Daniel's Surgery

Well, for those of you who don't know (which is most people because I didn't tell anyone), Daniel had back surgery on Wednesday October 3, 2012. 

On and off for the past 5 years or so he has had really bad pain running down his leg. Usually after about a week it would go away for about 6 months. It came back over the past summer but this time it didn't go away. We took him to the doctor and found out that he had a herniated disk in his lower back which was pinching his sciatic nerve which runs all the way down his leg, which is why his leg always hurt. He's been having to walk like a question mark (hunched over like ?) since school began (I'll admit, sometimes I was embarrassed to be seen with him, although at the time I would never have told him that). He wasn't able to sit through any of his classes, or sit down long enough to do any homework. It was making school almost impossible.

This is what he looked like walking around

The surgery went well :) The surgery was supposed to be at 7 in the morning (we were supposed to be there by 6), but the surgeon got called to some emergency surgery that went through the night, so he didn't want to operate on Daniel in the morning (thank goodness), so it was pushed back to 2 in the afternoon. We got there by 1 to sign in and so they could prep Daniel for surgery. I got to see him right before he went into surgery. 

Before surgery

From the time that they sent me back to the waiting room, to the time that the surgeon came out and told me that everything went well was 1 hour and 15 minutes. That's awesome. They estimated the surgery would take just under an hour, so that's probably how long the actual surgery did take. They said I could see Daniel once he woke up from the anesthesia, which they said usually takes around 45 minutes. After an hour of me waiting I asked them to call back and see if Daniel was awake. A few minutes later they came back and got me. The nurse said that she woke Daniel up just so she could say he was awake so I could go back and be with him :) Of course he had fallen right back asleep. Whenever he did wake up he wasn't really coherent. We did talk, but he doesn't remember any of it. This happened for 3 hours. At about 6 he suddenly woke up, and was wide awake. The rule before he could be released was that he had to be able to walk by himself, go to the bathroom, and eat without throwing up. He did all these things in the 45 minutes he was awake. Then at 645 he went back to sleep until about 8. 

This was him sleeping from 645-8. He looked so comfy, I wanted to join him! The blankets were thick and warm, just the way Daniel likes them :)

Then he woke up again and was ready and anxious to go home. By this time we were the only people left in the recovery room, which was actually really fun. The nurse had Daniel walk around the room a few more times then gave us some pain medication and instructions on how to take care of Daniel until we saw the doctor at Daniel's follow up appointment. Daniel wasn't allowed to sit for more than 10 minutes an hour, he always had to keep his hips and shoulders aligned (back totally straight). Those were pretty much the only rules, but they are hard to follow! 

When we finally left we went to stay at Shelly's house (Daniel's sister). Daniel had to have someone with him for the first 24 hours after surgery, but I was going to be at school the next day. Shelly and her family were so wonderful to us! Her son Ben let us stay in his room while we were there. We stayed from Wednesday night to Monday morning. Monday night was our first night back in our apartment. It was hard because our bed is kind of old, so Daniel didn't love sleeping in it, but I let him have the whole bed and I slept on the couch. 

This morning we had Daniel's follow up appointment. The doctor said that he is healing well and he is slowly allowed to lift more weight, and do more things, but he has to follow what his body tells him. He has to walk a lot because that will be the best way to strengthen his back. He decided that he was going to get too bored and lonely. I had to go to class at 4, and Daniel's mom came to get him at 5. I miss him already. This will be our first night apart since we got married, and I think it will be hard, but thankgoodness for modern technology so I can call him :)

I love Daniel so much and am so happy that the Doctor fixed his back so he can finally walk normal and sleep through the night, and do all the things that his back prevented him from doing before. Daniel is a wonderful man, and I am so lucky to have him as my husband. He's everything I ever could have dreamed of and more!