Thanks for all the caring responses, folks. The one thing I begged my Dr for prior to surgery was to have little to no pain, and as I expected him to say, he said, “nope, not gonna guarantee it. In fact, you’ll be in a lot of pain.”
Well, from the moment of the nurse waking me up from what I call “the best sleep ever”, it has hurt. Next day the physical therapists were at bedside at 7am, wanting me to “go for a stroll”. I gave it the college try for one step, and said no way. My entire trapezius area to my lower scapula shoulder blades felt like a WW2 blow torch was three inches away, at full flame. Crazy pain.
Was I constantly pushing on the pain pump button that injected a pre measured amount of delloted into my ivy? You bet! What sucked, though, was on the 3rd morning, less than 48 hours from the surgery, my surgeon came in and yanked out the pump, the leak hose out of my incision, and ordered the nurse to yank the catheter. I swear it was like pulling teeth to ask for pain relief, and I let them know about it. Now, I’m expected to “maneuver” on a hospital bed made for an average height/build person(I’m 6’3”, 255 lbs) to try and afix my serpent into a 45 degree urinating tank without spilling. No way. Mad a mess.
Compalained and asked back possibly for the catheter to be reinserted, but instead they used a “condom style catheter” . Long story short, what was promised to me of being leak free comfort didn’t happen, as at 3am that next night it blew right off and turned my room into a swamp.
With all that I was going thru, and the pain of anchors and rods drilled into my neck, I ended up calling my wife in tears, asking her to help get me transferred to the rehab facility for Sutter in Roseville, CA.
Im under better, more personalized care here. Really a top notch place, but there truly is no place like home. So, this coming Thursday I’ll be released, and before this surgery my wife and I prepped our home for my recovery- toilet bidet from Home Depot, a shower chair from goodwill, a specialty bracket that mounts to your bed frame to assist in pulling me up, toilet seat height extender, and a walker. Also invested in a three motor specialty recliner that’ll take you from fully flat all the way to standing you straight up to get out of the chair.
Thanks, again, all. This is a great community. I swear by that. You all be good, and after I’m all healed up and can remove this neck brace in 12 weeks, I’ll be back doing what I love best, and that’s this here crazy Airgun hobby!