Spinal Fusion

The hubs had Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion (TLIF) on Monday afternoon.  It was a four hour procedure, so it was a long day.  Which has lead into a long week and a long road to recovery.  First up.  He’s the most stubborn patient ever!  I’m really not looking forward to his stubborn ass coming home.  Just keeping it real.

Monday, the surgery. I took him to the hospital at 1015 to admit him to the hospital, and then around 2, his surgery began.  After they wheeled him back, I ran off to Target, which was a block away, then came back around 3 and waited. And waited.  At 4 pm, I was due an update, but at 430, I still didn’t have one.  So I went up and asked. Everything was going as planned and they just finished putting the screws in.  I waited another hour and half (6 now) and finally the doctor came out and said it was all done and he was in recovery.  Guests are not allowed in the recovery room, so I headed home to get his dad and the kids.  On our way back to the hospital, the nurse called and told us his room and also that he tore his cornea.  We got up to the hospital and he was in a lot of eye pain.  After two hours, they finally brought him in some eye medicine.  We left around 9 because the kids needed to get to bed since they had school the next morning.  Nicks dad stayed with him at the hospital.

Before the surgery…

Before the eye pain meds arrived…

His dad is here and helped him put the eye medicine on.

Tuesday, he slept a lot and claimed to be in minimal pain and didn’t take any pain medication.  He was recording his pain as a 1.  They had him walk to the door once and sit in a chair once.  Then he slept some more.  And more.  I left to go get the kids from school and then went back out so they could chat with daddy.  We only stayed till 5 so we could eat at home, get showers, read stories, and play with toys.  Their week has been rocked and I felt they needed some normalcy, so we left early and didn’t go back.

Wednesday, he was scheduled to come home.  We didn’t get to the hospital until around noon.  The kids and I were ready to leave at 10, but we were waiting on Nick’s dad.  It actually worked out well that he wasn’t as quick to get ready because we were able to eat lunch at home instead of out.  That’s a win during a busy schedule!

He was in pain, recording it at 4-5.  He finally accepted some strong pain medicine and that helped for a short time.  Around 2 his physical therapist came in to take him to the joint room to walk the stairs and get in a pretend car.  Well, here is where everything went wrong.  As Nick walked away, the kids, his dad and I all stayed in the room. As he was walking down the hall to the PT room, he started sweating.  By the time they got to the PT room, he was drenched in sweat!  His gown was drenched.  It was bad!  They got him in the room and sat him in a chair, took his blood pressure, which was 82/66, and he was completely flushed out.  He looked bad!  You see, this man is stubborn. Stubborn as a mule!  He wasn’t eating.  He was drinking.  He wasn’t taking pain meds for the two days prior.  We stayed until 315ish because Sterling had dance. We went back out at 6 and stayed until 930.  Nicks dad stayed with him again. I’m so glad his dad is here and is able to stay in the hospital with him.  Hopefully they are having a good bonding time.

Keeping them occupied…

This girl has some serious peep in her jumps.  Such grace when she jumps!

After dance and trying to encourage him to eat!

Here’s my complaint.  As a nurse, shouldn’t you just know to give someone pain meds after a major surgery?  They WILL obviously be in pain.  Shouldn’t they be required to stay on top of pain control even if the patient is saying there’s no pain?  At least for the first week?  Wouldn’t you make your patient get up and walk 20 feet more than once a day?  How is his body supposed to get used to moving, if they have him laying in a bed all day?!  He’s a bed rat.  He’s not going to say, hey nurse so and so, I need to get out of bed to be moving around.  When he finally did last night, it takes them more than 30 minutes to make it to his room.  It’s ridiculous. 

Today, Thursday, he’s being discharged.  To be discharged, he still had to climb the stairs and sit in a pretend car.  He did it, but I wasn’t there to see how he did standing up.  Then he also needs to be able to shower before leaving.  He’s at the hospital currently as I wait for his text saying his shower is complete and his IV is out.  The kids have an hour left of school, so I’m guessing they’ll be able to finish that hour off and then we’ll head out and hopefully not wait all afternoon.

Xander has soccer practice tonight and I’m really hoping he don’t have to miss it.  He’s so excited and this would be 0/3 if I can’t get him there on time.  He would be crushed!  Hoping discharge won’t take too long. 

I’m curious to see how Nick does coming home and climbing all the stairs to get up to the room.

How do you deal with a stubborn husband?  I may need a vacation from this long road of his recovery!

Have a great day!