Hi Farrah,

Sorry once again to hear you may need abdominal surgery when you was not expecting it as well as your back surgery on 17th November. I am feeling ok about my surgery so far accept for one thing how they put you to sleep as I dont want them to use gas and mask, how did they put you under with all your surgeries Farrah if you dont mind me asking.

Nick {2009}

Hello....unfortunately, I am not a good person to ask about my outcome from the Fulkerson.  I developed RSD/CRPS which is a very very painful medical condition.  Since my surgery in January 2008, my knee/leg feels worse than ever.  Long story short, I have had a spinal cord stimulator implanted to help with the RSD pain in my leg.  It's like a pacemaker, but for the nerve pain.  There are many others on this website that have had Fulkersons that have only had minor problems and also some around that came out perfectly from the surgery!  It's always hard to compare. 

After my spinal cord stim implant last November (2008), I had it removed b/c MRSA developed at one of the two incision sites on my low back.  So on Tuesday, Nov 17th, I will be back in the OR to get another stim and hopefully no infection! 

Update for all my KG friends that have been here with me since almost the beginning....

Had my pre-admin appt on Tuesday and all tests came back normal. 

Saw my Gi specialist on Monday for my abdominal pain.  She put me on two new meds...one for acid reflux and the other helps with constipation.  haven't started either of them yet b/c one needs a pre-authorization from the MD and the other has to be started on Sunday.  The one for constipation apparently works very quickly.  So my MD suggested hanging out by the bathroom for the full first 24 hours of taking the med.  She also said maybe to put newspapers between your bed and the bathroom in case you don't make it!  Scary, so she suggested waiting until Sunday to start.  My GI also scheduled me for a HIDA scan with an injection to search for potential gallbladder problems.  The scan was suppose to be on the 15th of Nov, but since I will only be out from surgery for a week then, I may not be capable of driving myself there and handling moving around at the facility.  The idea for my abdominal pain is to try to rule out as much as possible before considering exploratory surgery.   I will follow up with her on the HIDA stuff and new meds after Thanksgiving...probably schedule the test during that week. 

After speaking with my neurosurgeon's nurse, I now understand more of the differences between this implant surgery/procedure compared to the original one.  I will have a lot more pain than last time for a lot longer period of time.  They suggested 2-6 weeks off work.  After the first follow up appt after surgery, they will let me know of how much longer I have to stay out of work.  So for now, I told my office out for 4 weeks...and they are fine with it.  My office will not let me back without a doctors release.  I also am trying to get out of wearing those stockings for preventing blood clots....they material that they are made of affects my skin really badly!  I scratch like crazy and will get more eczema spots all over me b/c of it.  The eczema is still worse from the July 29th surgery!  Struggling with getting it under control, but getting there.  My dermatologist has suggested trying Zyrtek for the nightly itching, but after two nights, it's not helping yet.  I was told to continue the two topical meds that I have been on since the last appt. 

Well that's it for now.  I can't wait for pain relief, but it could be up to 6 weeks after surgery that I can continuosly use the stim.  They want you to wait for the healing to be mostly better.  They said it could take 10 days-several weeks before I can start using it.  They will be programming it while I am in the hospital so that it will be ready for use after 10 days. 

OMG, big surgery on Tuesday!!!!!  Getting more nervous than excited since I know it will not provide pain relief immediately like the last scs implant.  If I knew I was coming out of there with leg pain relief, I would totally be excited and better at tolerating the surgery pain.  I am trying to communicate with my doctor about taking this ice machine with a back wrap that I was given from the last surgery.  It's like the Iceman/game ready. It's a blue cooler with a thick hose connected to the wrap.  So ice water constantly is flowing through the wrap.  I would like to use this device in the hospital if they allow.  I am also asking if I should take my walker for after surgery.  I have been tolerating walking with a cane on short distances and dropped the walker a few months ago (maybe 2mos).  The walker was very helpful though with the back surgery and leg pain.  So I imagine they will agree that I can use it until the surgery pain is gone. 

My jewelry party is on Saturday from 2-5!!!  I have made 100s of jewelry in the last few months...and probably spent $700-800 in the last 6 mos on beads.  For now, I have a list of about 8-10 friends that may be coming to the party.  I plan to have some snack foods, free lesson on making a few pieces, and jewelry purchasing.  Matt will help me get the house cleaned and set up for the party.  I have also updated my website if you want to see 100 new items that have been added.  www.dropshots.com/jazzyjewelry      Let me know what you think!!   I still have about 10 more pieces that I want to create and take pics of before the party...I have also made about 6 since updating the website...so may be busy after work tonight through tomorrow morning.  The website will be updated one more time before the party.
 
Okay, it's almost 1am here and I am trying to get sleepy and go to bed again....woke up to scratching my eczema (so put the itch cream on).  Have a good weekend all!

Farrah

Hi Farrah and Clarkey:  Farrah I hope your party is fun today and it gets your mind off things for a little while anyway.  Both of you will do great next week and will be on the road to recovery.  I know it has been a long road for you Farrah but you are still moving forward and that's what matters.

Diane

Hi Farrah,

I hope your surgery went ok yesterday and went smoothly and was successful and now on the way to recovery, was thinking of you yesterday as I now know what its like to have surgery.

Nick {2009}

Glad to hear it Farrah, post when you can.

Hi Friends, Some of you guys wanted an update on how everything went this week with my surgery on Nov17. I arrived at the hospital at exactly 5:30am and checked in. I only had a to wait a few minutes to get to the pre-op area to prep for surgery. Matt was in the pre-op area with me. I was very nervous, but also fairly relaxed. I guess I knew that it would be worth it once it was over! My BP and heart rates were very high and asked me if I was nervous or in pain...both!

Anyway, for this surgery prep, I was actually talked to or producing lab samples up until they rolled me to the OR. For the last surgery, I sat there for an hour waiting. So it was nice not to have to wait...kept my mind off of it. The anesthesiologist, my surgeon, the OR nurse, the Medtronic rep (the company that makes my implant) all visited me about 10mins before they took me up. It was a crazy ride down to the OR b/c I passed so many doctors and nurses waiting for their patients...so they were all staring at me. Once I was in the OR, I got my sedative and the general anesthesia. Next thing I knew, I woke in recovery. I woke up in a ton of pain despite injecting dilaudid and other meds into my IV. So the recovery nurse set me up with a PCA morphine pump to press every 8mins. I eventually calmed down and was just laying there quietly. There was a shortage of beds, so I had to wait in recovery for 5 hrs...10am-3:00pm. Since Matt was waiting for me in the lobby, they let him visit twice for 5 mins each. I wish they'd let him stay longer, but I guess rules are rules.

Towards the end of the recovery waiting, I had to pee very badly! My doctor wrote on my instructions that I wasn't allowed to get on my feet until Wednesday around 8am. That was so frustrating! So they finally found a private room for me and rolled me up. Well some miscommunication allowed me out of bed to use the RR...so finally got some relief. I did this twice before the nurse actually read the notes herself and found out I wasn't suppose to be out of bed. So then she made me use a bed pan!!! Never had used one before! It's hard to let yourself pee in your bed! So I sat there for an hour without emptying my bladder! The bed pan was pushing against the generator that was just implanted in my back. Anyway, this nurse was not very nice and went out to the nurse station and was complaining about me...said I was uncooperative, that I was a big girl and shouldn't have a problem, and some other things. I was so angry! Then it was time for a shift change and I liked the new nurse better. She actually understood the difficulty of peeing in a bed pan for the first time. She had some tricks to get my mind to allow me to do it. So from then on, I had to pee every 1-1.5hrs!!! It was so awful how often I had to pee. I didn't get any sleep Tuesday night at all. I would take a very short nap until I had to pee again. The nurse never gave me a hard time at how often I had to pee and have her assistance setting it up. Almost every time she came in to help, she had to adjust some meds and check stuff anyway. I couldn't wait to get out of the hospital. This nurse couldn't believe that they didn't hook me up to a Foley Catheter so I wouldn't have to worry about peeing! It's so hard to have to worry about that when it's difficult to move around and such. It was driving me nuts that every 1hr I had to pee urgently!

My nurse from the night shift was very concerned that my resting heart rate averaged about 110 beats per minute. She called my doctor in the middle of the night about the "problem". Sometimes it was getting as high as 140! The doctor instructed her not to worry about it b/c it's probably from the meds and bad pain. Eventually the heart rate problem will have to be responded to. It doesn't matter when my heart rate is calculated b/c it's always over 100 resting or not.

Anyway, the next morning i was finally allowed to get out of bed...about 8am. The nurse tech came in and helped me to the restroom and wanted to freshen up my room. So she instructed me to sit in the nearby chair in my room while she changed my bed sheets and such. Breakfast was also served around this time. So she helped me set up to eat my breakfast at the table, changed my sheets, helped me change my gown, etc. She was very understanding and I was finally comfortable since I could move around out of bed. After a few more hours, my doctor came in to check on me and discharge me. I was still on the morphine pump every 8mins until discharged. When the doc came in, he took a look at my back and asked me how I was doing. He went over my meds that I had at home already and added a few more to help with the post op pain. For some reason, my normal meds just don't help with post op pain. So he added Toradol (strong NSAID), phenergan (anti-nausea), and Cipro (antibiotic to prevent infection). These meds were added to my Cymbalta, vicodin, MS Contin (long acting morphine), Nucynta (strongest pain med), Sonata (for sleep help), Flexeril (muscle relaxer), Seasonique (BC), Lisinopril (hypertension/BP), and Zyrtec (allergy med that dermatologist recommended trying for my eczema itch). My GI specialist prescribed two new meds to add to these, but I have chosen to hold off until my post op pain improves. One of them is Kapidex (acid reflux type med) and the other is Amitiza (laxative b/c of all my meds that I am on). I also use two topical meds for my eczema.

Before we left the hospital, I called my coworker that was in the hospital also from his motorcycle accident on Friday (nov 13). I let him know that I didn't feel up to visiting him since it was a long walk from my room and I was still so tired from all of the meds. He understood and wished me luck with my recovery.

Anyway, so once I left the hospital, we did drive-thru Arbys since neither Matt nor myself had eaten lunch yet. We stopped by the pharmacy which was overflowing with cars at 1:15pm!! So we went home and later matt took care of my meds for me. I spent about an hour organizing all of my meds in my weekly containers...can't get them confused or anything could happen! So I organize them in those containers labelled M-Su to help stay organized. For a few weeks, I will be taking morning, mid day, mid afternoon, and nightly meds. So I need a new container to include all of that.

Today I had to make a few phone calls to different doctors to give updates and to ask for med changes or rescheduling appts. I had to call my pain doctor for adjustment of my vicodin if they allow me to take it with Nucynta. I called my neurosurgeon to get a stronger muscle relaxer and to be sure that they filled out the short term disability papers that Matt faxed to them yesterday. I also had to call my Gi specialist to reschedule the HIDA scan from Tuesday of next week to Dec 10th. I am not allowed to drive until my first post op appt with my neurosurgeon.

They gave me so many restrictions! I am not allowed to reach for things whether up high or in front of me. No driving, no moving my shoulders around much, and some other things. Any breaking of these instructions could cause the implant to shift and require more surgery! So it's important that I listen. My first post op appt is Nov 30th. At this appt, they will set up my stimulator and I will be allowed to start using it. They will also examine my back to make sure it's all healing nicely. I was allowed to take the bandages off today and take a shower, but the soreness was too much to do that! So maybe I will tomorrow. Anyway, the first post op appt will also let me know how much more time I should stay away from work for. My company hired a temp to do my work while I am out....so my office isn't too worried about how long I will be out since they will have help. I will still have my job back when I am doing with recovery. I am thinking that if I can handle the pain right now, it can only improve! So I think after another 1.5-2weeks, I will feel better enough to be comfortable.

Okay, that's my boring update I will be relaxing at home for 4 weeks....will be on the laptop off and on while at home. Thanks for all of the support!!!

Farrah