hi guys
thanks for your kind words and advice
wend not sure if you read one of my post but when my surgeon cut through he said my nerves was that bad that they were bleeding plus iv'e had compression for a couple of years that's what scares me he said i may never work again also my other side was just as bad i know i sound negative i just thought each day i would see and feel a little improvement i understand the healing is long like he said 12 months before the fusion will be healed im probably just having a bad day emotion my eldest son is off to magaluf tomorrow so of course i'll be worried about that but im gonna be in a brighter mood tomorrow like you have said it doesn't matter about the house being untidy it's just i get that feeling sometimes like why me if the first discectomy worked things would be different but i ended up having second now fusion all in the space of 4 months the lump in breast has not gone down so they have said if by next week it hasn't gone then i need to get it checked out.
but POSITIVE thoughts that's all i need to think and thank goodness for me having a very good friend she will help me.
my next post will be a good one im not gonna post till i feel some improvement.
love you all and thanks and i hope you all are as pain free as possible.
clare xxxxxxxx
Hi Clare
Oh dear!! Advice sounds very much like I was telling you what to do. I wasn't I was just making some suggestions which you might not have thought of and which may help. I do however, still think that thinking of improvements in weeks instead of every day would be more satisfying, at least I found it so. It's a bit like weighing yourself weekly when on a diet not every day!!
It will be lovely if your next post is a good one because you deserve some good news. However, do not let it stop you writing on here and having a good moan. This is the place where you can do it without upsetting the family. If I need to I shall have a good moan for you to all to listen to in August/September!!!
I am sure you think why did I mention my hysterectomy - there is no comparison. In some ways no but in others yes. I was in hospital 10 days and it was the full monty with a huge scar running right down my front. I was on blood transfusions and drips and tubes from my tummy, , and when I came home I was pretty low and then developed infections internally. I had to stay off work four months. So the hospital op and coming home bit I think I can understand well.
I have had some good news (and I suppose some bad news). Tracy the sister who interviewed me for my pre-op very kindly phoned me to tell me that my results showed I do not have stage three kidney disease as found by MRI in October and January. This is good news as it means I can take some of the large list of drugs (with care) that have been forbidden. I should be able to have a few NSAIDs around op time. The bad news - well I went to physio yesterday after my holiday and her holiday and my right leg is bad - as I knew. It is worse than when she started with me and I cannot now raise it above half an inch from the bed or from the floor when I am sitting down. Anyway at least I appear to be fighting fit(!!) for the op - the anaesthetist does not want to see me before admission, my kidneys for whatever reason are much, much better and even my psoriasis has calmed right down. Roll on the op!!
love, Angela
hi angela
that's great news, i too i some good news only a little improvement my left leg is still numb but i feel in leg wise that i have done too much running there just tiring, i found it a bit easier getting out of bed and mentally i feel more positive i suppose i have a lot of muscle wasting in legs so the more i walk even with zimmer the more i can build strength up i know realise the house is the last priority my recovery is far more of a priority .
im so happy angela that your kidney's are ok and pre-op was ok too all now you need is a successful op.
love always clare xxxx
Hi All!!
Hope you are all well......Be great if you coudl all give me a brief update as to how you all are.
Im still pretty good, 27 days till my holiday which i cant wait for, been working all the hours god sends to buy a new wardrobe of clothes for the wife, kids....oh and me! lol
Love to you all!
Rob xx
Hi everyone well had good day yesterday I managed to reduce morphine today had to go back up but feeling very good this evening also I've been in bed for a few hours and I found it easier getting out of bed to go to loo. Hoping tomorrow will be a better day I don't care now if I need to stay on morphine as long as it helps with pain then that's all that matters I know I'll get there eventually. Angeles I got my son to hoover for me today and he did good job my mum called today and sorted all clean clothes so I won't trip in bedrooms. Rob stop rubbing it in only joking hope you have great holiday you've worked hard for it. Love clare
hi
woke this morning and getting out of bed a lot easier reduced my morphine so let's see i hope it carries on can't wait to come off the stuff.
hope everyone is ok wend youv'e not posted recently i hope your ok.
angela hope your pain isn't too bad.
and as for you rob well just keep counting them day's till your lay by pool you lucky devil.
and em hope your recovery is continuing to be good.
Hi Clare
Very good news. Great about your morphine too though you must go back on on bad days. That is in about a week from leaving hospital. You will probably be completely off it by the end of week 2. As you say as long as you get there in the end.
Things here much the same. Do not know if I said that we now have the new (well new to us) car. We had a peugeot 207 2 door before which however improved I am after the op bearing in mind I have arthritis as well will probably not do in the future. We now have a Peugeot 308 estate car which is great with the wheelchair and much more comfortable for me.
Yesterday I had four friends round for lunch. We were all teachers together and now we have lunch every two months on a rota basis. It was my turn last time and they would not come and skipped me, but I really felt I wanted to do it before the op. It went fine - Peter had vacuumed round for me and done the bathroom and I had just to dust and prepare a very instant salad type meal from M&S. I was however, totally shattered when they went home and just lay on the settee whilst Peter did all the washing up. He is good to me.
I slept round the clock. Well not really - we had tea and fresh heated wheat pads at 2 am, and then fresh pads again around 5 am, then tea and tablets at 7am and up at 9.30 am. But for me that was not bad. It was not just getting lunch ready and carrying one thing at a time out of the kitchen to the table, I am finding since the tablets I am fine on a one to one basis but as soon as there is anything approaching a crowd I really get tired and cannot concentrate. One of the reasons I do not go to art society at present.
Going to sit out of the balcony of our flat and do very little today.
love, Angela
Hi Clare
Sorry not been in touch but not been feeling too good and I tend to go into myself when I am like this. Found out yesterday that the GP hadn't sent my form for a scan last week as his computer went wrong. I was not happy as have felt so rough I was hoping to have a scan soon, but one good thing I have now lost 1 stone 10lbs in 3-4 weeks. I just cannot face food and if I do eat I get terrible pain. Still it has settled a bit over the last 24 hours and I managed to eat a tuna sandwich yesterday yippee 🙂
I am glad to read you are doing a little better. Also don't panic about the morphine, I am still taking it two years later and just adjust my dose to the amount of pain I am in. If you need extra support getting out of bed occ health have bed rails. They are only small but I use mine to help me sit up, I do still need hubby to help on bad days but find it invaluable at night when I have to get up.
Speak soon love Wend xxxxxx
hi all
wend sorry to hear your still poorly and they hadn't sent your form off.
well sorry to report im not doing so good just seem to be getting worse the other day i thought i'd try and reduce my oxynorm but next day i was again don't need to say, went to my gp yesterday she told me to stick to 20mls even if i feel one day my pain doesn't seem so bad she said my fusion wasn't a bog standard one as of how long it took plus my face and chin she said the theatre staff up top should of known of what was happening to me herself and district nurse both think i should look in to it, another negative my breast lump which nurse in hospital noticed my gp is referring me she doesn't like the feel of it and says ill need biopsy because i don't check for lumps we don't know weather it was there before:confused:
love clare xx
Hi Clare
I am absolutely flabbergasted that someone can have your bad luck. I think that your GP is right to send you for a biopsy and we will all have to pray that the outcome is good. I think now you are worse your GP (as Wend has said) it is obviously too early to come off the morphine - there is no rush you obviously were doing quite well with it.
I am slightly less sure whether you should take the question of your op further. What always irritates me is that many GPs attack hospital doctors who in turn attack them. You were very happy with your surgeon. What exactly are they suggesting - perhaps that when he got into the op he found complications and when it took so long he should have stopped halfway. Also that the theatre staff should have noticed . The area on your body where it is would have been covered. OK there was your chin but perhaps it was not so noticeable until in recovery and the ward. Everyone said they had never seen anything like it and it could well be an allergy to the anaesthetic and the fact you were so run down before the op. It is always easier for the medical profession to pontificate when they were not actually there. Anyway that is obviously just my view.
How is your body and chin. Is that now fading? I do hope so.
Had a really bad cold yesterday plus a vicious attack of diarrhoea - goodness knows what caused that so spent the day in dressing gown alternating between bathroom, bed and settee. Feeling better today though a little fragile.
love Angela
hi clare, you sound to be doing well considering what you've had done, i,m really happy for you:) really sorry to hear you still have that lump after everything you've gone, and still are, going thru', i really hope it's not serious. i have'nt been on here for a few days but nothings changed, and i'm still waiting for my mylegram!:mad:
take care, love, daveyam xxx
Hi Clare - and the others!
Just to let you know I am thinking of you. Not a good place to be I realise, and hope your recovery progresses in the right way.
Have you asked for an urgent review of your support from the care services? Sending in a form may just put you on an assessment list which may take several weeks to get to the top. You need to make a fuss in order to get help through your GP, District Nurse and/or anyone else you can think of. If you get nowhere ask the CAB who to go to. It is grossly unfair to be left on your own having had such a massive op after such a short time, in fact I'd say it is detrimental, as you will be tempted to do things, like climb out of bed without assistance, when having someone to help could avoid some further damage. Relying on friends should not be an option. If it were me I'd be shouting at everyone! - If you don't ask you don't get! I had to do this for my stepfather and in the end they were wonderful. Oh, and get someone from SS to help you fill the form in because if you don't use the "right" words you fail to get any help (my and others' experience :eek:).
I hope you are taking some supplements to help your healing. When the body has been, and still is, under such enormous stress, its use of vitamins and minerals is sky-high. Without extra support your recovery period will be prolonged for sure.
May I suggest a multivit/min like [url]this one[/url], (a high B vit multi with lots of extra support needed for recovery [url]see here[/url]) and certainly some extra [url]vitamin C and zinc[/url] (3000 C, 45 Zn in divided doses/drinks) to aid immune function and healing and reduce scar tissue, plus fish oil eg [url]this one[/url], which is needed for the structure of every cell in the body, but especially nerve cells. Extra B vits in the above multi supplement will help natural nerve regeneration. The doctors won't recommend any supplements because they aren't trained in their use. Some useful reading here and here
Your food intake will be totally inadequate to supply what your body needs, even if everything you eat is 'healthy'. Juicing over and above what I have suggested will also help, it is a faff but well worth it (drink immediately or freeze and consume as it melts).
As for your breast lump - I would suggest it is a cyst (probably with fluid in it like I had) as a result of being on your front in one position for so long, and probably the least of your worries. It may go down on its own anyway.
All the very best. Keep us updated, won't you?
Hi clare
How are you today? We get worried when we do not hear from you. Now you are back on the morphine are things a bit better again. It is not quite so hot and sticky today and I find that helps - though do not for a minute think I am decrying summer.
love Angela
I just read this story and really feel sorry for you. I hope you recover well. One thing I couldn't stop thinking about is whether the surgeon was experienced? Looks like he botched your first two surgeries and the fusion took longer and was complicated. You obviously don't feel much better and I think you should have since the success rates of all these surgeries is much higher. A lot of surgeons are quite established but that that does not mean they are very good. I hope you recover but if you continue to have problems I hope you see a different surgeon because obviously this one doesn't seem to know what he is doing.
hi angela
first of all thank you caroline for your advice and support and to you daveyam
well iv'e been doing too bad the last couple of days im taking gp's advice to stick on the oxynorm and the dose even if i feel a bit better because it is early day's and like we have all said it wasn't a run of the mill fusion, and iv'e got it in my head now that it is gonna take time.
as for lump well im very sore and tender as i am in a lot of places still so hopefully it's nothing to worry about.
thanks to you all for the care and support xxxxx