surgery (aka gimpy no more!)

hallo everyone!!!! sorry it has been so long since i posted but i have been rather busy. a week ago tuesday, may 13th, was my surgery. i have to admit to being completely freaked out by the prospect but i'll do something before recounting the tale that i generally hate: give away the ending. it was a great success!!!!! i feel so much better it is not funny!!! yes, my back hurt a lot at first - it was cut into after all, but that shooting nerve pain down my leg and across my back that made it impossible to walk or stand up straight or enjoy life in any way is gone. hasta la vista, baby. yippee!!!!! all the numbness and pins & needles in my foot and leg were gone immediately after surgery. then they came back, but that is normal. it was actually freaking me out, but the same day that i got confirmation from the doctor (again) that is was indeed completely normal was the day they seemed to start going away. coincidence? i think not. it takes a while for things to settle down with the nerve is what i was told.

anyway, my surgeon, dr. blumenfeld, said he had never seen a disc herniate in quite the way mine had. even though i heard this afterwards, when it was clear that the surgery had been a success, i have to say... it's still not something you want your surgeon who has done over 1,000 back surgeries to say to you. i can't really explain well in writing just how it was different, apart from the direction it took upon herniating was obviously bizarre, so i won't even try. the other way it was different was that a piece of the extruded disc (the jelly-ish inner disc stuff that had herniated out through the tough outer disc) had broken off and migrated to the nerve root so that the nerve was getting pinched from two directions - from that little piece and from all the crap extruding from the disc. poor little nerve!!!! there was no way that was going to get better on its own so i am really happy i didn't bother with the epidural cortisone shot. i'd have ended up needing surgery once it wore off and it would have been two to four more weeks of fucking around beforehand.

i am so happy that i had surgery!!!!!!!!!!!! fifty years ago i'd have ended up a cripple in constant pain (or an addicted cripple in constant pain), and that's no exaggeration, so let's hear it for medical science and science in general!!!! i don't care what those flat-earther "intelligent design" folks say: science is our friend!!!! it's funny, that, because it seems to be the protestant "born again" denominations (in the u.s. anyway) that have problems with science. the official stance of the catholic church re: science and faith is that they are totally compatible, because science helps us better understand God's creation. it took a couple thousand years but is some ways my church is downright civilized. :)

but i digress...

i was pretty freaked out going in, barely slept the night before because of pain, and cried at least three times on the way to the hospital. my poor husband is all i can say. once i got checked and was being cared for by the pre-surgery nurses that all changed. they gave me painkillers and valium (i was so thankful for the valium i started laughing and saying thank you at the same time) and by the time they took me out to the operating room i wasn't really caring much what happened. i mean, i did care, of course but i wasn't anxious about it. the anesthesiologist, dr. kennedy, was very nice, explained things to me, told me how i was going to be put on my tummy and showed me the thing they were going to put my face on, even pressed it on my face so i'd know what it was like. dr. blumenfeld said hi from the other side of the operating table, which i wasn't on yet (they knocked me out for that, merciful creatures!), then dr. kennedy told me he was giving me a shot to help me relax and the next thing i knew i was in the recovery room! i had been freaked out about the general anesthetic, and i realized later that i was freaked out about knowing it was coming. i had envisioned what you see in all the movies... the mask coming down over your mouth and nose and being told to count backwards from ten. the way dr. kennedy did it was perfect because i had no idea he was starting to put me under with that shot.

so, i've been home since a week ago wednesday, may 14th. the nurses, everyone in fact, at good samaritan hospital were fantastic!!!! i've never been in the hospital when i've been really sick or debilitated before and they were just awesome! i felt so cared for. i hope you never do, but if you happen to herniate your disc in the san jose area and need to see a neurosurgeon, i highly recommend dr. blumenfeld and good samaritan hospital. the first two days home were kind of rough but drew and my sister, lucy, took very good care of me, and after that it started to get a lot better. by sunday i was able to get in and out of bed by myself. i'm able to take walks (in fact i am supposed to take frequent short walks) and have even taken solo walks around the block. the walks with drew are a lot more fun, but the poor guy has to go to work sometime. only bummer with the walks around the block is that unless i take it during the middle of the day i can't take zinger with me. i took one around 5 pm and that was a mistake in that she and baby, a little dog in the neighborhood, started barking at each other and i realized were zinger and a dog she might actually get into with would be a disaster, because i couldn't reel her in or intervene. won't make that mistake again. luckily during the day nobody's dogs are out, since they're at work.

that kind of brings me back to my big pet peeve about santa cruz and dogs: many people think leashes are optional and fireworks are mandatory. don't ask me why because for the life of me i can't figure it out.

in other news, i finished in two days a sensational book, lonely werewolf girl, by martin millar. you simply must read this book - it's hilarious!!!! and the chapters are all of three to four pages long, so even though it's about 230 pages you just rip through it. the short chapters kind of remind me of another of my favorite books, the serial, a year long tale of life in marin county in the seventies. it might be thirty years later, but a lot of things about marin, not to mention the bay area, have not changed one bit. :)

i also got some very pretty flowers. i forgot to take a picture of the ones from mom & dad while they were looking good, but i got these from lucy & laurence:





















and these from kendra and andy:





















THANKS!!!! and i got cards from arlene & don, christie & david & evelyn, and i know i'm forgetting someone else but drew is ready to throw me out of this chair, so i'll get you later. promise.

happy to see you all again.
(((((hugs)))))
anne