And it was a huge success! Although I have a long road to full recovery ahead of me, the surgery went exceptionally well. I was even able to leave the hospital the same day!

Thank you to everyone who had me in their thoughts and helped out in any way. I am extremely thankful to be surrounded by people who love and care about me as much as they do. Thank you!

A few memories from the day:

• While being carted into the operating room, the nurses joked to me about the music playing. They said if there wasn’t music on, they’d start singing!
• Right before being knocked unconscious by the anesthesia, I remember a warm feeling in my hand as it traveled from the IV up my arm. At that point I knew there was no turning back. I was out for 2 hours, and I don’t remember anything in between that time.
• After surgery, I was moved into a post-op room with other patients. I could barely look around, but I could hear everything that was going on in the room. Far off, a woman was screaming. Another lady, to the left of my bed, was complaining about her knee stinging. When asked by a nurse how much it hurt (on a scale of 1-10), she screamed out “Twelve! It’s a twelve!”. After that, I heard some rustling as a doctor came up and gave her a double dosage of some medicine. A few minutes later (after the medicine had taken effect I’m sure), a nurse asked her how she felt, and in a calm voice she said “About a 9.” Either that lady was actually in a lot of pain, or she doesn’t know what the pain scale is really like, and a thing such as a “calm 9” exists.
• I had to stay in the post-op room longer because they couldn’t find my vital reports. I guess someone forgot to print them out?
• The first stuff I ate after surgery was flavored ice. I was starving, so I asked for crackers as soon I knew I could keep the liquids down.
• Something I didn’t know about when you have an IV in you: You have to pee a LOT. Apologies to my family for having to ask them to leave the room so much!
• I ordered a salad for dinner. Not because I’m on a diet or anything, but it sounded much better than a hospital cheeseburger!
• The surgeon who operated on me arrived around 5PM to check up on me. After talking with him and feeling encouraged by how well I felt, I told him I wanted to walk. After taking a few minutes to slowly get up to a seated position, I put my feet down onto the floor. I waited a few seconds, and then took my first few steps forward. After only about 2 or 3 steps something felt different: There was no more pain in my leg! I kept on walking, and after going past my family I started to tear up. I’m not a very emotional person, but the whole situation was overwhelming. I made a lap around the ward. I felt great. So, I did another lap. And then one more. I walked around three times with no pain.
• After that, my surgeon brought up a picture of the disc herniation in my back. If you want to see what it looked like, here’s a link. WARNING: The picture is of the inside of my back, so if you get queasy easily, you may not want to look at it. Right now I have the picture hanging on our refrigerator door. :)
• I left the hospital around 7PM, 13 ½ hours after I arrived.