eh thought he knew me!!!) and he would try to have me out of the hospital on Thursday. YES!!! YES!!! YES!!!

I walked out on Thursday. Friday I walked over to my chiropractor's office. I was on my way to a "full recovery".

There are certain things I am supposed to do and/or watch out for...and for the most part I try to follow through on these things. My job...takes that to the extreme on Wednesdays when we get our biggest deliver in. Now...Gina (my partner in crime/work) have learned to start the day with Advil before Fred (delivery man) shows up and we "do" our thing...once more showing that we still have a stubborn streak and do things that we probably shouldn't.

Then we continue to pray...Lord, help us make it through this mess we call life...help us to live through our "stupidity", keep us strong and keep us close to You.

Ev