ALIF Part 3

Rick had to lay in bed, flat on his back for the entire first day. The head of the bed was barely elevated. He couldn't get up or move. He had a big bag of ice on his belly to help with incision pain and swelling. He was hooked back up to the same type of pain pump that he had during the other hospital stay for pancreatitis. By now we are veteran hospital guests. When the nurse asked if he knew how to use a pain pump this time he was able to say yes. Ughh.

I sat by his bed all day and just rubbed his head and shoulder. Rick would tilt his head and kiss my hand. I really appreciated that small gesture. It made me realize that he enjoyed me being by his side. It was really hard for me to see him like that. Yeah we had just been through a traumatizing experience in the hospital a week earlier, but this was different. The thought that he no longer had a normal spine; that he had a major surgery on his spine was nerve wracking. I started to worry about the future. How will he heal? Will this affect his hockey or work? What if he gets hurt? A lot of stuff ran through my head that first day.

Rick was pretty groggy most of the day. He had a few visitors but for the most part he was pretty quiet. He was only allowed ice chips all day, so I dutifully fed him his ice chips in between naps. It was a fairly quiet day for him. Since he wasn't able to get up or move the only thing he had to do was keep up on his pain pump.

Of course I found myself a recliner and slept right next to him again. It felt normal this time around. Like it was old hat. It wasn't as comfortable as the recliner at the other hospital though. I never thought I would miss that recliner, but I did.

The next morning the physical therapist was in first thing. He helped Rick "log roll" so that he could get his corset on. (Rick has a special corset that he has to wear for the next couple months. it helps to keep his back stable and prevents him from accidentally bending or twisting.) Then he was taught how to get up out of bed by log rolling. The therapist had him walk a couple feet in the room. And then he had him sit up in a chair for as long as he was comfortable. Which ended up being only about 45 minutes. Rick then learned how to get back into bed, and took a nap. Later he got up again and we took a short walk down the hallway with the help of a walker. I really wish I had taken a picture of that but I was focused on helping him at the time.

Later in the afternoon an occupational therapist came and showed Rick how to do normal everyday things. Like get on and off the toilet, get in and out of the shower, put on socks. All of the things that he normally does has to be relearned. These activities have to been done without any bending or twisting. You would be surprised how many things have to be done completely different.

We thought that he would be going home on thursday but wednesday evening was not so good and so on thursday morning when the surgeon came in he decided that it would be best to have one more day. There was no reason to rush home. It would be better to have one more day to rest in the hospital with the nurses there to take care of him. So that is what we did. Besides, that gave him some extra time to walk and the physical therapist came in one more time on friday before we left. He helped remind Rick how to do things and give him a big pep talk about how he was a model patient. Rick followed all the rules and did everything how he was told to do them.


Once we were given the discharge instructions on friday afternoon we were outta there. It was nice to get home. However it is harder to be at home. There isn't room service to bring us food whenever we want. Yes there was room service at the hospital, even for me. We have been sleeping together on the recliner loveseat in the living room. That is the most comfortable place for Rick to sleep and I want to be with him. It really isn't bad. Our new loveseat is really comfortable. Thanks to my mom, my dad, my grandma, and Rick's parents for buying him the recliner loveseat.

So that is Rick's journey through spinal fusion surgery in a gazillion words or less. Since it appears that you all are crazy readers and want to see the scar I will be posting that tomorrow. I promise! And I have one other story from the hospital that deserves it owns separate post.

We want to thank everyone for praying and supporting us. This has been a crazy few weeks. Much more has happened than we could have ever imagined. And we really get energy from reading comments and knowing that there are so many people that care about Rick.

Until next time,
Jaime