Surgery Day

I'm in before midnight. That's a good start. So here's the low-down. The surgery started late and hubby was super SUPER stressed. But his surgeon came and talked to him and that was very nice and reassuring. Surgery ended up being about 4 hours long. When his surgeon came out to give me the update he told me to sit, which is never good thing. He said that it went fine, but they had to go with plan B. Once they got in there, they found that the previous MRSA infection had caused so much damage and so much scar tissue that he couldn't get in there to remove the old cadaver bone (which was acting as a disc.) He also found that the screws in his back were loose which would explain why hubby thought his back was shifting. He was able to maneuver enough to take the pressure of the nerve from the spur. Take out the old hardware, put cadaver bones along both sides of the previous fusion and put new hardware (4 BIG screws) in a slightly different angle to anchor it all down. They treated the new cadaver bone with biomorphic protein first. Not totally sure what that is or what it does, but it sounds high-tech and fancy and very healing. Hubby was able to recover in the recovery unit and not in ICU, so that is good too.

Hubby is now in a room and adjusting to life with a new back. Pain meds are good, and he's still pretty sedated. He did wake up enough to look down and see he had a catheter in. He's not too happy about that. Oh well. I think it's kind of handy 'cause it keeps him tethered to the bed, so he can't go wandering off getting into trouble. I wonder if he'll think I'm funny when he's well enough to read this blog?

I'm kind of hoping that they keep him a couple days longer than expected. I have a room at a motel close to the hospital. It's run by a very nice family, but the rooms are kind of....small and dirty and dorm like. It will totally work. But I'm just hoping that if he NEEDS to stay a day or two longer than expected, then I might NEED to stay at a much nicer hotel...that has room service and air conditioning and doors on the closets.

Also--just so you know, the walls here are paper thin. I know I aimed to be close to the hospital, but every time a helicopter lands there it shakes this place and sounds like they are coming in for a landing on my roof. Ohhh and what's that? A train, again? So soon? Seems they come by AND honk their horns every 5 minutes. Oh my goodness. I was so looking forward to a good night's sleep without restless hubby and without crying babies, or girls that insist on just one more sip of water.

Ok, so back to the real story. Thanks for all the prayers and phone calls, texts and emails. We definitely FEEL the love. I am so thankful that his doctor was able to take things in stride and put him back together. May the healing begin!