Jen&Eddie
Member Since 2013
Eddie's 2/6 Condo
Yesterday: AMPS/118, +2/110, +3/84, +4/78, +6/61, +7/85, +9/91, +10/113, PMPS/116, +2/121, +3/111, +4/92, +6/88, +8/97
Today: AMPS/135, +2/96, +3/121, +4/93, +6/90
Happy Caturday LL!
Eddie's doing just fine this morning. Not much difference so far between his numbers at 0.25 and 0.375. Greens and blues. I don't have much to complain about. Eddie loves having me home full time, and is getting a lot of lap time in.
Thanks for your visits last night, ladies!
Tricia - you asked whether Eddie's dental had been scheduled yet or if I had to wait for to be cleared from weight restrictions. He has not been scheduled yet...frankly, we'll get him scheduled as soon as we have a few less irons in the fire. As long as I can schedule the dental to work with DH's schedule, hubby can haul Eddie around, so I don't have to worry about lifting him. Tricia - I seem to recall reading a long time ago that you've had pretty extensive back surgery - like fused at several levels?
Marje - thank you so much for your thoughts and kind words. I don't have any specific doctor's orders with regards to computer time, but it's painful to spend more than a few minutes at a shot on my laptop. I had hoped to be able to start working remotely from home starting Monday, but I will just have to play that by ear. Until I was restricted from lifting over 5 pounds I never realized that pretty much everything weighs at least 5 pounds.
I weighed my work bags, and that's a combined 25 pounds, so I'm going to have to figure something else out there. Maybe a wheeled cart or something.
You asked if I had vertebrae issues. I was fortunate in that the bony structures of my cervical spine are in relatively good shape. Prior to surgery, I had very little neck pain - it was primarily pain and numbness in my left arm and hand. I had a disc herniation at C6-7 that was there on an MRI about 2 years ago but wasn't obviously compressing any neural structures at that time. I'd had occasional arm pain/numbness on and off over the last two years, but the symptoms would always go away on their own after a week or two. Back in October, the "pins and needles" in my left arm returned and got progressively more widespread and more intense and they didn't go away on their own after a week or so. I scheduled with my neurologist after I started having numbness in my fingers in my left hand. An updated MRI showed that the disc herniation had grown much larger and was clearly compressing the left C7 nerve, so off for a neurosurgical consult I went. I met with my surgeon once and was scheduled for surgery. Because the disc herniation was primarily left-sided as opposed to central, and because I don't have much degeneration at the adjacent levels in my neck, we were able to do a single-level posterior (from the back) arthroscopic hemilaminectomy (cuts out part of the vertebrae to widen the spinal canal) and discectomy (cuts out the offending disc herniation). Intraoperatively, they also did a foraminotomy on the left at that level to clean up a little foraminal stenosis.
The alternative is an anterior (from the front) discectomy and fusion, which is much more invasive and requires a much longer recovery. There is a risk that I will still require a fusion sooner or later, but considering all the factors, it made the most sense to do the procedure that we did.
Probably far more information than anyone wanted or needed to know LOL!
Early this morning, DH - bless his heart - didn't wake me up to take my drugs - thinking I could use the extra sleep. Man - I was seriously taking for granted how much those pain meds, muscle relaxers, and anti-inflammatories were doing to keep my pain under control....ouch!! They seem to work best taken on a strict time schedule rather than waiting for the pain to get "bad" to take them again.
Question: I had pretty awful post-anesthesia nausea and they were giving me some sort of anti-nausea med intravenously. I don't know what it was, but it worked. Even with food, I'm finding that the combo of all the meds I'm currently taking is making me pretty nauseous at times. I'm thinking about asking about an anti-nausea med when I see my GP for my first post-op check up on Monday. The ondansetron that is recommended for our sick kitties is also a human drug right?
Vines and hugs for all beans and kitties in need today!
Yesterday: AMPS/118, +2/110, +3/84, +4/78, +6/61, +7/85, +9/91, +10/113, PMPS/116, +2/121, +3/111, +4/92, +6/88, +8/97
Today: AMPS/135, +2/96, +3/121, +4/93, +6/90
Happy Caturday LL!
Eddie's doing just fine this morning. Not much difference so far between his numbers at 0.25 and 0.375. Greens and blues. I don't have much to complain about. Eddie loves having me home full time, and is getting a lot of lap time in.
Thanks for your visits last night, ladies!
Tricia - you asked whether Eddie's dental had been scheduled yet or if I had to wait for to be cleared from weight restrictions. He has not been scheduled yet...frankly, we'll get him scheduled as soon as we have a few less irons in the fire. As long as I can schedule the dental to work with DH's schedule, hubby can haul Eddie around, so I don't have to worry about lifting him. Tricia - I seem to recall reading a long time ago that you've had pretty extensive back surgery - like fused at several levels?
Marje - thank you so much for your thoughts and kind words. I don't have any specific doctor's orders with regards to computer time, but it's painful to spend more than a few minutes at a shot on my laptop. I had hoped to be able to start working remotely from home starting Monday, but I will just have to play that by ear. Until I was restricted from lifting over 5 pounds I never realized that pretty much everything weighs at least 5 pounds.
I weighed my work bags, and that's a combined 25 pounds, so I'm going to have to figure something else out there. Maybe a wheeled cart or something. You asked if I had vertebrae issues. I was fortunate in that the bony structures of my cervical spine are in relatively good shape. Prior to surgery, I had very little neck pain - it was primarily pain and numbness in my left arm and hand. I had a disc herniation at C6-7 that was there on an MRI about 2 years ago but wasn't obviously compressing any neural structures at that time. I'd had occasional arm pain/numbness on and off over the last two years, but the symptoms would always go away on their own after a week or two. Back in October, the "pins and needles" in my left arm returned and got progressively more widespread and more intense and they didn't go away on their own after a week or so. I scheduled with my neurologist after I started having numbness in my fingers in my left hand. An updated MRI showed that the disc herniation had grown much larger and was clearly compressing the left C7 nerve, so off for a neurosurgical consult I went. I met with my surgeon once and was scheduled for surgery. Because the disc herniation was primarily left-sided as opposed to central, and because I don't have much degeneration at the adjacent levels in my neck, we were able to do a single-level posterior (from the back) arthroscopic hemilaminectomy (cuts out part of the vertebrae to widen the spinal canal) and discectomy (cuts out the offending disc herniation). Intraoperatively, they also did a foraminotomy on the left at that level to clean up a little foraminal stenosis.
The alternative is an anterior (from the front) discectomy and fusion, which is much more invasive and requires a much longer recovery. There is a risk that I will still require a fusion sooner or later, but considering all the factors, it made the most sense to do the procedure that we did.
Probably far more information than anyone wanted or needed to know LOL!
Early this morning, DH - bless his heart - didn't wake me up to take my drugs - thinking I could use the extra sleep. Man - I was seriously taking for granted how much those pain meds, muscle relaxers, and anti-inflammatories were doing to keep my pain under control....ouch!! They seem to work best taken on a strict time schedule rather than waiting for the pain to get "bad" to take them again.
Question: I had pretty awful post-anesthesia nausea and they were giving me some sort of anti-nausea med intravenously. I don't know what it was, but it worked. Even with food, I'm finding that the combo of all the meds I'm currently taking is making me pretty nauseous at times. I'm thinking about asking about an anti-nausea med when I see my GP for my first post-op check up on Monday. The ondansetron that is recommended for our sick kitties is also a human drug right?
Vines and hugs for all beans and kitties in need today!
