My Back Surgery, Part Three

After standing up for the first time, I felt a bit more confident. Later that evening the physical therapists came to my room again and said I was going to try to walk. We went through the ordeal of getting me out of bed again, and I walked out into the hallway. Walking felt strange; I don’t know how to describe it. I felt very unstable, but was able to make it to the end of the hallway and back to my room where I sat in a wheelchair again. It makes sense to me that I felt unstable; my upper body was like a plank now. I imagined it like I was balancing a stick. The stories I had read from other people who had gone through the same surgery made it sound like walking was some extremely difficult ordeal. I didn’t experience it as super difficult. The instability slowly went away over the coming days, and by the time I was ready to be discharged I could even climb stairs.

On Wednesday I walked some more, and that evening I was released from the intensive care unit back to the inpatient ward where I had been before the surgery. I was still mostly bedridden, needing help from physical therapy or nurses in order to get out of bed. But I got out of bed more, sitting in a chair often and occasionally going for walks around the ward. I had my first full meal after surgery. I think it was tilapia, sweet potato fries, and some boiled vegetables. Not having much of an appetite, I remember only finishing the fries and half of the tilapia. Most of the rest of the hospital stay blended together due to monotony. I would walk every so often, play games on my phone, and eat. My mom and I walked outside one of the days, through the outdoor garden/playground area that the hospital had. It was nice to be outside again.

On Friday it was time to be discharged. My surgeon came in with a whole bunch of other doctors. There were probably ten or fifteen crammed in my little room. The nurses had told me earlier that they were going to come in, but I didn’t understand why. My surgeon explained what I was here for, how the surgery went, and how I’m doing. I’m still not sure why they do this, but I guess it’s to get all the doctors up to speed with patients that have been in the hospital.

I was worried about going home; I didn’t feel like I was ready to be on my own. I still couldn’t get out of bed on my own, and I had only been walking for three days. Physical therapy came by in the late morning and demonstrated how to use some assistive devices that they gave me. Among the things they gave me were: a sock aid, a half-cylinder used to put on socks without bending over; a reach extender, a pole with jaws at the end to pick things up from the floor without bending over; and a dressing stick, a pole with a hook on one end and two larger hooks on the other end.

We then went down to a room full of exercise and physical therapy equipment. Treadmills, exercise balls, and a set of four stairs. There are three steps leading to the front door of my house, so physical therapy wanted me to show them I could climb stairs. I was a bit nervous, although less so than I would have been two days ago since I had gained back quite a lot of stability in that time. The stairs had a handrail, so first they had me try to climb them while holding the rail. It was really easy, almost as easy as climbing stairs before my surgery. The physical therapist then had me climb them without the handrail, which felt slightly more precarious but again wasn’t very bad at all.

The head nurse got me ready for discharge by getting all of my prescriptions written, giving me a small supply of each, and giving me a packet detailing all aspects of discharge including when to take my medicine. It was going to be a three hour drive back home, and she recommended we stop after an hour and a half so I could stand up and walk around because sitting for a long time isn’t good for my back. When we got back to my room and started packing up all of our belongings, the nurses suggested we take with some of the hospital pillows to provide back support on the drive home. I’m not sure if it’s official hospital policy to let patients take them, but either way it was a nice gesture. They’ve certainly come in handy. Since it’s very important for my back to be supported, I put a pillow behind me on almost every chair I sit on. You might have seen me carrying my pillow around Uni; that’s why.

Getting in the car was the first time out of the hospital that I felt hopelessly dependent on the hospital staff, and it further reinforced my fear of leaving. Our car is a sedan; it’s low to the ground and there’s not much space to maneuver. Before this I had only sat in chairs that I could position directly behind me, and they had armrests. To get into the car, I had to somehow enter from the side to sit on a seat that seemed dangerously close to the ground. I don’t remember how I got in cars before my surgery, but I do know it was a lot simpler and also not something you can do with a rigid back. My mom ended up going back inside the hospital (luckily we were only in the parking lot) and asking the staff how I should get in the car. Someone came out and demonstrated that I had to sit on the edge of the seat facing away from the car and then turn myself onto the seat. It’s a common theme I’ve experienced after surgery: everything is more complicated.

I wanted to wrap my back surgery series up with this last post. But seeing as I’m already a day late with this one, I think it’s best to just make an extra post later rather than try rushing it in now.