After surgery update

Hi,
Guest blogger here today.

Patti did just fine in the surgery, and the doc told me that he was very pleased.
He repaired the herniated disc, with a plastic type of "cage" (as opposed to the titanium cages that she had previously in another location in her back).  He indicated that he DID free a pinched nerve - and found that the next disc - looked to have a previous older injury that also had a pinched or impinged nerve - he was able to free this second nerve as well, and he told me that this was somewhat of a bonus, because this one was NOT showing on the films - He stated that it most likely WOULD have been seen had there been an MRI instead of the old style mylogram  (SP?)  (xray) with contrast.

The surgeon indicated that Patti's blood pressure was up and down during surgery, causing the anesthesia doc some concern, however, it was all good.

Patti did NOT recover well - and was in recovery the remainder of the day - Initially the indicated a couple of hours, but she remained until 6:00 when the finally took her to a room on the fourth floor. 

Apparently, she was not breathing deep enough to maintain her O2 saturation to the level that the nursing staff wanted to see.  She was instructed to breathe deep, and even given additional oxygen most of the day. 

Because of this long recovery, she missed lunch and dinner - and when I was there at 7:00 last night, she was fussing about food.  The night staff indicated they didn't have anything, and the kitchen was closed.  They finally brought some Jello, and chicken broth - but she was ready to simply take a pain pill and go off to sleep. 

The good news, while she was not running any races, she did get up and walk to the bathroom a couple of times - they REALLY wanted her to do some laps up and down hall to prevent stiffness, but that will happen today hopefully.

That is the story for today - More when I know
-J-