I had spent the first few days with oxygen on my nose and my throat was getting raw. My loved ones had been swabbing my mouth with water filled cubes long enough and now I was obsessed with getting off my ice chip diet.
Mike would try and get my mind off all the grisly details going on in my body and would encourage me to read my Facebook page and see all the people praying for my healing. It helped!
I skyped the kids for the first time and my heart soared. Now I was beginning to remember why we were doing this.
On my doctor's morning rounds he informed me that he felt my surgery was not completed. He stopped short of what he thought he needed to do because of the 13 hour max and suggested we consider going back in next Wed. I started to freak out..... Please no, not more! He asked me to keep an open mind for a few days. We would do an X-ray on Friday and decide then.
I was still in excruciating pain, but starting to see small signs of progress.
My morphine pump was replaced by oral meds, wheelchair to a walker, ice chips to water to a clear liquid diet. I started to get queasier and queasier as the gurgles built up. Finally I had a 'break through' on day 4. It was a noise so loud coming from the bathroom that I let out a Praise God and Mike nervously asked me if I was okay? My son David likes to download farting apps on our phones, I couldn't wait to tell him about my bathroom explosion :)
Despite the baby steps of progress, in the back of my mind I was still wrecked with fear of more surgery so soon. My face has 3 large wounds from where I had an allergic reaction to the medical tape from the first surgery, I still hurt to turn my body, couldn't sleep more than 40 minutes at a time, couldn't eat and couldn't regulate my body temperature. My pain receptors were on overdrive receiving all stimuli as pain. One morning mom came into to the room and I was sitting in a chair, practically naked because the clothes hurt to be on my body. I was so nervous about the X-rays and future that I felt like I was going to throw up most of the day.
One of my new favorite nurses came into the room Friday morning and announced she wanted to wash my hair for me. It was a nice distraction from the looming X-rays, so I pretended I was at the hair salon. Mike kept watching us chatting like we were anywhere but a hospital. Finally he burst out laughing that my hair was so matted I looked like our sheltie, Nicky. He teased me that Emily was going to have to shave my head, too! She kept at it until I looked like a person not a poodle and then left us alone.
I confided in my husband how afraid I was and asked him to pray for me. He did, then X-ray came to take me downstairs. I laid on my hospital bed in the hallway while the room was prepared. The X-ray tech brought me in, lined up the cspine film, powered up the system, pressed the button and then the powered surged shutting off the computers. She turned everything off, reboot, pushed the button....power surged and shut off again. After several tries, several techs and the same result they apologized and had me lay back down. They called my doctors to see if another view would be acceptable and were told no, we will wait.
As I laid on the hospital bed listening to the chaos and confusion I had peace that God had stopped that picture and decision from being made that night. They rolled me back in my room and I told Mike all that had just happened. Nurses kept complaining that a state of the art hospital like Rush couldn't get a cspine film! We both just smiled.
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