Laid Up

We left for Billings bright and early on Monday.  I had to see my doctor, check in at the hospital and get fitted for a brace.  We made a quick run to the mall, had an early supper and were in our motel room and ready to crash early.  The busy shipping weekend had caught up to us plus the fact that I hadn't slept well in quite awhile.

My surgery was scheduled for 2:00 pm on Tuesday and I had to be at the hospital by noon.  We spent the morning working on state reports and crop insurance production reports so that we could get the state reports in the mail as soon as we got home.  Yes, there is always work to do--ugh!

Once at the hospital, things moved along fairly rapidly and I was actually taken back to surgery about 1:30.  All I remember is the anesthesiologist saying, "I'm going to put a little something in your IV".  Lights out!  The surgery took about 3 1/2 hours which seems like a long time since he ended up not doing all he had planned.  He was going to take out part of the disc and put in mesh with bone graft to fuse the joint.  He decided not to do that and did posterior fusions instead.  It sounds like it was a lot of work to get to the cyst and get it out.  It was close to 7:00 by the time I was in my room.  I have such a hard time waking up from anesthesia.  M thought I was being rude to the nurses because I'd hardly answer their questions.  He didn't understand that I could hardly even make myself talk!  I could form the words in my head but wasn't sure they'd come out of my mouth.  Apparently being on your face for 3 1/2 hours isn't a good thing and my face was really swollen.  I'm glad I didn't see myself at that point.

The nurses thought I was a rock star since I didn't need any pain meds during the night.  After I had been up a few times the next day I needed some, though.  Just as I thought, I had less pain after surgery than I did before surgery, and they didn't give me pain pills for that!  Since I was doing so well the doctor said I could go home on Thursday to beat the storm that was moving into the state.  We were out of Billings by 10:00 am.  We ran into a little snow in one area but the roads were good all the way.  They were snowy and icy the next day so I'm glad we got home when we did.  M was worried about all his animals and didn't want J to have to deal with problems if the weather got bad.

I've been adjusting pretty well at home.  I have to wear a brace and transitions from sitting to standing, etc. are difficult but getting better.  I'm up pretty early in the mornings because my legs start to ache.  I can dress myself and pretty much take care of myself.  We borrowed a walker, a grabber and an elevated toilet seat from our 80+-year-old neighbors.  Made me feel kind of old!

We've had snow and wind ever since we've been home so I haven't been out of the house.  I need to go check on the heifer calves before M gets the jump on me and picks out all the good ones for himself.  He does give me some credit for how gentle our heifers turned out this year so I need to make an appearance before too long.  I'm hoping that my recovery is quick because I'm already bored!  I bet M is hoping so, too, because he's already gotten the tractor stuck and his bale pickup is on the fritz and he's got no help.