The Slump

Hello,
So as you can guess from the title I have hit 'The Slump'. I feel so incredibly bored and uncomfortable it is getting hard to remain upbeat and see an end to this. I can't imagine my back ever feeling normal or part of me. I know this 'Slump' is natural and in my head as I have read on the forums others going through it.
I was more than braced for pain when I went in for my operation and on that I was pleasantly surprised, but looking back I really don't think I was ready for the emotional side of things and I really don't think I'm handling it all that well.
I don't want to be all doom and gloom so I want to let you know that I am off pain medication. I slowly eased myself off it and I'm happy because these things are so strong I really didn't want to get addicted. I am in a wee bit of pain now and again but I'm ok really and if it did get that bad I'd just take something.
So I'm sorry this post isn't very upbeat, I hope I do cheer up soon. I cannot wait to be able to eat sitting up and just feel more comfortable, I am sure that will help my mood.
Everyone keeps saying I am over the worst and doing really well but I think this is by far the worst part. No choice now though but the hang in there.
X x x

Back brace hell

Hey ya, Straight Back Chrissy here! I really mean it, my back is awesome. Mr Tucker and his team are amazing, I can't wait to tell him how pleased i am with the results when I see him in 2 and a bit weeks.
Life is pretty boring, laying about and walking occasionally, I really want to sit in a chair but wearing this back brace is a nightmare, it's sooooooo uncomfortable, I really am sure it is hindering my recovery rather than helping it. I know the drs and nurses know best but it's a nightmare.
My pain must be getting better as twice I have missed my doses of painkillers and not even noticed, I just miss them out completely and carry in taking it at the next scheduled time. I did wake up in a bit of pain last night though and took a Tramadol.
Also I think because I lay about all night and I am not using any energy in the evening I feel so anxious and i cannot keep my feet still, I sounds annoying but it's CRAZY, I makes me wanna bite myself out of frustration or pull my hair our or something. Anyway online today I was looking up something else and I actually found something called 'Restless Feet Syndrome' hownweird is that! I hope I don't end up with that as that surely will send me to the loony bin.
Still waiting on my key board so I will sign off now, but i am still alive and still very much happy, incredibly frustrated but totally optimistic.
5th day of Alan sitting on my bed.....poor little puppy is woRried about his mum :)

I am back walking

Hello,

Chrissy back again! This will probably be short and sweet as I am writing from an iPad and it's not easy!.
So I went home on 8days post surgery and the drive was fine, I was worried about the pain as usual but it really wasn't bad!, this surgery can actually be very suprising when you constantly think the worst.
I have been getting on ok since being home just always uncomfortable. You get used to having an electric bed at hospital and having metal bed sides and you start to rely on them and so when you get home you start again. I am very up and down at the moment, yesterday I felt pretty useless but today I don't!!!!! I just managed a 20min walk! I am so so so so pleased because I have been finding my brace so hard to get used to, don't get me wrong I'm still not there but I'm getting there and that's what counts and what will keep my spirits up! Woo!.
I really want to write an indepth entry on my hospital stay and I will soon as soon as I get a keyboard, but I do want to say for anyone heading towards surgery and is worried about pain, I am the biggest wimp ever ever ever and the pain was not the worst part, they really can control it, you will worry anyway but you will be very surprised.
Tomorrow I hope to manage another hurdle, would be nice if I can have a meal sat up as I can't right now and it's so hard to eat and drink laying down.
Xxxxxx

First Week Post Scoliosis Surgery

Hi thought I should give every on an update because it’s been some time since I posted and getting the hard word from the missus! Nice to have her slightly back to normal :)... So it’s been about 1 week today since her op and it has certainly been up and down...

Chrissy's bandage (Haven't managed to get one with it off yet, but I will)

Day two after the op was surprising good... I was so pleased how Chrissy was doing, she was perky and reasonably upbeat considering what she had been through. The nurse came in first thing in the morning and took her ‘space boots’ as she called them off. These were basically inflatable lower leg wraps which stopped her getting Deep Vein Thrombosis while she was immobile. Mr Tucker came to visit about midday to check up on her. He said she was certainly ahead of the game after standing on the first day but did say that she was probably on a high after having the op over and not to expect all days to be like this.

How right he was... Day 3 after the op was pretty much a 180 degree turn. Chrissy was very very ill, Im not sure it was because of the op and the general anaesthetic or because of the concoction of pain killers she was on. Lesser of two evils it seemed to me really, be in pain or feel sick because of the drugs... By this stage she had been taken of the intravenous morphine but was starting to really feel the pain. They decided to give her morphine orally which I don’t think was the best thing for her. After about an hour she started to dry retch which you can imagine must really hurt after major spinal surgery so they took action and gave her an anti-sickness shot in the bum. She had very little mobilisation on this day because of how bad she had been feeling and was still yet to eat anything.

Day 4 after the op was generally a good day, she woke up ate 3 triangles of toast, some carrots and potatoes for lunch, and a few bits of pasta and soup for dinner. This was the first day Chrissy had managed to eat at all since going under the knife. Being taken her off the morphine completely was the best thing for her in my opinion. Her friend Lindsay also came in to visit in the evening with Krispy Kremes which I am sure also cheered her up. About 10pm Chrissy started to experience quite bad back pain again, didn’t have a great sleep and woke up at 5am feeling really nauseous. The previous night she had had a lot of problems sleeping so they gave her a sleeping pill to knock her out but it didn’t seem to help a massive amount.

The nausea carried through to day 5 and the anti-sickness medicines were not working well at all. So I came up from work to spend some time with her in the hospital. Chrissy was finding it really difficult to drink and I was constantly on her back trying to get her to drink more. The nurses said this may be one of the reasons that she was getting so ill as she was not taking in enough fluids to flush her system of the medicine. One thing that did help her take in the water was eating ice chips. She didn’t eat any food on this day and I even had to hide it from her sight she felt so sick. One positive for the day was the man came in to make a cast for her back brace (picture below) and he said her back looked 10 out of 10!

Straight back Chrissy for the first time

Tim here again thought I would give you a bit of an update on what has been going on in the last few days since Blogger is now back up and running. Last time I mentioned how Dr Tucker told me how well the operation went. Since then both the Anesthetist and Dr Tucker have visited a couple of times to see how she has been doing and I have a few more details to share. 

So originally Chrissy was going to get a fusion from T2 to L4, during the op it was decided that a slightly smaller T2 to L3 fusion would be sufficient to get the straightening they were after which was great news. For those non scoliosis folk out there this basically means that the fusion of the spine is shorter by one vertebra in the lower back. This has means a couple of things, firstly that she will retain more flexibility and secondly apparently she will have a lower risk of getting further back pain in later life.

The other good news was that she didn’t have to have a Costoplasty also called a Thoracoplasty which is a cutting of specific sections of the ribs to realign them after the spine is rotated back to the normal position. Sometimes humps in the chest can form after the rotation which needs this cosmetic adjustment, apparently this is one of the parts of the op that can cause the most pain and prolong the recovery, lucky for us Chrissy didn’t need this :)

I first managed to see Chrissy after the op in the High Dependency Unit of Wellington Hospital a couple of hours after the surgery. As anyone who has taken a general she was pretty out to it, I stayed there until visiting hours where over about 10pm but didn’t manage to get much out of her except a couple mumbling. She had one on one care from the Nurses in HDU which was a nice relief as I knew she would be looked after.

All in all I think she looked amazing considering the trauma she had just been through. The Nurses had fitted her with a catheter so she didn’t have to get up to use the bathroom and she was receiving countless numbers of painkillers through her drip along with a self administering morphine shot to manage the pain if it got a little too much. The morphine worked a treat with the pain however it did mean she needed to be fed oxygen, it also had the side effect of causing nausea which needed to be managed with anti nausea drugs. 

Chrissy in HDU:

DAY 1 after the op:

Chrissy’s biggest fear was never the actual op, she seemed to have complete trust in the Dr Tucker and the team who were going to operate on her. She had done so much research about the procedure and understood everything that was involved and the risks she faced. It seemed to me the thing that scared her most was the potential pain after the operation. So far the team here has been amazing at managing the pain and she has hardly mentioned it, more talking about the general discomfort she is experiencing saying that she felt like she had an ironing board stuck in her back. Guess this is expected when you have a whole bunch of bolts, screws and rods placed in your back to make you straight!

Chrissy got transferred out of HDU to room 401 in the South Building today (if anyone fancies sending flowers ;)). First chore of the day was to sort out the bird’s nest that had somehow developed on her head over night.  If you are going through this op defo recommend putting your hair in plats so you don’t end up looking like a Rasta with one big dreadlock.

Pippy Longstockings:

Second chore of the day was to get the newly Straight Back Chrissy (yay!) out of bed! I know I couldn’t believe it either, so early after such a major op. We had a great Physio who really calmed down a slightly nervous Chrissy. She managed to roll onto her side and push herself up into a sitting position without too much difficultly. The Physio then fitted her for a corset which she is going to wear until she manages to get her back brace fitted next week which I think she is going to have to wear for a couple of months when she is moving about the place. 

After the corset was put on she managed to stand up and do a little march on the spot, I never had any idea that less than a day after major spinal surgery this sort of thing would be possible. She didn’t feel too much pain more discomfort before she was slightly overcome by nausea brought on by the 3 shots of morphine she took in anticipation of the Physio coming to make her stand up. 

All in all a pretty good day I think. Not to mention the truck loads of flowers, penguin and monkey she has received from all those that care. She loves them all!

Breaking News!

So Mr Tucker just called me and told me everything went fantastically with the operation. So pleased I feel like jumping over the moon.Waiting till we are allowed see her now, more to follow...

Scoliosisbirdy goes under the knife

Hi Tim (Chrissy’s boyfriend) here. I am helping the little scoliosis bird update her blog while she is unable to... Hopefully I don’t bore you are to death!

So this morning we got up at 4.30am to travel to Wellington Hospital for 7am. We arrived and got put into a lovely little room which I hope Chrissy will be comfortable in. From then on it was go go go we had a visit from the nurse to take more bloods, from the anaesthetist to explain how he was going to knock her out, a doctor responsible for monitoring the spinal cord during the op who attached as sorts of wires and ended up making her look a little like C-3PO from Starwars . Mr Tucker then paid us a visit to ask is we had any final questions before the op. Chrissy was getting a little anxious by this stage understandably, so she popped a couple of chill pills which seemed to relax her... In fact she said that I had developed 4 eyes and 2 mouths after taking them!  Where was mine I wanted to ask. Couple of photos:

Chrissy's Back Before:

Bleeding the bird:

Wiring the bird up:

I have to say Chrissy was amazing and so brave I can’t even imagine going through anything like this. I am so proud of how she has handled the lead up to this op.

I went down with the doctors to theatre to hold her hand while she went under at about 10.30am its now just passed 1.30pm so she is 3hrs into her op of what should be a 3 to 4 hour operation. I can’t explain how nervous and anxious I am feeling sitting in the hospital restaurant with her mum waiting for her. I can’t wait to see her little face again, give her a hug and kiss and know that everything has gone ok.

Will keep you updated.

Operation is TOMORROW!

So the big day is tomorrow, and im so nervous I don’t even feel like writing in my blog!, which is weird coz usually I love rambling on to myself and posting it online.

The best thing is that I am so busy at work and seeing people and sorting stuff out that I don’t really have too much time to wallow.

Funny how at times like this you really do find out who the people are that care about you, and luckily for me its sooo many people! J. I am sure all this support is going to make my recovery so much easier. From what I have read this next week will be the worst and then its mainly about keeping a positive attitude which anyone who knows me will know that’s NOT easy for me!! Hahahaha.

Anyway I guess I should sign off from this blog for now and when I next write in here I will be all straight backed. My boyfriend Tim have said he will update my blog with my progress.

Wish me luck!!!!

Strong As An Ox Chrissy xxx

3 days to go!!!!!!

I am finally back from my holiday!, I have to say I had the BEST time and I really think it was the best holiday I have ever had. I went to Thailand 4 years ago on the way back from Australia and New Zealand and I really did enjoy it then but this time it was SO much better!.

It really couldn’t have come at a better time, it took my mind off my operation so much I barely thought about it. I think I woke up once in the night from a nightmare about it but that was the only time.

Now I am back I have so much work to do and so much catching up with people and washing to do that I hope it will keep me preoccupied.

I do want to stress to you all that I AM SCARED. I am remaining up beat and busy but it doesn’t take away from the fact that I am scared, in fact I would go so far as to say I am petrified. But I think it is only normal. I am not worried about anyone messing up or anything like that I just know that this is going to be so painful and obviously no one likes pain. L.

I am getting so much support from my family, my boyfriend, my best friends, my work friends and my boyfriends parents have just been the absolute best J Not only did they put me and Tim up in the most amazing 5* hotel in Bangkok they also sent me a large voucher for Amazon so I can buy loads of books J

Thanks again for all the emails you have been sending me and I WILL reply before I go in for my operation.

Here is a nice relaxing picture of me happy in Thailand.