on Surgery and Silence

My house has been abnormally, nay, eerily quiet the last 19 days. My boys have been staying with their Grandparents appr 765km away, as the crow flies. As I wrote here in "Still Breathing" I have been severly limited in my abilities due to an injury on February 5th 2013. 18 days ago I had surgery to address this.

Post Surgery - Oxygen, and red tape marks. To ensure no accidental movement during surgery, once I was 'out' I was taped down to the table. movememnt during spinal surgery = very bad indeed. Otherwise feeling pretty optimistic

The accident had left me with a calcification growth on one of my vertebrae that was permanently pressing on the nerve that runs along my dominant arm. All fine motor and many repetitive activities leave me in pain that detrimentally affected my sleep and overall functioning. The surgery removed the disc below the vertebra with the calcification, inserted bone grafts in it's place, and then had a plate screwed into the bone to hold it in place until the bones graft. This results in the 'bump' being lifted off the nerve, so it can finally start to heal, and alleviate the pain. there is a risk that because it has been receiving this pressure for 16 months, that the nerve has been 'conditioned' to feel this input and may not recover. Time will tell.

As this is a spinal surgery I have been restricted from any activity requiring any type of physical exertion, and must also be very careful of sudden shifts in posture from being bumped, jostled, hugged etc etc. Any one with young children, and at 8 and 11 my boys are still young however much they may refute that, knows that such care and restraint is a well nigh impossible ask. This is why the boys are staying with Grandma and Grandad for a still undetermined period.

At Home. Many snuggles with Sammie, as well as some territorial challenges. Apparently the sunny spots are hers, until they get too hot at which point I am allowed them. I will be tolerated to share them if she is on top.

The longest the boys have been away previously has been 8 days. this is therefore a significant undertaking for us all.

Yesterday I had my first post surgery consultation with the Orthopaedic Surgeon. he is very pleased with my progress thus far. when we discussed at what point we can look at having the boys home, he shrugged and said it was very much up to me and how I was feeling, pointing out that lifting them or carrying them is out of the question... clearly he has forgotten what monstrously large children I have, what with their age, and their considerably lofty parents... lifting them, except in extreme emergency situations, is already well out of the question.

After Post Surgery Consultation- bandage and stitch removed.

 

The surgeon also pointed out that as the soft tissue is healing well, as long as I do not strain myself in these areas, for the most part the structural aspect of the surgery is actually pretty secure. The risk of damaging that is very low, however it is his business to ensure that this risk stays low, and this is why he counsels for greater caution than is perhaps required. the upshot that I got from all this is that if necessary, it should be OK to have the boys back, however it does increase the risk of something going wrong. Given that the original accident was directly caused by one of the boys, this is a factor that weighs heavily with me.
I miss their presence tremendously.

The fear of their accidentally exacerbating the injury, due to premature return, is very real.