Well the surgery went great!
Got into pre OR at 12:30 met with the anesthesiologist who I think was from england. Love the accent!. The room had pretty light covers with clouds and flowers. Heather was great, she talked me through the spinal. And I didn't even feel it. Well I felt a little nerve twinge but I know y that meant she was numbing me up. I laid on my right side so gravity was working the medicine to the right hip and man did it work! I was numb from my ribs to my toes. Got into the OR which was cold and the doc had foo fighters cd in. the drs and nurses and I were singing along lol. So I was in a twilight sleep. I was awake during the surgery which was wierd but awesome. I felt the p pounding to break the bones, and I felt and heard the screws going in. I didn't hurt but I knew what was going on. I talked to the doctors about my work and schools in seattle and also one of them, Chris I think, talked about gears of war and video games lol! My surgery started at 1:10 and I got to recovery at 2:35. So the surgery was fast. I spent 1 hour in recovery where they gave me back the blood that came out during surgery. I don't know what measurement term whether it was cc or something else but I lost 500 and they gave me back 250. They washed my blood and gave it back. Got to my room at 3pm and I am having a lot of troubles with pain management. The morphine is not working enough. I want to push more than 8 min so they are giving me other pain meds. The pain goes up and down from 3 and right now its at 7 :( this pain pump sucks. Hopefully we can get it under control. My hubby left to get mickaela and they are coming back to visit for a while. I am amazed at the surgery and how great it was I was so happy and laughing. Not so much right now but it will pass. I wanted to eat but they said the clear diet only. Boo! Gummy bears, chicken broth and gatorade. I want to thank all the wonderful or people so later I can send a card to them:
Dr downer, Heather, Chris, Brian, Katie, Angie, Shantal, Tess. So far I don't know my nurses well enough. They dont bother me much. Except I hate all these beeping machines. Oh and a nurses asst elevated my right leg and dropped it, oh crap! Not good! Ok I'm off to rest a little.
Pic 1 is me right before I got my spinal. Last time with my hubby in Peo- OR. This is the room that had all the pretty flower and sky pictures above the lights. One thing I want to say is I remember Dr. Downer coming in in his operation garb. He looked so small for some reason. I remember his apron being pretty "dark" looking. It was a canvas-type really thick apron you might see on a slaughter house butcher. LOL SCARY!
Pic 2 A pre op pic of smilies with me and Daniel :D
Pic 3 Is RIGHT after I got to my room 1 hour after surgery. Look how happy I was :D I remember being so superbly happy, must have been the valium and this happiness didnt last long.
Update: I am updating later because I am only recently getting my head back together and can focus enough to put all my notes in here. Plus shortly after the post above, things got real bad for me.
Well wouldn't you know it, I got another Spinal Headache. For those that dont know what that is, a Spinal Headache happens (1.5% chance for everyone according to my anesthesiologist) when the anesthesiologist puts the needle into your spine column and the hole in he spinal lining doesn't heal right away. Instead, some spinal fluid leaks out and the hole takes a while to heal. From the loss of spinal fluid, there is a gap between the meningeal lining of the brain and the top of the spinal column and this causes a massive spinal headache. I would say 5 times worse than a migraine. Sensitivity to light and sound, excruciating pounding in the ears, and all the way around the back and top of the head. You can't sit up and sleeping still pounds. I read a site that said it lasts 5 days. WRONG!! I have had one with my c-section and that one lasted 19 days. This one lasted 13 days. This one was not as bad as the last one because of a few reasons. This time, the needle used was a spinal needle and is super small compared to the epidural needles used during a c-section. Also, I was expecting this headache again because if you have had one, you will likely have it again. There are a few things that may "help" the headache which include a crap load of caffeine, hydration and laying down and also staying flat. Which I can tell you don't really help. Laying down until the headache goes away is the only real help but when you are sleeping it still pounds. Ice helped on the back of my neck throughout the night. which I am totally thankful for my hubby to keep getting me a new ice pack every few hours. The only real "cure" is to do a blood patch. They take blood from say your arm and inject it into the spine with an epidural needle which remember I said is bigger than a spinal needle. They inject the blood close to the previous spinal site, and the idea is that the blood will clot the hole from the first spinal and stop the leak. However there are risks. The blood patch might cause another spinal headache and the clot might not hold and pop out. So they would have to do it again. My anesthesiologist said usually they have to do it 2 times. Also, when you put anything into the spine there is a huge risk of infection in the spinal column, a risk of paralysis and need for open back surgery to fix. So obviously with my track record of having the rare things happen to me, I decided against the blood patch again. I have had this head ache before so at this point I will just tough it out. The rest of the night was a bit of a blur of vomiting, pain, nurses and barely sleep.
Got into pre OR at 12:30 met with the anesthesiologist who I think was from england. Love the accent!. The room had pretty light covers with clouds and flowers. Heather was great, she talked me through the spinal. And I didn't even feel it. Well I felt a little nerve twinge but I know y that meant she was numbing me up. I laid on my right side so gravity was working the medicine to the right hip and man did it work! I was numb from my ribs to my toes. Got into the OR which was cold and the doc had foo fighters cd in. the drs and nurses and I were singing along lol. So I was in a twilight sleep. I was awake during the surgery which was wierd but awesome. I felt the p pounding to break the bones, and I felt and heard the screws going in. I didn't hurt but I knew what was going on. I talked to the doctors about my work and schools in seattle and also one of them, Chris I think, talked about gears of war and video games lol! My surgery started at 1:10 and I got to recovery at 2:35. So the surgery was fast. I spent 1 hour in recovery where they gave me back the blood that came out during surgery. I don't know what measurement term whether it was cc or something else but I lost 500 and they gave me back 250. They washed my blood and gave it back. Got to my room at 3pm and I am having a lot of troubles with pain management. The morphine is not working enough. I want to push more than 8 min so they are giving me other pain meds. The pain goes up and down from 3 and right now its at 7 :( this pain pump sucks. Hopefully we can get it under control. My hubby left to get mickaela and they are coming back to visit for a while. I am amazed at the surgery and how great it was I was so happy and laughing. Not so much right now but it will pass. I wanted to eat but they said the clear diet only. Boo! Gummy bears, chicken broth and gatorade. I want to thank all the wonderful or people so later I can send a card to them:
Dr downer, Heather, Chris, Brian, Katie, Angie, Shantal, Tess. So far I don't know my nurses well enough. They dont bother me much. Except I hate all these beeping machines. Oh and a nurses asst elevated my right leg and dropped it, oh crap! Not good! Ok I'm off to rest a little.
Pic 1 is me right before I got my spinal. Last time with my hubby in Peo- OR. This is the room that had all the pretty flower and sky pictures above the lights. One thing I want to say is I remember Dr. Downer coming in in his operation garb. He looked so small for some reason. I remember his apron being pretty "dark" looking. It was a canvas-type really thick apron you might see on a slaughter house butcher. LOL SCARY!
Pic 2 A pre op pic of smilies with me and Daniel :D
Pic 3 Is RIGHT after I got to my room 1 hour after surgery. Look how happy I was :D I remember being so superbly happy, must have been the valium and this happiness didnt last long.
Update: I am updating later because I am only recently getting my head back together and can focus enough to put all my notes in here. Plus shortly after the post above, things got real bad for me.
Well wouldn't you know it, I got another Spinal Headache. For those that dont know what that is, a Spinal Headache happens (1.5% chance for everyone according to my anesthesiologist) when the anesthesiologist puts the needle into your spine column and the hole in he spinal lining doesn't heal right away. Instead, some spinal fluid leaks out and the hole takes a while to heal. From the loss of spinal fluid, there is a gap between the meningeal lining of the brain and the top of the spinal column and this causes a massive spinal headache. I would say 5 times worse than a migraine. Sensitivity to light and sound, excruciating pounding in the ears, and all the way around the back and top of the head. You can't sit up and sleeping still pounds. I read a site that said it lasts 5 days. WRONG!! I have had one with my c-section and that one lasted 19 days. This one lasted 13 days. This one was not as bad as the last one because of a few reasons. This time, the needle used was a spinal needle and is super small compared to the epidural needles used during a c-section. Also, I was expecting this headache again because if you have had one, you will likely have it again. There are a few things that may "help" the headache which include a crap load of caffeine, hydration and laying down and also staying flat. Which I can tell you don't really help. Laying down until the headache goes away is the only real help but when you are sleeping it still pounds. Ice helped on the back of my neck throughout the night. which I am totally thankful for my hubby to keep getting me a new ice pack every few hours. The only real "cure" is to do a blood patch. They take blood from say your arm and inject it into the spine with an epidural needle which remember I said is bigger than a spinal needle. They inject the blood close to the previous spinal site, and the idea is that the blood will clot the hole from the first spinal and stop the leak. However there are risks. The blood patch might cause another spinal headache and the clot might not hold and pop out. So they would have to do it again. My anesthesiologist said usually they have to do it 2 times. Also, when you put anything into the spine there is a huge risk of infection in the spinal column, a risk of paralysis and need for open back surgery to fix. So obviously with my track record of having the rare things happen to me, I decided against the blood patch again. I have had this head ache before so at this point I will just tough it out. The rest of the night was a bit of a blur of vomiting, pain, nurses and barely sleep.
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