The Much Anticipated Day has come and gone....

Monday, June 16, 2014
Tuesday, June 17, 2014

6/16

Just another ol' boring day here.  Laying around in bed all day, with periods of getting up.  I didn't eat anything today except some potato chips.  I know, not a wise choice, but man, were they good!  I ate them around 3 or so, and then I wasn't hungry for any supper.
I took a 'sleeping pill' (a Tylenol PM) - just one, not a normal dose of two - at 8, because I wanted to get a decent night's sleep and I have to get up at 9 to be ready for my big procedure.  Ai-yi-yi!


6/17

The Big Day!!  I have been wary, apprehensive, almost dreading, but still looking forward to this day for so long, it doesn't seem possible that it is here.  I am glad to be able to get this done, but since it's totally unknown to me, I am not sure what to expect.  I sure hope it does some kind of good!
I get up before the alarm goes off at 9 - not a surprise, right? - but stay in bed until 9, so as to not upset the little schedule in my head.  I get my shower, lay back down to rest my back, then get dressed and lay back down to wait for my sister (and grandson) to show up to carry me off (God, how I hate being dependent on other people!!) to this appointment.  They get here just a couple of minutes later than planned - just enough to make me jittery - and off we go.  I have a couple of errands to stop and do on the way, and we get those done, and get there right exactly on time.  Yay, planning!
I do my thing at the sign-in window and they finally call me back, and, as usual, it takes more time for all the pre-op stuff than anything.  One of the things they tell me in pre-op is that someone needs to be with me for 4-6 hours after I get home - oh, my God, not again! - and my brain seems to freeze.  Why in the name of God don't they tell us this crap BEFORE we are here?  I can't believe this!  I hope I am not lying when I tell them my sister will be able to stay with me, even though I know damn well that none of us had planned for that, especially after that fiasco last week.  And I have NO idea what her reaction will be when it is brought up to her, either.  Oh, my.  Well, we'll work it out.
Finally, the doctor arrives and I am taken back to the OR - I was first on the list, hurray! - and things moved pretty fast then.
It was not fun.  It was not pleasant.  It was not easy.  It was not something I ever want to do again, although I could change my mind if it helps considerably.  But, once started, it was over rather quickly, and it didn't really hurt like pain, but oh, Lord, was it pressure, pressure, pressure!  Almost like going to the dentist and getting a tooth removed and they keep telling you it doesn't hurt, it's just pressure, but it's the back, not in your mouth.  Like that, times a thousand or ten thousand or so.  Not really describable, but my, my, my...

Not unexpectedly, Jean was not in a very good mood when I was discharged.  Not only over the 'news' she had received about my after-care, but her hearing aid battery had also died, so she was floundering with hearing, or not hearing, what was going on, too, as well as dealing with a 9-year-old sitting around waiting for 2 hours plus in a public setting.  Since it was so late, and I didn't really feel any different coming home, we stopped at Bob Evans for lunch, and I got to have a 'picnic on the bench' for some lunch.  I did manage to eat about half of the Chicken Salad Plate, while Jean got the Broasted Chicken dinner, and Corgan got a Sirloin Steak dinner.  Those dinners for 10 bucks are great!  I am glad to be able to say 'thanks' for being my driver in some small way, too, even if it is just buying a 10 dollar lunch.
As we were leaving Bob Evans to come on home, sitting at the traffic light, a big ol' roll-off garbage truck went by blowing his horn like crazy - Ron!!  He doesn't go down 125 very often, so that was a nice surprise for us all, even him.  Very good timing, too!  We passed him a little way further on down the road - of course, those trucks are slow once stopped at a traffic light - and if I hadn't had this stupid brace on, I would have flashed him my boobs, but I did and I couldn't.  The windows are shaded on my car, anyway, and it probably wouldn't have worked...sigh.

We got here, and I went to the bathroom, got undressed and got back into bed and told Jean to go ahead and go home.  It had been a couple of hours since the procedure at that point and I hadn't had noodly legs yet, and I wasn't going to be getting up for any reason, so there was no sense in her staying.  We argued a bit, as sisters do, and she and Corgan finally left for their home.  My books kept me company, as they do every day, until Ron got home - around 6.

I talked him into taking me up to weigh in at TOPS.  He wasn't happy about it, but finally capitulated.  I was glad I went - I lost 1.2 pounds according to them!   I was a bit apprehensive about my weigh-in, remember last week, I hadn't lost (or gained) anything.  And I had gained a pound on Saturday morning, according to the Wii.  So I was happy to see that I had lost.  I wanted to go to the grocery store while we were uptown, also, but I let Ron talk me out of that.  He said he can live without bananas this week, and while I think he should have his bananas, I let him talk me out of it, because I really didn't feel like walking through the store, even though we could have used the things I had listed in my brain.  We can get them this weekend, and hopefully, I will be moving a bit better.
We got back home, and I got my to-go box out of the fridge for my supper, and went back to bed.

I think that the injection site is a bit swollen because I can feel it touching the bed, and that's a little weird, and when I stretch my legs out, it hurts a bit more than it usually does in my lower back, but other than that, there isn't any change in how I feel.  I take a pain pill at 9, and at midnight finally turn off the light to try to get some sleep.  (One of the side effects of this shot is sleeplessness.  Great!)  I remember looking at the clock and it was almost twenty minutes later, and I was thinking about turning the light back on, and then Ron's alarm was going off, so I guess I really did fall asleep!

The day was nowhere near as bad as my 'worst case scenario' thought, and, except for the procedure itself, and the trip over and back, was pretty much just a normal day in the neighborhood!