nightfox | Post Surgical Update & Incoherent Rant of Frustration

I just got back from my first post-surgical visit to my MD and he's very happy with my progress. My incisions are both healing really well and while I'm frustrated with my pain level and continued need for what I consider way too many drugs, he assured me that it's normal and I need to stay on them for a while longer. My x-rays are apparently "excellent", so at least the grafted bone and larger hardware seem to be working out so far.

So I shall continue to be a dopey dish for a bit longer. I keep falling asleep sitting up! Several times I've woken up with my face on my keyboard and the imprints of the keys dug into my cheek and forehead. This morning, my bestie found me just sitting up, cross-legged on the floor, spine straight and my chin tucked down on my neck brace which in turn was braced against my chest, dead out asleep, hands still on my laptop keyboard! And like dead out asleep; it actually took her calling my name several times to wake me up. I never sleep that deep. Usually I am such a light sleeper that if a squirrel farts in a tree two blocks away it'll wake me up!

I hate narcotics!! Even when I need them, I hate them. I had one day of clarity in the past 14 days and it came at the cost of massive pain. Science has just got to come up with a better system of pain control than this. It's absurd!

OK, I am off to nap some more cuz I'm feeling the percocet I just took. On yeah, Doc increased my Valium due to my increased muscle spasms, so now I can sleep even more! Yay. :-|

Good news is no more bandage changing and I get to dump the neck brace in another 2 weeks! I went out for dinner with friends last night to my favorite Moroccan restaurant and I swear, people stare at you like you're something nasty just because you're wearing a visible medical device. How dare I disrupt their mental aesthetics by appearing in public with such an ugly thing on. Shallow twits. On a terrific note though, dinner was Fabulous and I only nodded off twice during the meal :D I need to learn to cook more Moroccan dishes, I LOVE that food!! I could happily eat that 5 times a week.

More good news, I get to start physical therapy in 6 weeks :D Can't wait!

Thanks everyone for all the positive thoughts and well wishing, I really do appreciate it ♥

Current Music: Evanescence-Like you

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I can feel on the getting attention because you are wearing medical stuff.

When I was being tested for seizures they hooked thousands of cords(like thick dreads) all over my head for days. Said cords were wrapped around my waist, ending in a battery on my hip.

I looked it an android! It was awesome!

That also happened to be the week the sims 3 first came out which I had preordered. I walked 2 miles with the equipment on, and headed to target to pick it up. People, upon seeing me, either moved out of the way, asked me if I was terminally ill, or let me cut to the front of the line and let me take their seat on the crowded bus on the way back home.

It may have also helped that at the time I looked like I was physically 11-12, which meant that everyone thought they saw a severely ill very young boy walking around.

Just have as much fun with it as you can, is all I can tell you.

And congrats on beginning physical therapy soon, and only nodding off a few times during dinner! :)

I hate being stared at but I have yet to go to a store or anything where sympathetic people might let me cut in line. I've been out once to the bank and then dinner last night. Otherwise I've been resting at home or hobbling around the apartment complex for a little exercise (and I mean little).

I do remember I had to wear a Holter monitor once for 24 hours, that's like a portable EKG that constantly monitors your heart so I had sticky buttons and cords everywhere that went to a small machine I had in a pouch hanging from my neck. It was summer, tank top season, so I couldn't hide the cords as easily I was told to do everything I'd normally do, like go to work, the gym, shopping etc. People stared but no one was kind enough to yield in lines or anything. Then again, I was 19 so I didn't have the advantage of the "sick child" look you had! My fellow students all wanted to poke and prod and look me over and people at the gym looked at me like I was a nutcase to be there like that. Ah yes, Good Times!

I was almost 19 as well. Sometimes, there is an advantage to being short. :)

Well, you couldnt blame them staring if you were at the gymn. Even I would for that! The gymn isnt a place for crazy folk!

Really? I see crazy folk at the gym all the time ;-) It's fascinating watching other people work out, so many of them do the strangest things!

I am waffling between -- "That sucks!" because I know being on pain meds is really not fun, and kind of envious, because you have pain meds that work.

(Oxycontin does nothing for pain for me; most pain drugs don't have lasting effects, either. But I can relate to the face-in-keyboard symptom -- I was given morphine, once, and I dozed off in mid-conversation. Mid-word, even. My spouse thought it was hilarious.)

But I am glad to hear that the healing is going well!

"I can relate to the face-in-keyboard symptom -- I was given morphine, once, and I dozed off in mid-conversation."

I can relate to the keyboard, too. Sadly, however, it was not due to morphine or strong prescription drugs. Nope, Nyquil does that to me. My friends won't let me have anything more complicated than a remote for the DVD player when I'm sick enough for Nyquil.

Yeah, Nyquil makes me sleep too. It does that to most people. That's cuz it combines antihistamines with a hefty dose of alcohol! The stuff is 25% alcohol by volume making it a 50 proof liquor as well as a good cold remedy ;-)

Well, the pain meds work now, they didn't really for the first week. The pain from the bone graft site in my hip was so bad that the percocet didn't touch it but I had no way of getting a new RX from my doc cuz he's 1 1/2 hours away, I can't drive and my friends all work during MD's office hours. So I sucked it up and then it started to get better. I liked morphine when I had it once for a kidney stone because it didn't make me sick like the percocet does. However, they don't hand that out if they can help it. Oxycontin is the only narcotic I haven't tried yet.

Yes! I have drifted off mid-sentence several times and sometimes I only get half-way through a meal and I fall asleep. It's great for weight loss though! I've taken off 10 lbs since the surgery cuz I have no appetite. Percocet is great like that, it kills any desire I have to eat anything and interrupts my ability to finish any food I start on! However, last night I was determined to enjoy my first night out in weeks and my friends kept me from falling face first into the communal dishes!

Your friends are nicer than my friends. They would've let me drown in my soup and they would've snapped pictures for Facebook.

Hah! Yeah, my besties are awesome. Also we all were eating from one large platter to small plates in front of us and if I landed in the food they couldn't eat it either so it may not have been niceness so much as self preservation ;-)

Ohhh, you got to be suspicious of your friends in those kinds of circumstances...

Glad your checkup went well! *hugs* My boss had a motorcycle accident two years ago and he doesn't do well with narcotics--in that he has no filter when he talks and hallucinates easily. Very entertaining for those of us giving care, but a bit embarassing to him when we would tell him stories later. He also hated being on the pain pills, but his doctor insisted and, let me tell you, when he gave in and listened to his doctor, it went much better for him.

Of course, now I want to write Gwaine-having-no-filter as a result of post-ops drugs fic. Because that could be terribly funny...

Thank you! *hugs back* My auto accident was 2 1/2 years ago so I've been on some form of narcotic for much of that time. Thank gods I don't react like your boss! I just slur my words or can't find them at all and just sit there all confused as to where the words went.

I am going to be a good little patient and follow my doc's orders including increasing the Valium. I tried decreasing the drugs on my own (I have a great fear of becoming addicted) and as a result I had a day of waking lucidity but by that night I was in agony again. So, yeah, I yield to the notion that I still need the stupid pills and will take them.

I think your Gwaine fic idea is great! I'd love to hear him without a filter, esp if he's not in a relationship with anyone but might like to be...

:D

My boss was very worried about becoming addicted and I had to finally put my foot down and bring out the tears and puppy dogs eyes about how if he overdid it or was in pain, it made me feel bad. Because his daughters were a couple hundred miles away and couldn't do it and his grandsons (19yo) were too scared of him to tell him know or manipulate him.

Hmmm...if I get some writing time this weekend, I'll see what I can do about filterless Gwaine!

Hmmm.... look on the bright side, you are catching up to a lot of sleeping hours so... yeah. Also, people are so stupid sometimes it hurts, if they can't stand to see it don't look!

I am getting lots of sleep but it's not good sleep. I wake up exhausted anyway :(

People...what to say. As individuals, I adore people, love talking to them, finding out what makes them tic (or just what tics they have ;-) but in groups, ugh! Why do perfectly nice folk become clueless douche-bags when they congregate in groups? Or walk around in crowds for that manner. I have to give props to our server at the restaurant, he asked if I needed any special help or any special adjustments to the food/eating style without any prompting at all. For a 10 course meal, that could have been quite a pain had I needed any! Thoughtful waiter earned his fat tip!

I think that when people are in groups they do what they think their group will expect them to, social pressure of a sort. it's not always what they want but if they are too weak to refuse doing it then they deserve being with their idiots of friends.

Oh that's all great news! *hugs*

Lot's of sleep is good, take it while you can :p

squirrel farts in a tree two blocks away it'll wake me up! Ahahaha - I snort giggled... Great line! I'd love to be able to get into a deep sleep, but the bloody birds landing on the roof wake me up at cock crow most mornings!

And dickheads!! God, I hate people sometimes...

Normally, I wouldn't mind the sleep but I have writing commitments this month and am making no headway. The mods at

merlin_canon were kind enough to give me an extension but I also have 2 fills to do for

dark_fest. Thankfully those can both be short fills and I still have 2 weeks to get to them. However, I still might need to ask for an extension from them as well.

At least

paperlegends isn't due for a while. Once I get past the dopey stage of pain control I will have almost unlimited time to devote to that project.

*snickers over farting squirrels* It feels nice to have brought a smile to someone's face! Thanks :D

Also, allow me to add in reference to your icon: Jethro! *drools*

Yes, agreed - squirrel farts are the funniest thing I've encountered today - you are funny on drugs!!! :) Glad you have a good report from the doctor and you are on the mend.

Thank you :D Like I commented to

tambear13, it's nice to have made someone smile \O/

Have to admit I was very relieved that my doc was happy. The man has a perfectly delicious smile ;-) LOL, he's a top rate surgeon with a fantastic bedside manner but he also has the bonus of being downright gorgeous to look at so each visit to his office includes a lovely dose of eye candy! Hee! I wouldn't have him as my doctor if all he had was that pretty face but I have to admit, it does make office visits more pleasant >:-D

Oh, gorgeous doctor, very nice! My most gorgeous doctor is my periodontist and he is CLEARLY batting for the other team. But gorgeous...

I'm so glad it's going well! I can imagine it's frustrating to have to take so many drugs that knock you out. (heh, good icon for that) Moroccan food, nom nom. I don't think I've ever gone to a Moroccan restaurant but I've cooked some of it.

Thanks! Love the Moroccan food! The restaurant here is called CousCous and it's lovely. It's very small and intimate with low couches instead of chairs and pretty carved tables. The walls are painted to look like a Moorish villa(?) with soft lighting provided by these beautiful Moroccan coloured glass lamps. They offer hookah smoking there and it actually makes the place smell lovely, like a gentle incense. Not to mention that each of the hookahs is a work of art. We didn't smoke but there were others in the place who did so it was fun to watch.

So do you have any favorite recipes to share? *gives the giant kitty eyes*

I missed the part why you had surgery, but I'm glad things are going well. Get well soon!

Yeah, sorry it's kinda been an ongoing thing. A little over a year ago, I had a 2 level cervical spinal fusion. 12 months later (this past December) they found that the lower level fusion hadn't healed and my body had absorbed the donor bone they used in the procedure leaving me with a gap between the C6 and C7 vertebrae at the base of my cervical spine (neck). This was causing me a lot of pain so they needed to go back and do the fusion over again this time using bone they took out of my own hip to use as the wedge between vertebrae.

I had this second spinal fusion about 2 weeks ago. Doc reported he'd had to replace the original plates and screws with larger ones as well in order to hold the vertebrae in place so hopefully it will heal better this time. TBH, for the first week and a half, the place where they cut the piece of bone from my hip hurt far worse than my neck did. However, that's been improving and now my neck is back to being the major problem.

But my doc assures me that all this is normal for this type of procedure (he also told me that the agonizing hip pain was the main reason he didn't use it last time, he'd been hoping my body would accept the donor bone and spare me the pain of the second surgical site).

So, that's the history behind this post! I'm doing well but it's a long recovery process. I just have to curb my impatience with my progress and bite the bullet and take all the pain medications that make me so stupid and sleepy.

Ah, thanks for the explanation. I'm glad you're getting better, albeit slowly. Sending some healing thoughts in your direction!

Thank you! <3

I'm a fan of ephedrine myself, but its illegal here. which sucks, cos i'm super productive on it.

Ephedrine scares me because I have sinus tachycardia (an overly fast heart rate). I have to be careful even with caffeinated drinks. I allow myself no more than 2 6oz (177ml) cups of coffee a day or I get the shakes & palpitations. I do drink inordinate amounts of tea though. I'm talking upwards of 1-1.5 gallons (3.8-5.7 liters) of tea every day. There is probably quite a bit of caffeine in that but it doesn't seem to bother me like coffee or caffeine pills do.

that's pretty mental! I live on red bulls and coffee, but i also drink a lot of green tea which has a safer caffiene limit. maybe you could try drinking that?

Yeah, I know it's mental. My tea addiction has just gotten worse and worse lately. I used to drink caffeine-free herbal teas but over the past 6 months or so I switched back to several types of black tea which isn't so great I guess. I just can't seem to back away from my teapot! With the warmer weather coming, I will probably start back on the herbal stuff and cut back on my black tea consumption but I don't think I can ever give it up entirely! I do drink green and white tea as well, just not quite as often. I so love a strong cup of tea.

As a show of good faith though, my teapot is currently filled with pure Lebanese mint. It's a start, right?

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Insomnia Can Be a Bitch and a Blessing

Post Surgical Update & Incoherent Rant of Frustration

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