Been awhile...

I have not been keeping up with this blog like I had orginially planned, the last time I wrote was when I had that discogram. Well, since then I have been doing other pre-op stuff to get ready for this adventrure.

I LEAVE ONE WEEK FROM TODAY PEOPLE!!!!

So, Dr. S sends me an email with all the stuff I need to do in a nicely color-coded calendar for easy reading..thank God for that, makes it a lot easier. I also received The Binder. The Binder has everything I need in it that concerns my surgery, the pre-op stuff, the post-op stuff, calendars, business cards for everyone involved in all this, a notepad and even a ruler and hole-punch...Oh yeah, its pretty spiffy. I was told to carry The Binder with me to all appointments and keep anything I receive in The Binder.

So far, I have met all the financial crap for the surgery...the $500 deductible and I have already paid my $4000 maximum out-of-pocket...so that in itself is a relief. I know that I will be 1,492 more bills and stuff, but just since I have all that met, I know everything will work out on its own.

On December 29th I had to go and have a Myelogram done. Let me just say that this is not something that is fun or exciting or easy or anything. IT SUCKED. I am still trying to decide what was worse, the discogram or this Myelogram. They both sucked, but I don't know which one takes the cake. Seriously though, I need to suck it up since they are about to filet my back open and insert all this hardware and all that Hahahaha.

Anyways, they tell me up front all about this Myelogram, what its for, what they will do and what I will feel. Thats all fine and dandy but it still doesn't compare to actually going through with it. They have you lie on your stomach on this table. They inject a needle in your lower back with Lidocaine...burns just like a bee-sting and all that...but then they inject the spinal needle and they have to move it all around to find the right spot and all that good stuff. Now, it wasn't like it was EXCRUCIATING, but it was not pleasant. I could feel pressure from the needle moving around, and brushing up against nerves and stuff. Sometimes, I would feel a sudden, sharp pain go through my leg. Anyways, then they have to inject the contrast dye. I figured it might feel like an epidural - which in that case, you feel an ice cold fluid being injected into your spinal column. Well, it wasn't ice cold, and really all I felt was pressure. Like I could feel it moving itself around my spine. Then, in order to get a good picture of the ENTIRE spine, they tilt that table DOWN and you are tilted almost at a 45 degree angle, head-down. This is to let all that dye flow into the cervical region of your spine and all that. Right when it hits your brain, they tilt you back down to laying level. BUT, you can feel that stuff in your neck and it HURTS, and then when it hits your brain, it REALLY hurts. I can't really explain how bad it hurts. Saying it feels like a bad headache is really underestimating it. As soon as they lay you back level, you kinda don't feel that headache anymore. Umm, I guess it was the whole not ever having this thing done before, and the nerves of how close the surgery is and all that, but I took it rougher than normal. Thats what the guy who did it told my mom anyways. I was crying and I was shaking and it was just not fun. The staff was awesome and caring and stuff, but I might as well had been 5 years old having something like that done. It was just scary.

After that, they wheeled me down to have a CT Scan...that part was easy...

Then the fun part is that you get to lay on your back for 24 hours following when the needle was pulled out of your back. In my case, the needle came out at 9:30AM, so until 9:30AM the next morning, I was to lay flat on my back. I could roll from side to side, but was told to mainly stay on my back. They told me that if I get up and move around, then that dye will flush back into my spine and cause that headache to come back. They really know what they are talking about, let me tell you. I DID follow directions, BUT, I did have to get up to use the bathroom and stuff, and when I did, as soon as I sat up, I felt like my head would explode. I can only describe it as one of those thermometers in the cartoons where the mercury is rising and rising and then hits the top and the top explodes with all that cartoon drama...yeah, thats what it feels like. So I stayed down, and let my mom take care of me, she cut my food up for me, helped me to the bathroom, got me my drinks, AWWWWW, yeah she took really good care of me. It was FRUSTRATING not getting to get up and move around though.

I still had the horrid headaches, no matter how much fluid I drank or whatever. I couldn't get up without hurting, like REALLY bad. I ended up having to take caffeine pills to relieve the pressure on the pulsating blood vessels. Well, those did NOT help my nerves at all. I felt like I was about to crawl out of my skin and my stomach was just in knots. I laid in bed last night with a trashcan hugged to my chest because I just knew I was gonna lose my cookies because of my stomach. Nothing ever happened, and luckily when the Xanax hit, I was smooth-sailing and didn't feel so bad. It was just bad because I have been taking muscle relaxers and stuff to help with the pain, and then Xanax to help with the nerves, and then to take the caffeine pills, it was like they were fighting each other. UGH!!! So this has NOT been a fun week at all. Thank goodness for my grandparents and my mom, they took care of the kids while all this was taking place.

So all the really crappy tests are finished and all thats left is doing all the blood and lab work and then the actual surgery.

We are leaving on January 10th...my best friend [Amber] is gonna be the one sitting in the hospital with me and we have to take her son to her Mom's and drop him off. So we will stay the night at her Mom's on the 10th and then wake up and drive into Dallas on the 11th. January 12th and 13th, I have appointments off and on all throughout the day...surgical discussions, more lab stuff, registering at the hospital, a tour of the hospital, all that good stuff. I guess on the 14th, I am a free woman to sit at the hotel and think about what will take place in less than 24 hours [haha]...then on the 15th, I must be at the hospital at 5:45AM and the surgery begins at 7:30AM. They will sedate me before they take me back into the O.R. which is good, because I do NOT want to see anything that has to do with this surgery. I do NOT want to be coherent when they lay me on that table and strap my arms down and all that like I am about to be executed [haha] Well, I assume they will strap my arms down...they did for my c-section...who knows?

So I am trying to get laundry done...and I have to go to the store to get groceries for all of us while I am at my grandma's recuperating and all that stuff. I have A LOT to do before I leave, and I hope I keep my sanity throughout all of it. I couldn't do this, or handle all this without my AWESOME husband, friends and family...God, what a difference a great group of people make in your life.

I am READY to get this over with!! I am ready to stand tall and have 2009 be the start of a whole new awesome life!! Bring it!!