Jerri here, more than 24 hours post op. As always, the first 24 hours after surgery are intense. It’s like walking on egg shells, on minute something can be fine and the next minutes it isn’t. Not thing can be predicted, and nothing can be taken for granted. It is a stressful time for the family and a painful (literally) time for the patient.
Here’s how it went down for us this time:
Mom got wheeled away to the OR and Dad, Meg and I settled in for the wait. They predicted a two and a half hour surgery. At the 3-hour mark we speculated they were being extra careful. At 3 and a half hours we started to pace. At 4 hours, Dr. Fehlings came out to give us the report.
It all went well, he declared before pulling up a chair (this was a new move, usually the surgery debrief is less than a minute long). Getting in to the surgery site was quite challenging, he said, 2-3 months is the most difficult time to do a revision surgery as there is a large amount of inflammation and scar tissue at this point. Once they got in there it became apparent why there was a problem. Mom has osteoporosis. A new diagnosis to add to the list.
This means that the bone was too weak to hold the screws that they installed last time and one had come lose. Though the osteoporosis is bad new for Mom it is reassuring that the problem was found, and addressed. They replaced the screws on the right side of the L4-5 fusion with larger ones and reinforced it with bone cement. The cage containing the grafting material was removed and replaced with just bone for bone grafting and synthetic material to promote its growth. This, he said, is going to work.
It was a difficult surgery but it was a success. And just to be sure, they did a post-op CT scan to ensure everything was perfectly installed. It was.
Phew, a sigh of relief. Though the big test was still to come, can she move her legs when she wakes up?
We grabbed a quick bite to eat and resumed the next stage of waiting.
At 2 hours post-op she was supposed to be moved to ICU where we could go visit her. The 2 hour mark came and went. 15 more minutes, 20 more minutes, just one more thing to check….it went like that for 2 more hours. Then the volunteer went in to check what was going on. She got mom on the phone for us. For someone just waking up from a GA, she was incredible alert and articulate. She said those words that we were suspecting and dreading; there are some complications. The doctor would come out and speak with us. Great. Here we go again.
Instead of Dr. Fehlings emerging, it was the anaesthesiologist. He said she was fine, she could feel her legs and move her toes (another HUGE sigh of relief). However, just as they were about to transfer her, they noticed an irregular rhythm in her heart and some tachycardia. They didn’t suspect an underlying issue but wanted to double check. They did blood work to confirm it wasn’t a heart attack (it wasn’t) and asked the cardiologist to get on the case.
10 more minutes, 15 more minutes, 5 more minutes….
Another hour and a half goes by. The anaesthesiologist comes back out to confirm cardiology is on it, the episode is over and they are transferring her to ICU for the night.
Finally 6 hours post op, we were able to go in and see mom. We left her hours later getting ready for a long sleep in the care of an awesome nurse who inspired confidence.
Day 1 post-op was medically uneventful.
The cardiology team did a follow up ECG and ruled the event a non-concerning episode. They were dismissed off the case.
Dr. Fehlings came by to check in and said he was going to do everything in his power to get mom right home – no rehab! (Fingers crossed!)
We went for 4 (no not a typo, 4) walks!
For us, it was a good day.
For Mom, it was a bad day. Her pain was quite high all day, she felt as one would be expected to feel after a surgery of that magnitude. He back hurt, her face and chest hurt from lying on the surgery table for so long, her throat was very sore from the intubation. That, on top of the general fatigue of having three major surgeries in one year.
Thoughts and prayers are appreciated Mom continues forward with this journey.
Though the surgery is over, the journey has only just begin.
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