As a lot of you know, Robert had surgery yesterday. It had been a long time coming. He has had a sensitive back for his whole life - scoliosis, slipped discs, etc. In January he was playing intramural basketball and took quite the spill. We've been dealing with it ever since - chiropractor, physical therapy, pain management doctor, x-ray, MRI. It's been a long process, but it seems to be coming to an end. About two weeks before we got married Robert found out that he did indeed have two herniated discs. Since it was just two weeks before our wedding and three weeks til the big move we decided to just ease the pain and work on actually fixing the problem later. He got three epidurals (yes, like ladies get during labor and delivery) and felt significantly less pain, but still had two herniated discs.
Once we moved to North Carolina we decided to get the ball rolling. He knew he need to find a neurosurgeon, per the pain management doctor's request in Bolivar. After searching around to see which doctors would accept Robert's insurance we came across Dr. Eldad Hadar. Per usual, it took awhile to get in to see him as a new patient. When Robert got to see the doctor he confirmed the herniated discs and said surgery would do the trick. Apparently when a back problem is causing problem in your back the surgery isn't usually very successful, but when a back problem is causing nerve problems in other parts of the body the back surgery is 93% successful. Well, Robert's back problem was causing nerve pain on his left side - hip, knee, shin, foot, toes. He had sharp pain, numbness, and tingly-ness. We scheduled the surgery for September 12, and he had a pre-op appointment last week. That all went very well, and we thought we were good to go. Unfortunately, the MRI images that we mailed to UNC Memorial Hospital got delayed and weren't there as of 9/11 a.m. The secretary said they wouldn't be able to do the surgery if the mail didn't arrive by the end of the day. Robert began to get a bit panicky as he had already waited so long for surgery. The images arrived in the mail Tuesday afternoon, so we got the go ahead.
We woke up yesterday morning at 5:00 so we could hit the road at 5:30 and arrive at UNC Memorial at 6:30. The surgery wasn't scheduled til 8:30, so we had some down time for about 2 hours while nurses came in and out to get him prepped. I said goodbye to him at 8:30 and was told the surgery would be 3.5 hours - he'd be out at noon. I still hadn't heard anything at 1:00 so I asked the secretary what was up. She assured me that if anything was wrong they would have contacted me. A little while later the nurse called in and asked for me. She said she didn't know why, but the surgery was going to take extra time. How much longer? Two more hours. I decided to go exploring and found a farmers market in the hospital (It's a HUGE hospital) and Starbucks. I picked up a salted caramel mocha frapappuccino and enjoyed the sun and breeze for a bit.
When I got back to the waiting room I was notified that the surgery was over and I would be able to see him in about an hour. I finally got to meet Dr. Hadar and found out why the surgery lasted 6 hours instead of 3.5 He said nothing went wrong, but it was more intense and detailed than they had expected. Robert had two herniated discs - One between L3 and L4 and one between L4 and L5. The top one was "massive." I don't know exactly how big a "massive" hernia is, but it sounds crazy. Both hernias had a ton of scar tissue around them since they had been irritated for nine months. This caused the hernias to be really latched on to his discs. Because of this he couldn't just take out each one in a big piece. He had to chisel away at them and got the top one out in 40 pieces and the bottom one out in 30 pieces. This obviously made the surgery last a lot longer. It also caused the incision to be significantly larger. It was supposed to be a pea-sized incisions that was to be closed with glue. I would say the incision ended up being 4-5 inches with several stitches.
Once he came to I got to visit Robert for five minutes. He was shocked when I told him it was 3:15. It was also shocked to see that he had an IV in both hands as he had gone to sleep with one in his right hand only. He was also surprised to learn that he had a catheter as that was not planned. The doctor told Robert he had to spend the night in the hospital since the surgery was more intensive than expected. He knew Robert's body would be very tired and sore. Because we hadn't planned to spend the night the hospital had not reserved a room for Robert. He had to wait in the recovery room for three hours while I sat in the waiting room because visiting hours were over. He finally got a room at 6:30 - twelve hours after getting there. He had a semi-private room on the 6th floor of the neuro department.
I got him set up with dinner and his very own scrubs - he was pumped to pretend to be a doctor. I headed home at 7:45 and got home right as Serina pulled in from DC. I'm working today and Serina is taking care of him. He got to leave the hospital about two hours ago. He should be better than ever with some medicine and rest.
Thank you, Jesus, for reminding us that this life is fragile and you are always in control even when things don't go as we had expected.
No comments:
Post a Comment