[Nairek]

Before I had my surgery, I was suffering a great deal with right leg/foot pain/numbness. When I initially woke up in the recovery room, I was still suffering from pins & needles sensations in my right foot. However, when I woke up a few hours later, it was gone! After 7 years it was finally gone!

The pain that I had in my lower back also feels like it is gone. Since I can’t bend or twist, I can’t say that it is 100% gone as those motions tended to set me off. But I can say that there is a noticeable difference in my back since the surgery.

Unfortunately, I do have a “new” pain in my lower back which is quite troublesome. It is located below one of the incisions in my back & can be extremely painful at times. The best way to describe it is that it feels like a pulling, tearing, burning sensation. The pain feels just as bad if not worse than the back pain I had before my surgery. I mentioned this to my OS & he stated that the muscles are very inflamed in that area & that it’s possible that this is causing my pain. I was prescribed a Lidocaine patch for the pain but it really doesn’t do much for me. Sadly the oral pain meds don’t help much either.

I still have pain in my abdomen from that incision as well. It’s not debilitating or as bad as the pain in my back, but it’s still uncomfortable. I feel like I did a marathon of sit-ups.

The pins & needles appear to be gone from my right foot but it has been replaced by an odd warm feeling which is made worse by walking. I mentioned this to an ortho resident in the hospital as well as my OS & neither could give me an explanation as to what it is. I assume it’s from the nerves being all funky for years. Again, I am hoping that this is something that will go away as time passes.

I find that a lot of times during the night, when I try to turn over, my legs just decide that they want to stretch out on their own & I can’t stop it from happening. I know that stretching isn’t recommended so soon after surgery but what happens if you can’t stop it from happening? I can feel the stretch in my abdomen & my lower back & I hope that it’s not hindering my recovery. It’s really freaky. I’m hoping that if I try to walk more that maybe it will stop happening so much.

I’m still a little slow with the walking. I usually start out pretty well but slow down quite a bit after about 10 minutes. I have managed to make it out of the house & to a few stores for very short excursions. I’m usually wiped out after those & fall asleep for a few hours so I can re-energize.

A week after I got home from the hospital I was able to take a shower on my own which was really nice. I’m able to get dressed with the help of my trusty “grabber do-hicky” except for putting on socks. I still need help with that.

The other day I spent a little over an hour in the kitchen preparing dinner which I wasn’t able to do before surgery. I did have to pop some pain meds afterwards but it was a huge step for me.

That’s about it for now. Thanks for reading.