L5-S1 Charite Revision Surgery 8 day post op

[Blairsara]

So today is 8 days from when I had my surgery. I pushed it a little too hard the day I gave my last update and definitely felt it the following day. So even though I feel good under the circumstances, I'm sticking to the 15-20 minute walks instead of what I was doing. That way I won't kick myself in the butt the next day.

I still feel really good. Each day I feel a little better and can do a little bit more. So I'm really happy about that. Yesterday I took a shower and it definitely wore me out, but I felt so much better afterwards.

I'm not sleeping all that much at once. I can only sleep for 3-4 hours at a time and then I wake up from pain. But I remember from my ADR that I wasnt sleeping all that much for the first month or so and well I've had insomnia problems since then so it's not that big of a deal.

The only one thing that I don't like is that it's very difficult for me to go to the bathroom. I havent "made" since I was in the hospital even though I'm taking colace twice a day every day. Is this common? I don't remember how it was after my ADR because for the most part I don't remember the first two months. I definitely wasnt as clear headed as I am during this recovery.

I go to see Dr. Regan and my PM next Wednesday, so that will probably be the next time I give an update. I just wanted to let you guys know how I'm doing and what's going on. Things are still great, minus the bathroom thing, but they moved around a lot of stuff so I'm thinking this is common.

Hope you guys have a great weekend!

Blair

[Maria]

Hey Blair,
It's great to hear you're doing so well and also that you've paced yourself so as not to get butt kicked by yourself!

RE the bm thing~ you might want to try some OTC Sennakot S~ don't take your colace as this is a natural stool softener/laxative. I take 2 at night and Miralax in the a.m. since being on Methadone is like pouring cement down one's throat... it's the only way to go (pardon the pun)!

Just thinking that something like that would make it much easier for you to not have to bear down and risk creating disc pressure or anal fissures/hemmorrhoids.

The other thing that I've found useful which one can buy in the health food store is powered Magnesium supplement. Mix the recommended amount in cup of tea or glass of juice and it should produce results~ it does on me and again, that is saying quite a bit with my medication intake.

Have a good follow up visit and if you get to see that cute Dr.Apostle~ take a cell phone photo and upload it (or whatever) to the website!!! He's definately eye candy and so nice.. OK, never mind me.. !!!!!!!!

take care and be good! Maria

[mmglobal]

Blair... I'm so glad that your recovery is progressing nicely. I hope to hear that the GI problems are resolved soon... that is an important hurdle. You must get better so you can teach me how to defend a goal on skates... that is still on my list of things to do.

Maria, we must not be talking about the same Dr. Apostle... I've never looked at him and thought he was even remotely cute. I hope this is OK, but hey... this is on the internet.... I was looking for a picture of him and found it here. In my search, I discovered that he's married to Sharon Lawrence... she was one of my favorite characters on Hill Street Blues (Andy's wife.)

Dr. Apostle brings an interesting toolkit to Regan's practice and Cedars... he's a pain management specialist, but also a practicing psychiastrist. I believes that makes him a much more valuable resource to us chronic painers trying to sort out our pain and shattered lives as we deal with the nightmare of chronic pain.

Mark

[Poncho]

Blairsara,

It is good to see you posting! I think the Miralax thing is a good idea - it doesn't make things go the other way - if you get what I mean.

This will take baby steps at a time. You should notice improvements over time. Good advice that was given to me after surgery was to not compare improvements on a daily basis - but compare improvements on a weekly basis. This helped a lot because after the first 2 weeks to a month out from surgery, my days were blending together and hard to tell if I was improving. But comparing one week to the next was dramatic.

I looked at the pics of Dr Apostle....Assuming that Maria would "rate" him a 9 or 10 on a scale of 1-10. I would give him a 7...

[mmglobal]

Sue, is that 7 with or without pain meds?

[Eddie G]

Glad to see you're doing a little better. Take it slow. I think I might have did too much after surgery. Now I'm doing too little. Find your happy medium and listen to your body...

[dshobbies]

Blair,

I'm so relieved to hear that everyday is getting better. You've been through an ordeal in many ways and maybe now you can breathe a little easier.

Laxitives have been discussed many times through many surgeries. One thing I never saw mentioned is mineral oil. When nothing was working 'great' for me, and this is a common problem with these surgeries, I finally tried mineral oil, recommended by a proctologist. 2 tablespoons in the morning and again in the evening quite literally greases the pipes and things flow much more easily. Once I tried this, and it's not as bad as it sounds, no taste and a quick swallow doesn't feel like you're drinking oil, I would not go back to any other product. I do like the taste of prunes but you have to be a little careful with eating too many and warm prune juice sounds as horrible as it tastes.

Anyway, you can decrease this dosage as necessary to 1 tablespoon twice a day, then once a day, etc. An added benefit when not using it as a laxitive is that is takes off eye makeup quite easily, that is, once you're feeling more like you want to wear makeup.

As as for weighing in on the Dr. Apostle issue, everyone's taste is different. I give him a 6-7. Maybe in person ??????

Please take care and keep us posted.

All my best, Dale

[ans]

Blair, good luck in getting relief. I'm glad otherwise you're feeling well.

+ +
Yrs. ago, Dr. Apostle told me that he was 1/5 MDs who were board-certified in something else *and* psychiatry. Interesting re: Sharon - Sipowitz' wife on "NYPD" Blue.