New Member (upcoming anterior/posterior L3 - S1 fusion)

[jss]

i just moved from flower mound to here south of rockwall. i used to live off 2499 and spinks near flower mound activity center. now i have one and one half acres. i love it out here.

What a small world. On nightly runs I usually run from my house, one block to Lexington, one block to Spinks and then either over toward the Flower Mound Activities Center, or the other way toward Bluebonnet Elementary.

[angie2499]

What a small world. On nightly runs I usually run from my house, one block to Lexington, one block to Spinks and then either over toward the Flower Mound Activities Center, or the other way toward Bluebonnet Elementary.

yea small world i lived in shadowridge hoa!! i would walk down lexintong from flatwood to the apt across the street from kroger. I loved it here with the one and one half acres especially now since my kids are grown.

[angie2499]

I love the D Magazine best doctors, I buy that issue every year and use it when looking for a doctor or checking out my current doctors. I wish I could remember where I had my discogram, but they did the same thing, knocked me out, woke me up, injected discs and knocked me out.... it was wonderful. The first discogram I ever had was not sedated and it was pure evil torture.
I'm not going to lie about the post op pain, as I was completely unprepared for what was coming. I didn't have any pain pump or epidural after my ADR surgery and I was in awful pain. In hindsight, I should have asked for the epidural during and after surgery. I ended up in the ICU for 2 days, because they just couldn't give me more medication (risk of respiratory depression), and my pain was so bad it was causing my blood pressure to go through the roof. Starting day 3 it became way more manageable with medication. Each day gets a little better than the last.
I'm loving the new 2499 extension to Teasley here in Denton, it connects about 2 miles from my house and I can now get to all the great shopping in Highland Village in 10 or 15 minutes.

dr courtney said he was using bone marrow to fuse with i guess this is good since i have heard that scraping bone is painful and i read that doctors get bone marrrow through a big syringe. Dont know if that is true but what i read. When i saw dr courtney last week i could not think of any questions now reading all of this i have some questions for the pre-op to ask him.

[Cindylou]

As you get closer to surgery Angie, you'll think of more and more questions! Some of them could end up being the same questions, but your anxiety level may have you start repeating yourself. lol Don't worry. All normal. You'll do fine. In response to some of your questions on another thread, they will get you up and walking pretty soon after surgery. If not the same day, definitely the day after. At first, you may think it to be an insurmountable task, but it's not. You'll be able to do it, with encouragement from your pt. And then you'll tire easily so they'll have you rest afterwards. Like Justin already mentioned, waking up as you come out of surgery can be kind of rough. Just be certain to let a nurse know of your needs and that you need pain relief asap. Hang in there. Surgery is right around the corner for you....Cindylou

[Justin]

Hi Angie,

I was just checking in to see how your operation went. I hope you are doing well.

[angie2499]

Hi Angie,

I was just checking in to see how your operation went. I hope you are doing well.

Justin,

Thanks so much for checking up on me. I am still awaiting the surgery. I had to get my ovaries out on Dec 1 and when they had me open they found infected appendix so a another surgeon came into operating and took out the appendix. So after that surgery I had to wait at least six weeks before the back surgery. Then for years now i been sick to stomach with upper ab pain, etc. I went to emergency room Jan 3 and they admitted me and ran tests and found out that i had a bad gallbladder so they took out my gallbladder and then when the surgeon was removing gallbladder there was a umbillica so he repaired the hernia. Let me tell you and everyone else out that hernia surgery is so painful. They actually sew your abdominal muscles around this surgical mesh that stays in your body forever so the hernia will not come back through. Then i developed a seroma on my abdominal wall so I am now awaiting to to talk to the surgeon who will open me up so dr courtney can do his surgery. I have not heard back because had to ask surgeon if he is going to cut in same place and if he does will he have to cut the mesh and repair the hernia again so all is still up in the air. I cannot imagine a surgery to get thre elvel fusion and get that hernia repaired again so it as so much pain. And dont know what they do about sermoma (pocket of lymp tissue instead of blood). I let yall know as soon as I hear back. But i know my body needs a good 8 weeks to heal from this hernia before I go back under the knife.

[Cindylou]

Justin,

Thanks so much for checking up on me. I am still awaiting the surgery. I had to get my ovaries out on Dec 1 and when they had me open they found infected appendix so a another surgeon came into operating and took out the appendix. So after that surgery I had to wait at least six weeks before the back surgery. Then for years now i been sick to stomach with upper ab pain, etc. I went to emergency room Jan 3 and they admitted me and ran tests and found out that i had a bad gallbladder so they took out my gallbladder and then when the surgeon was removing gallbladder there was a umbillica so he repaired the hernia. Let me tell you and everyone else out that hernia surgery is so painful. They actually sew your abdominal muscles around this surgical mesh that stays in your body forever so the hernia will not come back through. Then i developed a seroma on my abdominal wall so I am now awaiting to to talk to the surgeon who will open me up so dr courtney can do his surgery. I have not heard back because had to ask surgeon if he is going to cut in same place and if he does will he have to cut the mesh and repair the hernia again so all is still up in the air. I cannot imagine a surgery to get thre elvel fusion and get that hernia repaired again so it as so much pain. And dont know what they do about sermoma (pocket of lymp tissue instead of blood). I let yall know as soon as I hear back. But i know my body needs a good 8 weeks to heal from this hernia before I go back under the knife.

Wow, Angie. You have really been under the gun (and knife!) with all these "other" issues, before you even get to your planned and scheduled surgery for your back. That's nuts. I hope you are healing well from the hernia repair. My son had a hernia repair done right before Christmas, but he did not experience the level of pain that you are referring to, so I am sorry that yours sounds so much more traumatic. Definitely give your body that proper amount of healing time before you undergo your back surgery. You certainly don't want to risk any life threatening possibilities either, like a blood clot. But it sounds like you are taking your time to heal before you get back on the surgery table. So, good for you. Hang in there, and let us know when you do get your spine surgery scheduled so we can say a prayer for you. Good luck, Cindylou