4 week mark post-surgery

I can't believe it's been 4 weeks since I had surgery. I feel like I am 60% back to normal, normal being my happy go lucky self prior to this cyst and pain. I feel like I had about 50% nerve pain and 50% lower back pain when this all started last June. The nerve pain is completely gone, the lower back pain still persists. Dr. Fiegenbaum and his nurse, Debbie, both said that the lower back pain may or may not go away. They said it may or may not be related to the meningeal divirticulum or tethered spinal cord. I guess I will just wait and see. I am still on pain meds and wish I could ween off of them, but I still need them for this lower back pain. I am only taking 3 pills a day, I am down 1 from right after surgery. I am sure my body is still healing.

I slipped and fell on ice a few days ago, I landed on my right hand/thigh, went down pretty hard. My right side, lower back hurt for a day or so and that pain is gone. Everything else is pretty much back to normal. I can sit for a good length of time before having to get up and stretch, I can walk, stand, do stairs all fine, bowel/bladder are fine. My only complaint is this persistant lower back pain. I am still happy I went through with the surgery. Only time will tell. I go for my 3-month MRI in March.

3 week post-op appt. ~ January 8th

I am sitting in our hotel in Columbia, MO. Chris and I and the girls went to KC, MO today for the post-op appt. We left at 6:30 a.m. with an expected 4.5 hour drive. My appt was for 12:30, so this gave us an extra 1.5 hours on the road. The side roads were snow covered still and Hwy 70 was pretty clear, with some patchy snow. Lauren had an incident of car sickness on the way to the appt., so between cleaning that mess up and stopping for breakfast and going slower than normal, we showed up at our appt. at 12:31. I met with Debbie, Dr. F's nurse and went over my current state of health. She looked at my incision and said that it looks really good for 3 weeks. I explained that I feel really good, with the exception of lower back pain. The Vicodin seem to cut out my pain 80% or so. They don't know if my lower back pain will get better or not. They said time will tell. They informed me that I need to really watch what I lift and what I do, even if I am feeling better. They cleared me to take tub baths or go swimming. I can drive short distances. Dr. Fiegenbaum came in and said hello and I got some pictures with him and Debbie and even Laura, the clinical coordinator. I will post these sometime soon. I will also try to post my operative reports when I get home. Dr. Fiegenbaum said that I did have a tethered cord and that I had a giant sacral meningeal diverticulum. We got to our hotel and then met up with some friends that moved to Ashland, south of Columbia, the kids got to play at the biggest Burger King play area that I have ever seen, perhaps the biggest one ever built. It was nice to catch up with them. We got back to our hotel and the girls wanted to go swimming. The pool was cold and the hot tub was pretty cool, too. Then we got up to our room after swimming and our heater wouldn't turn off. The girls fell asleep and we ended up having to change rooms. It was miserable. I love being warm, but I can't sleep if I am too warm. The window in our room was iced shut and Chris couldn't open it. We just got to our new room and I am very tired, so I am ending this post. We are heading home tomorrow.

Heading Back to KC? for post-op

My post-op. appt. is this Friday and we are supposed to head back to Kansas City, MO. Physically I am feeling good, especially on my meds. I won't have any problem making the trip, as far as my health. However, we are supposed to get 3-5 inches of snow, according to the news. We opted to wait on making a reservation, just in case. Well, today, I decided I just don't feel like driving out to KC for a 20 min. doctor's appt. What a waste of time and gas. We promised Taylor and Lauren to take them with us this time and get a hotel with a pool. They are super excited. I called Debbie West (Dr. F's nurse/surgical assitant) and asked if I could do the post-op over the phone. She advised me that they really would like to see me in person, if not this Friday, then in a couple weeks or at least at the 3 month mark. The snow we are supposed to receive is supposedly going to be light and fluffy. Does this mean it won't stick to the roads? Needless to say, it is supposed to stop by Thursday a.m., so we have decided to keep our trip as planned and get the post-op. appt. over with and not let down our kids, who think this is the coolest thing ever. Road-trip with mom and dad and an indoor pool. Plus, we have some friends we haven't seen in quite a long time and we wanted to visit with them on our way home. Taylor & Lauren are super-excited about this. Now, if we could only get some warm weather and no snow.

In speaking to Debbie West, she told me that my post-op reports don't show anything alarming. I asked her about the lab of the piece they cut off my spinal cord, Dr. F. thought he was 99.9% sure it was a tethered cord and he sent the piece he cut off for analysis to be sure it wasn't a nerve. It wasn't a nerve it was definitely a tethered cord. So, will post more after our post-op trip in the snow :)

Also, I added a post titled DAY OF SURGERY, it was on Dec. 18th, I wanted to document my day of surgery as I remember it.