zerodegrees
21st November 2005, 12:32 PM
Finally I’ve got round to writing up my experience of surgery! I am now 5 weeks post op & feel well enough to get it down. I know we all enjoy reading about each others surgery experiences & I know before my surgery I found reading everyone else experiences very helpful! So go make a cup of tea and try not to fall asleep.
My surgery was to correct my Scheuermann’s Kyphosis. My curves measured 80 degrees kyphosis & 70 degrees scoliosis. The plan was to fuse from T3 - L3. Surgery was scheduled for 18th Oct, 2005 @ 730am at Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham under the care of Mr Grevitt (top man!)
We were told to be at the spinal unit the day before at midday. I was incredibly nervous as we were in a new city having travelled from Scotland & everything was unfamiliar, thankfully my partner Des was there to get me through. There was no bed when we arrived so we basically mooched about the hospital for a few hours. The anaesthetist came to see me that afternoon and discussed what the plan was for the next day, explaining the risks and answering any questions. She was fantastic and totally put my mind at rest. She explained that she has the authority to stop the operation if she feels your body is under too much strain which reassured me. She explained about the huge amount of monitoring done to ensure your spinal cord is kept safe & also about pain relief afterwards. I was to have morphine by PCA which is a device which lets you control your own pain relief. She also explained that QMC don’t use pre-meds or epidurals!
Visiting ended @ 8pm and after Des left I got incredibly nervous. I was allowed to eat up until midnight & could have water until 5am (which was very close to surgery!). Spent about an hour on the phone to Des to calm me down & finally tried to get some sleep. The man in the bed next to me had just come back from theatre and didn’t look too bad which made me feel better but I thankfully I didn’t know that he had a disc replacement and not a major fusion! The time went incredibly slowly and 730 seemed a million miles away.
I went to the bathroom at 6am and when I came back a nurse was standing there with a gown & lovely paper underwear! My heart started racing & she told me to go and shower. After that I felt like I was on a conveyor belt. After my shower I came out and Des was standing there. We went to the quiet room for a moment & I promptly burst into tears with the stress but managed to pull myself together. Des was frightened too but very reassuring. We came out and there were 2 people there to wire the electrodes up to my head for surgery. The let Des come in while the wired me up & they gave him a job cutting bits of tape. There were a lot more electrodes than they had used during my pre-op & they explained that once I was under anaesthetic they would be putting many more on too! By the end of it I looked like Medusa! We walked out of there and there was the porter waiting for me!
Des was allowed to come as far as the theatre lift. I felt strangely calm by that stage & it was important that I was calm to help Des too as he had the difficult bit (the waiting)! Once in theatre reception everyone was very nice. I had to transfer onto another trolley which had an electric blanket on it which keeps your body warm during surgery. One of my surgeons came to see me and was totally upbeat about the whole procedure. He told me that my particular curves were very unusual as a pair and would be the biggest they had operated on. They had operated on bigger single curves but not two together of this size.
They explained they would be doing 2 stages today. The first would be a thorascopic anterior release which involved deflating my left lung & making 5 small incisions in my left side and using their equipment would make my kyphosis less stiff by removing vertebrae & also a small deformed rib. The second part would be posterior fusion which involved opening my back from top to bottom and fusing it all together with titanium rods & reinserting my bone which they had harvested and turned into a putty. The team would include 3 spinal surgeons, 2 consultant anaesthetists plus 1 trainee, 4 spinal cord monitoring people plus various others! I felt in good hands.
Next minute I was wheeled into the anaesthetic room. All 3 anaesthetists were there and were just lovely. They were laughing & joking with me which set my mind at rest. She put a line in my arm & explained once I was under they would spend another hour & a half wiring me up properly. They would be running a line from my arm up into my heart plus a few in my neck, a couple more for good measure, putting the rest of the monitoring equipment on & not forgetting the lovely catheter! They then injected me with some red stuff which I cant remember what it was for & then said she was going to put me to sleep. She injected some white stuff into the line & I thought for a second “its not working” & then I was gone! Truly fantastic! I remember nothing at all for 32 hours!
I remember nothing of the facts but basically here’s what happened (most of you know this bit). The anterior release went well but they stopped it a bit early as I was bleeding quite heavily. The fusion went incredibly well. The procedure in total took an incredible 16 hours which nearly gave everyone a nervous breakdown!
I didn’t require a blood transfusion as they reused all of my own using a technique called “cell saver” which washes your own blood before putting it back in. They then add a clotting agent. While in recovery I became agitated and pulled my chest drain out twice! (not recommended). I then pulled my catheter out (not for the faint hearted & not recommended either)! Apparently it took 6 nurses to hold me down in recovery! I remember nothing whatsoever of this thankfully & am most embarrassed!
My first memory is opening my eyes & seeing Des looking at me which was fantastic. I was in the high dependency unit. I strangely couldn’t feel any pain & my first question was “have they done it?”. He told me they had and that I wasn’t paralysed & that it had been a success and I conked out again! Des said I had actually had brief moments of being awake and he kept telling me the same thing over & over but I have no recollection!
That night I woke up and was incredibly sore. They had set my PCA machine to automatic so I didn’t have any buttons to press. I asked for some pain relief. The doctor authorised my morphine to be increased which due to my sensitivity to IV morphine caused me to have major breathing difficulties. This caused quite a scare that night . Unfortunately they had to give me a drug to reverse my morphine which left me incredibly sore & it was a few hours before they were able to give me another drug (tremadol) to help with the pain. This time I had the button I counted the seconds until I could press it again & again!
The next day (36 hours post op) a physic appeared by my bed and asked if I wanted to sit up for a minute! My mind was screaming “go away you evil person!”. I sensed that she wasn’t really asking me! Next minute with the assistance of 2 physic’s I was sitting up. It was quite sore but the worst bit was how incredibly fragile I felt! 10 seconds later I was standing up! I was really proud of myself but felt really faint (which everyone had warned me about!) She also kept trying to make me take deep breaths & also to cough to try and help my lung re-inflate! I was not a happy person!
I ended up in HDU for 6 days due to catching a urine & chest infection. I had nothing to eat or drink until 3 days post op. I can’t tell you how thirsty I was. I had an oxygen mask on for 6 days too due to the problems with my lung, some of which were caused by me pulling out my chest drain in recovery! The chest drain which thankfully everyone had warned me about was not a pleasant experience as you are lying on it quite a bit of the time. It is totally necessary though I became obsessed with asking if it had stopped filling up, I think the nurses wanted to put me to sleep again! Thankfully 5 days post op the surgeon said lets get it out & I can’t tell you how great that felt. Every day another tube was taken out & thankfully at last so was the catheter. It makes you want to curl your toes when they take that one out. The last one out was the lines in my neck as they were still giving me antibiotics through it.
Every day the physic came and eventually she had me going up and down stairs! I didn’t really feel up to it but did it just so I could get home! Had a visit from the marvellous Marmyte who kept you all updated & baked us a cake. Also had a visit from Titch who saw me at my complete worse & cheered me up by saying I looked ok!
Strangely the last thing to keep my in hospital was the fact I hadn’t gone to the toilet which they sorted out with a carton of prune juice and giant suppositories which looked like cruise missiles (you can just imagine the rest!) Finally I went home with my lovely straight back 12 days later! The rest of the story you all know.
There have been some great moments & some very low moments. I can actually feel the “fog” starting to lift at the moment. I am still in a fair bit of pain but actually feel like I’ve turned a corner. My kyphosis is gone & my soliosis too(still can’t believe it). I am 6cm taller. Sometimes I look in the mirror just to make sure they actually “did it”! I don’t regret surgery for one minute but I now appreciate what everyone who has had surgery has gone through. It’s a really tough road and I’ve still a long way to go but its so worth it & with the support of my partner, family, friends & all of you at SSO I know I’ll get there!
Ok you can all wake up know! For those of you who haven’t seen the pictures they are on the thread back from the trenches.
Good luck to all of you with upcoming surgery. My thoughts are with you.
Perhaps one of the clever people can let me know what my metalwork consists of. Screws, hooks etc?
Here are the links.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b233/jon...ncomparison.jpg (http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b233/jonboy69/johncomparison.jpg)
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b233/jon...comparison2.jpg (http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b233/jonboy69/johncomparison2.jpg)
My surgery was to correct my Scheuermann’s Kyphosis. My curves measured 80 degrees kyphosis & 70 degrees scoliosis. The plan was to fuse from T3 - L3. Surgery was scheduled for 18th Oct, 2005 @ 730am at Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham under the care of Mr Grevitt (top man!)
We were told to be at the spinal unit the day before at midday. I was incredibly nervous as we were in a new city having travelled from Scotland & everything was unfamiliar, thankfully my partner Des was there to get me through. There was no bed when we arrived so we basically mooched about the hospital for a few hours. The anaesthetist came to see me that afternoon and discussed what the plan was for the next day, explaining the risks and answering any questions. She was fantastic and totally put my mind at rest. She explained that she has the authority to stop the operation if she feels your body is under too much strain which reassured me. She explained about the huge amount of monitoring done to ensure your spinal cord is kept safe & also about pain relief afterwards. I was to have morphine by PCA which is a device which lets you control your own pain relief. She also explained that QMC don’t use pre-meds or epidurals!
Visiting ended @ 8pm and after Des left I got incredibly nervous. I was allowed to eat up until midnight & could have water until 5am (which was very close to surgery!). Spent about an hour on the phone to Des to calm me down & finally tried to get some sleep. The man in the bed next to me had just come back from theatre and didn’t look too bad which made me feel better but I thankfully I didn’t know that he had a disc replacement and not a major fusion! The time went incredibly slowly and 730 seemed a million miles away.
I went to the bathroom at 6am and when I came back a nurse was standing there with a gown & lovely paper underwear! My heart started racing & she told me to go and shower. After that I felt like I was on a conveyor belt. After my shower I came out and Des was standing there. We went to the quiet room for a moment & I promptly burst into tears with the stress but managed to pull myself together. Des was frightened too but very reassuring. We came out and there were 2 people there to wire the electrodes up to my head for surgery. The let Des come in while the wired me up & they gave him a job cutting bits of tape. There were a lot more electrodes than they had used during my pre-op & they explained that once I was under anaesthetic they would be putting many more on too! By the end of it I looked like Medusa! We walked out of there and there was the porter waiting for me!
Des was allowed to come as far as the theatre lift. I felt strangely calm by that stage & it was important that I was calm to help Des too as he had the difficult bit (the waiting)! Once in theatre reception everyone was very nice. I had to transfer onto another trolley which had an electric blanket on it which keeps your body warm during surgery. One of my surgeons came to see me and was totally upbeat about the whole procedure. He told me that my particular curves were very unusual as a pair and would be the biggest they had operated on. They had operated on bigger single curves but not two together of this size.
They explained they would be doing 2 stages today. The first would be a thorascopic anterior release which involved deflating my left lung & making 5 small incisions in my left side and using their equipment would make my kyphosis less stiff by removing vertebrae & also a small deformed rib. The second part would be posterior fusion which involved opening my back from top to bottom and fusing it all together with titanium rods & reinserting my bone which they had harvested and turned into a putty. The team would include 3 spinal surgeons, 2 consultant anaesthetists plus 1 trainee, 4 spinal cord monitoring people plus various others! I felt in good hands.
Next minute I was wheeled into the anaesthetic room. All 3 anaesthetists were there and were just lovely. They were laughing & joking with me which set my mind at rest. She put a line in my arm & explained once I was under they would spend another hour & a half wiring me up properly. They would be running a line from my arm up into my heart plus a few in my neck, a couple more for good measure, putting the rest of the monitoring equipment on & not forgetting the lovely catheter! They then injected me with some red stuff which I cant remember what it was for & then said she was going to put me to sleep. She injected some white stuff into the line & I thought for a second “its not working” & then I was gone! Truly fantastic! I remember nothing at all for 32 hours!
I remember nothing of the facts but basically here’s what happened (most of you know this bit). The anterior release went well but they stopped it a bit early as I was bleeding quite heavily. The fusion went incredibly well. The procedure in total took an incredible 16 hours which nearly gave everyone a nervous breakdown!
I didn’t require a blood transfusion as they reused all of my own using a technique called “cell saver” which washes your own blood before putting it back in. They then add a clotting agent. While in recovery I became agitated and pulled my chest drain out twice! (not recommended). I then pulled my catheter out (not for the faint hearted & not recommended either)! Apparently it took 6 nurses to hold me down in recovery! I remember nothing whatsoever of this thankfully & am most embarrassed!
My first memory is opening my eyes & seeing Des looking at me which was fantastic. I was in the high dependency unit. I strangely couldn’t feel any pain & my first question was “have they done it?”. He told me they had and that I wasn’t paralysed & that it had been a success and I conked out again! Des said I had actually had brief moments of being awake and he kept telling me the same thing over & over but I have no recollection!
That night I woke up and was incredibly sore. They had set my PCA machine to automatic so I didn’t have any buttons to press. I asked for some pain relief. The doctor authorised my morphine to be increased which due to my sensitivity to IV morphine caused me to have major breathing difficulties. This caused quite a scare that night . Unfortunately they had to give me a drug to reverse my morphine which left me incredibly sore & it was a few hours before they were able to give me another drug (tremadol) to help with the pain. This time I had the button I counted the seconds until I could press it again & again!
The next day (36 hours post op) a physic appeared by my bed and asked if I wanted to sit up for a minute! My mind was screaming “go away you evil person!”. I sensed that she wasn’t really asking me! Next minute with the assistance of 2 physic’s I was sitting up. It was quite sore but the worst bit was how incredibly fragile I felt! 10 seconds later I was standing up! I was really proud of myself but felt really faint (which everyone had warned me about!) She also kept trying to make me take deep breaths & also to cough to try and help my lung re-inflate! I was not a happy person!
I ended up in HDU for 6 days due to catching a urine & chest infection. I had nothing to eat or drink until 3 days post op. I can’t tell you how thirsty I was. I had an oxygen mask on for 6 days too due to the problems with my lung, some of which were caused by me pulling out my chest drain in recovery! The chest drain which thankfully everyone had warned me about was not a pleasant experience as you are lying on it quite a bit of the time. It is totally necessary though I became obsessed with asking if it had stopped filling up, I think the nurses wanted to put me to sleep again! Thankfully 5 days post op the surgeon said lets get it out & I can’t tell you how great that felt. Every day another tube was taken out & thankfully at last so was the catheter. It makes you want to curl your toes when they take that one out. The last one out was the lines in my neck as they were still giving me antibiotics through it.
Every day the physic came and eventually she had me going up and down stairs! I didn’t really feel up to it but did it just so I could get home! Had a visit from the marvellous Marmyte who kept you all updated & baked us a cake. Also had a visit from Titch who saw me at my complete worse & cheered me up by saying I looked ok!
Strangely the last thing to keep my in hospital was the fact I hadn’t gone to the toilet which they sorted out with a carton of prune juice and giant suppositories which looked like cruise missiles (you can just imagine the rest!) Finally I went home with my lovely straight back 12 days later! The rest of the story you all know.
There have been some great moments & some very low moments. I can actually feel the “fog” starting to lift at the moment. I am still in a fair bit of pain but actually feel like I’ve turned a corner. My kyphosis is gone & my soliosis too(still can’t believe it). I am 6cm taller. Sometimes I look in the mirror just to make sure they actually “did it”! I don’t regret surgery for one minute but I now appreciate what everyone who has had surgery has gone through. It’s a really tough road and I’ve still a long way to go but its so worth it & with the support of my partner, family, friends & all of you at SSO I know I’ll get there!
Ok you can all wake up know! For those of you who haven’t seen the pictures they are on the thread back from the trenches.
Good luck to all of you with upcoming surgery. My thoughts are with you.
Perhaps one of the clever people can let me know what my metalwork consists of. Screws, hooks etc?
Here are the links.
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b233/jon...ncomparison.jpg (http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b233/jonboy69/johncomparison.jpg)
http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b233/jon...comparison2.jpg (http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b233/jonboy69/johncomparison2.jpg)