10 days post op

 I’ve been wanting to post an update for a few days now but it has been so up and down that I guess I’ve been waiting for the right time. Kind of wanted to experience some “wins” so I could post some good with the bad. I like balance!

Overall it was a good week. Hard to believe Halloween has come and gone. Alex took the kids out to trick or treat in the neighborhood and my sister and brother in law brought my nephew over and joined them. I also was able to visit with my sister in law and niece a couple of times this week too. How lucky am I!?! There is just something so fun about loving on nieces and nephews - especially since my own kids are far past the baby and toddler stage. 

Skye dressed as Wednesday Addams this year and loves to paint so she painted this scene on her pumpkin!

She is also obsessed with Taylor Swift so she needed a pumpkin also 

Aidan took Charli to trick or treat at chick flick a. They were giving out dog treats

Only picture of myself for Halloween. Had to get into the spirit at least a little!

Charli wasn’t so sure about the Colinsaurus Rex

Ok so now for the update - I’m 10 days post op now - things are going as expected I guess. I won’t have my first post op appointment for another week so I’m going off of what the drs told me while I was inpatient. 

Recovery from spinal fusion is not an easy one for sure and I’ve had a lot of surgeries to compare it to. The pain level at best gets down to a 5/10 but tends to hover around a 7 or 8 if I move at all. I was sleeping on the recliner up until Tuesday night. It was easier to get in and out of on my own and I’m all about independence as much as possible. Sometime in the middle of the night on Tuesday night/ early Wednesday morning I had another seizure episode and as I was coming out of it (but before I was able to talk or function at all) I knew I was alone and it really put me in panic mode. I tried to call out and yell for Alex but no sound would come out and it was like my whole body was paralyzed. It took almost an hour before I was aware of my surroundings enough to get up and make my way to my bedroom (to Alex) and ask him to help me get into the bed because I was too scared to be alone. I think that was around 3 or so in the morning. 

If you think it’s scary to be woken up to your kid staring at you from the side of the bed in the middle of the night you definitely don’t want to be woken up by your spouse staring at you while crying (with a walker by the way). It would make a good scene from a horror film. Not sure Alex was able to fall back to sleep that after that surprise wake up call. Sorry babe.

So about the walker… PT and OT saw me in the hospital and made me bring a walker home to use because I have deficits in my left leg and foot. I’ve got something called drop foot and am not able to clear the ground well when I try to walk. I had this leading up to surgery as the severity of my vertebrae displacement progressed but we were hoping it would be gone after surgery. The drs feel that it is likely due to inflammation and compression of my nerves but we are kind of in a “wait and see” period. As of right now I can not feel most of my left leg from my knee down to my toes. They put me on IV steroids while I was still in the hospital and then continued with oral steroids when I came home but so far no change. 

So those are some of my negatives just to try to keep it real but I want to follow up with some positives because it’s important for me to focus on the good things! 

•I’ve figured out how to get my pain to a manageable level for the most part which enables me to rest when I need to and will ultimately help my body heal. 

•I’m starting to walk short distances in my house without the walker as long as I have something I can hold onto - a wall, the couch, etc. This allows me a little more freedom to be able to get myself a drink or whatever when I want to. 

•I have been SLEEPING! This is the biggest one as I had not slept more than 2-3 hours at night in months due to my pain with my fractured and slipping vertebrae. My longest stretch of sleep was almost 6 hours. Thank you God! I missed my pain med dose that night and it took a long time to catch up but it was well worth it. 

•I have been setting small (like REALLY tiny) goals for myself every day to get that sense of accomplishment and that has been helping me stay in a more positive mindset. Any tiny step forward is a win though and I know they will add up. I do still get really frustrated and grumpy (just ask my kids 😬) but I am trying…

•I don’t know about all of you but since we are past Halloween I feel like I am well within my rights to watch Christmas movies now. So far I have tried to watch 4 different movies with the kids and I fell asleep every single time. 😂 oops. I’ll keep trying - I love Christmas movies! 

That pretty much covers the basics. My support system has been amazing and I’m so thankful for every one of you. I’ve felt very loved and cared for this week and for the past couple of months since this nightmare started and it means so much to me and to Alex and the kids too. 

Skye has a specialist appointment today so I may post another update but it probably won’t be for a few days. It will be my very first trip out of the house since I came home a week ago so I’m nervous how it will all go.