[Spinal Fusion / Lumbar] 5 Days post-op L5-S1 Fusion

[Catherine]

Well, I made it! Sorry it's taken me so long to get on here. The surgery went well, but my blood pressure dropped very low and they kept me in recovery for about 5 hours. Then I went to a monitored bed floor for two days. The BP came up slowly, and I went to the ortho-floor on Friday and then out on Sat. As everyone knows, now, I haven't felt much like posting! Not doing much but walking, sleeping, and trying to eat what with fighting nausea. Will post more later.

Catherine

[Gilbert P]

Hello Catherine

Welcome to the other side , Surgery is no fun, can they give you something for the nausea? It helped me

Please rest and take it easy and post when you get back to wonderful Wyoming.

All The Best

Gil

[ajj1001]

Hope you start to feel brighter soon.

[Kimberly]

Catherine,

Glad to hear that things went smoothly. And like Gil said, "welcome to the other side!"

I also really struggled with nausea post-op and had a couple of different things prescribed which helped. In the end I settled on wearing a scopolamine patch which didn't take all the nausea away, but made it better.

Take it slow and easy. It gets better.

Get some rest and post when you can.

Take care,
Kimberly

[laid up doc]

sorry to hear about the nausea problem - i had one dose of ondansetron (brand name zofran in the US) and that was it.

one of the following should help: zofran, compazine, phenergen, reglan, droperidol. make sure you've tried all of those. i deal w/ nausea/vomiting a lot in my job - but it's not post-op.

again, welcome to the other side, and best of luck w/ your recovery!

[Rob]

Hi Catherine,

Welcome to the other side!:^) I also was also nauseous in the hospital though I never lost my cookies! They had to give me something in my IV to prevent it. Don't know what they're giving you for pain but you may want to consider trying something else.

I was given an Rx for the nausea upon request when leaving the hospital (Promethhazine 25mg, generic for Phen-tuss or Phenergan). The Rx worked good for me.

I also believe that the Oxycodone (10/500) they gave for post-hospital pain was making me nauseous. I had them switch me to Hydrocodone.

Constipation will be the next issue unless you’re really lucky, or an allien!:^)

It’s all a slow descent from here!:^) Most of us have been there!

Let me know if I can help…

Regards,


Rob

[Catherine]

Thank you all so much! I was given a script when I left the hospital for a nausea med, every 8 hrs. I havent had to take any for the last 24 hrs so I'm grateful for that. My next dilemma, since I'm in CA in some furnished apts affiliated with Stanford, is the extremely hard twin size bed and how to get comfortable!!! What did everyone here do? I read somewhere about memory foam, but how thick?
I took everything they had to give me for constipation in the hospital and actually went on the morning after I was released. Kimberly gave me some great info on that subject, so I'm going to stay on top of it.

Please rest and take it easy and post when you get back to wonderful Wyoming

I'm missing home now, but have to be here until Dec. 4th. Then I'm dreading the flight and the drive. But looking forward to my bed!!

Truly didn't think I would ever have to look pregnant again

[laid up doc]

i've never been pregnant, and definitely looked 5 mo or so when i left the hospital. was much better within a week or so... still feel some fullness from scar tissue but that's improving too.

stay on top of the constipation thing... i was fortunate not to be on narcs before or after, but still was glad to be on colace and miralax, and walking a lot.

what did they send you with for nausea? if it's every 8 hrs, probably zofran?

[Kimberly]

Oh no! There's nothing worse than an uncomfortable bed! The memory foam is a good idea. We bought a "mattress topper" (from Target) for our pull-out couch bed a while back because the mattress was so thin and uncomfortable. Everyone LOVES it. It's SUPER cushy....like a pillow top, but doesn't offer real support. Maybe that might help?

Do try your best to keep things "moving" as best you can. I found that if I let a few days go by without "being productive" it would cause my back and my abdominal incision more pain. Although I was so foggy-headed-tired that I actually had to write down when I went because I couldn't remember! Now THAT'S a lovely journal to keep.

It's nice to "see" you again. Hope you get some good rest tonight.

Take care,
Kimberly

[Kimberly]

Oh.....and LOTS and LOTS of pillows.

I think I slept with like 4-5 pillows in the beginning. They were everywhere (under my knees, under my head, along my abdomen supporting my incision, along my back so I didn't roll too much in my sleep.....)
That was a little like being pregnant too!