Day before surgery
I didnt sleep much that night but i packed my bags..watched a movie until 2am..and got 2 and a half hours of sleep before i had to get up!!!

Day of surgery
I woke up at 4:30 and took a shower...not that nervous about anything yet. We left the house with my suitcase full of button-up pajamas and socks and things to do around 5:00am...we had to be at the hospital at 5:30...when we got to the hospital nobody was at the desk so we had to wait about 15 minutes before anyone came out.

Then we began the paper work. I had to sign a lot of stuff and so did my mom…then they took me back asked me questions like when my birthday was and stuff like that....they gave me my hospital bracelet...and then took this gun thing out and took my bracelet and it made sticker copies of it to stick on all my paperwork…i thought that was pretty cool...they printed about 30 of them…and i asked "what do you need all that for" and they said "we stick them on everything that is yours because the number on your bracelet is only yours…so if there is another ashley mae in this hospital then we wont get you mixed up."

Then they took me back to this room...took my vitals…blood pressure...tempurature and then gave me a robe and told me to take off everything…and I was like "EVERYTHING???"...and they were like "yes." So that was kind of embarrassing sitting there naked with a robe on...but they gave me a heated blanket and so that made me feel better.

They gave me a local in my arm so that i wouldn’t feel them put the IV in as much…but it still hurt a little...because she said she couldn’t fin my vein. After the whole IV thing the anesthesiologist (sp) came and talked to me about how he was going to put 3 or 4 more IVs in me while I was asleep and I was just thinking "great".....he told me he would put one in my neck and that scared me the most. They started to wheel me into the operating room and started to get nervous but they were asking me questions like "what school do you go to"…"what grade are you in"…and stuff like that so that helped a little. They put a mask on my mouth and they said it was pure oxygen and then I was out..

Recovery room<
I remember the first thing in the recovery room was them rolling me over to put an x-ray board under me to take an x-ray....which hurt a lot because they hadn’t given me any pain meds yet. They asked me what my pain rate was from 1-10 and I said 500. So they gave me morphine and I fell back to sleep and the next thing I know I’m in the ICU.

ICU
I remember the ICU being very small and the nurses always checking my vitals...and waking me up. My back felt really stiff and tense but not really pain…but when they would ask me what my pain rate was i would always rate it higher than it really was just so I would be more comfy!! I stayed in the ICU for 2 days...and they took 2 of my IVs out by then. They were always checking my catheter which always looked full to me…and they were always dumping it which I thought I was peeing too much but w/e lol.

Moving to the ward
After 2 days I got moved to the ward and I was not too happy because then I had to start taking pills and couldn’t have morphine that much. Oh and by the way I never got a PCA pump which I wanted lol. They had me on what seemed like a million pills every couple hours and some of them seemed like I could never swallow them but I did..

3rd day - November 13th.
The physical therapist came and I was so afraid of how much it would hurt to sit up I started crying right when he walked in and basically screamed when I sat up because it felt like a million pounds was pulling down on my spine....I had to sit up for about 5 minutes, crying through every minute of it. Then I finally got to lay back down....then a couple hours later he came back and I had to stand up and take a couple steps. That wasn’t as bad at sitting up...he had this little belt thing that went around my chest area so I wouldn’t fall. Then I had to sit for about 45 minutes in a chair...so when I was ready to get back in bed I called then nurse and the nurse assistant came ...not then nurse...and almost dropped me on the floor but I caught myself and landed on the bed. Obviously she hadn’t been trained to put spine patients back in the bed. I got flowers and a lot of visitors which made me happy, but I was asleep for most of them or don’t remember them coming because I was so drugged still.

4th day - November 14th.
On this day I got up and walked with a walker up the hallway which seemed like a mile ling but I made it...I was so proud of myself...and then later he came back again and I walked up the hallway and back and then up it again, which made my mom and the cute physical therapist very happy...(which my grandma said in front of him that he was hot and that was VERY embarrassing), again I got a lot of visitors and cards and I got a teddy bear that had back surgery too because it didn’t work when you pressed the hand to make noise so I just ripped out the insides lol....

5th day - November 15th
I forgot to mention that my doc comes in everyday at 6am and changes my bandage which he doesn’t do it gently...it’s like he is trying to wax my back or something …so that hurt...after that I started eating solid foods but I was never hungry, so I never ate.

6th day - November 16th
On this day I got a shower which surprisingly felt good...and I was so glad my hair was washed......I slept a lot and got up for PT and that was about it...my mom stayed with me every night and called the nurse whenever I couldn’t reach the call button.

7th day - November 17th..DISCHARGE DAY!!
I was excited to go home but not excited for the ride home...at about 3pm i got wheeled down to the main floor and i ha about 3 pillows with me ...and I had the chair leaned back a little...and they gave me morphine right before so i was all good. The ride home wasn’t bad at all....after I got home I went to bed and slept all day. Tried to get up but it was hard..

November 27
I am 17 days post op and I am proud of myself right now because I just went 9 hours without pain pills. The pain pills last 4-6 hours so it was really like 3 or 4 hours without pain pills but I think it was still good...I cant handle running out of pain pills again because that was the worst pain in my life...I’m hoping me getting up and walking everyday will help the pain and I will soon be up to my normal self. I’m not a patient person so I don’t want to wait 4 months to feel better!!!

November 29
In 2 days I will be 3 weeks post op and I feel way better than I did in the hospital. I’m down to taking half a pill in the day time and a whole one in the night and at morning when I’m so stiff from sleeping for like 9 hours, but its getting better everyday and I decided to be positive about things, because being negative doesn’t ever help anything!

UPDATE - August 21, 2007
3 months after my surgery I went in for a checkup and on the Xrays it showed my spine was curving above and below where they did the fusion. My doctor said I would have to have surgery again. With the first surgery I was fused from T10-L3 and with this surgery I would be fused from T3-L4, which is basicly from the bottom of my neck down to my tailbone.

I went in for the surgery and stayed in the hospital for a week (nothing really big happened so I dont think I will write everything out like I did last time). I went home and 3 weeks later I was rushed into the doctor because I had an infection where th did the bone graft. I had to have yet another surgery to get rid of the infection. This time I was only in the hospital for 4 days but I had drains and Iv's all over me!.Before I went home from my 3rd surgery they put in a PIC line which is an IV that has a hairlike tube that goes all the way up your arm to your clavicle, which kinda hurt lol. I had that PIC line for a month at home then I had to take alot of nasty antibiotic pills for another month. I had to have blood work done every couple weeks for about 4 months (to make sure the infection wasnt coming back).

Now I am 6 months post op as of September 2007!. Everything is going really great for me now!, my back doesnt hurt hardly at all, and I havent had to have any more surgeries or had anymore infections. I am starting physical therapy soon so that will be intersting. I am so glad I went through all of this, it made me a stronger person and I love my metal back!!

Photos - Before
  

Photos - After
 

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