Major Surgery and RV Life

The last 8 days have been something else. Jeremiah had surgery, my parents visited, and we had some unexpected weather.

Last night, we had a tornado warning. In our Home on Wheels, any storm is cause for concern. A tornado warning? A lot bigger of concern. While we were safe, a big Tornado touched down in Dallas; it continued on for about 17 miles, and I ‘m super glad we were safe.

Spinal Fusion

A week ago today, Jeremiah was having his 360 alif Spinal Fusion. To sum up the procedure, one surgeon cut a 6 inch vertical incision through his abdomen, moved everything aside so that they could access his spine, and another surgeon then placed a spacer between two vertebrae to “fuse” them as one. The spacer has a bone graft to help heal the two vertebrae together. From there, a metal cage was placed around the spine. They flipped Jeremiah over and made two incisions in his back where they added 2 rods and 4 bolts to hold the cage in place.

I don’t like talking about the surgery itself because it makes me a little nauseous just to think about. So, if you want more details – please direct them to the patient. I’m done talking about it.

Kadie and Al

My parents flew in to Dallas last-last Sunday for a really exciting week of watching the dog and helping out. I know it’s everyone’s dream vacation to fly into Dallas and do absolutely no sight-seeing and eat fast food. I mean, does it get any better than that?

All jokes aside, I wouldn’t have been able to deal with Bernadette and get everything in order for Jeremiah while he was in the hospital. My parents were a huge help as they walked Bernadette to the point of exhaustion.

They flew back 2 days after Jeremiah was released from the hospital, on Saturday. I know they are really envious of RV life after seeing how exciting it is! This is sarcasm, but I’m very grateful they were here. It really kept my mind off Jeremiah when I wasn’t with him, and I never panicked so I’m pretty proud of myself for that. I am, by all accounts, a bit of a panicker. Is that a word? It’s not. It is now.

Jeremiah after the surgery

We are taking each day at a time. There are days when Jeremiah is frustrated by his lack of movement – I think that is more annoying to him than the pain he’s in.

There’s some frustration on my part towards the doctors who repeatedly said there wouldn’t be pain, but slight discomfort. No. There is pain. And a lot of it. At one point, Jeremiah said, “I don’t know what a ten [on the pain scale] is, but this is the most pain I’ve ever been in.” It’s lessening every day, but it’s aggravating when doctors say one thing in hopes of not scaring you. Just be honest.

The slight discomfort that they spoke of led us to believe it was possible for us to travel to see a friend’s wedding at the end of the week. I was reluctant to believe it, but when Jeremiah inquired, the first Pre-Op physician let him know he was fairly sure he could travel on the Friday after his Monday surgery. His actual surgeon on the day of the surgery said it probably wasn’t advisable due to potential blood clots but didn’t rule it out.

They left out the pain part. And I’m calling bullshit on it. From what I understand, they did a great job on the surgery itself, which is obviously the important part. However, setting a patient’s expectations are also incredibly important to healing.

We did not go to the wedding, in case that wasn’t clear.*

The surgeons said it will be about a year before he regains full movement and ability to participate in normal everyday things. The nurses on the other hand said it would be closer to 6 months.

We sorta went to the wedding

In the era of technology, we were able to attend the wedding via a video call. One of my best friends called us as the ceremony began, and held her phone up from her seat so that we could watch 2 of our friends get married. So, we weren’t dancing, or eating, or drinking, but we got to watch them exchange vows. Shout out to Risa for doing that for us! Maybe we can attend all our friends weddings like this from now on…

Relaxing

Required relaxing can be hard, but Jeremiah is doing just that as much as he can. With only a handful of minor physical therapy exercises, and the requirement to not bend, lift, or twist, he’s finding himself relatively bored watching youtube and movies in bed. We ordered a bed desk so that he can do a little more work from bed. Fingers crossed that helps keep him occupied!

Yesterday he walked to the back of the HOW just to look at the engine, though he couldn’t do anything with it. So, yeah, he’s bored.

Sorry for the lack of color in my blog this week!

Any movies or tv shows that are must-watches? We’ve got nothing but time! Let us know!