Steven Boulet Music

6/24 Monday

4 days after the fusion I have my first follow up visit with the surgeon. This is the worst morning yet. The steroids have now fully worn off. I’ve increased the duration between doses because the pain killers leave me pretty foggy and I feel the overall pain decreasing. I’m incorrect; I wake up at a 7. One helpful pain management technique I learned over the last few years is knowing when to accept it. What I mean is that pain activates my fight or flight response, signaling to my brain, “something is wrong and we need to do something to fix it now!” Now I have anxiety on top of the pain and one feeds the other making the whole experience exponentially worse. I take a moment to tell myself that the pain isn’t an indication that anything is wrong, it’s just my body continuing to heal from the carpentry it went through a few days ago, and focus on my breath and calm everything down. The meditation practice I’ve undergone makes these moments easier to deal with.

Everything’s looking great at my follow up, and I get to see an x-ray of my new back. The difference is incredible.

I see the slippage between L4 and L5 which was over 50% is now nearly 0, and I can see how large and deep the screws are relative to the actual size of the vertebra. No wonder it hurts so much.

We now have a 6 and a half hour drive back to our home in Youngsville. We’ve set up a small day bed for me to lay down on in the back of the 4runner and I’m able to sleep for most of the return drive. Pain is minimal.

I try journaling at home, but a headache begins to form. I don’t get headaches normally, and I assume it’s a sign of dehydration but no matter how much water I drink it persists.

My head pounds almost the entire night, and my sleep quality is very poor. Even the Percocet barely turns down the volume of the headache. I also notice that when I’m able to fall asleep I wake up with my arms asleep, numb, and tingling.

I’m laying on my back with two pillows under my knees and none under my upper body. My arms are lying by my side, but when I wake up I have to sit upright to get blood into them. I can’t feel my fingertips and have to work them for 5 minutes to get function back. This and the headache make sleep difficult.

6/25 Tuesday

It’s been 5 days since the surgery. The poor sleep from the night before is making thinking very difficult. The main instructions for my recovery at this point are to rest, but get up and move every hour I’m awake (to prevent blood clots). I call the surgeons office and they inform me the headache could be a side effect of the anesthesia. I forget to ask about my arms.

I have a few minor exercises to do three times a day. These are easy and don’t incur any pain; I walk 1.1 miles throughout the day.

I’m unable to use much of my time productively, maybe 2 hours of my day, and this bothers me a little bit. I’ve expected to be much more disciplined about writing and organizing my projects up to now. I’m also finding conversations difficult, but I’m unsure whether that’s a result of pain, or the drugs, or the lack of sleep.  I find myself snacking because of boredom.

First 5 days summary:

Pain is the absolute worst when you wake up through the first 8 hours. It may re-define what a 10 is for you. It slowly comes under control, however, and once managed doesn’t get back to a 10. It will come in waves and fluctuate between 4 and 8 when you’re awake for the next 4 days.

Walking is challenging but you’ll be surprised at how quickly your ability increases. The catheter removal is very strange but not a particularly painful experience and doesn’t hurt after.  They might not tell you beforehand but testicular bruising is normal; That will be painful for about 4 days, but not excruciating.

Get lots of prebiotics and probiotics those first few days, but don’t stress about having a bowel movement; it’s coming. Hopefully, you’ve done some postural work and understand what a neutral spine feels like; this helps a lot. Maintaining a neutral spine helps the healing process and helps prevent accidentally stressing or damaging the fusing vertebra. Plan ahead and have entertainment ready to occupy your mind; sleep as much as you can. The first 24 hours are the worst, prepare yourself mentally for that, but don’t be alarmed when pain flares up from 0 or 2 to 7 or 8.

A lot of the physical and mental work I did to manage my pain before surgery is paying dividends now post surgery.