Today with Patty

Today With Patty: John in Pain

by Patty

I realize I haven’t blogged in almost a week, but it has been a wild week. My husband has been in all kinds of pain for nearly two weeks with it getting progressively worse. In the beginning, I was sort of in “suck-it-up mode” with him until I realized how much pain he was really in. Towards the end, he couldn’t sit or stand, lie down or sleep, and was in constant pain. I’m not exactly Florence Nightingale (who in an interesting factoid died of syphilis during the Crimean War, but that’s another story) as you know.

The E.R.

We finally ended up at the emergency room of Rex Hospital on Friday night where they wanted to admit him, but of course he decided he was going to tough it out and wait until Monday to see the neurosurgeon. By Monday morning, he would have given a million dollars for any kind of relief. Fortunately, I have low friends in high places, so we were able to expedite his care.

Dr. Robert Lacin of Raleigh Center For Neurosurgery and Neurosciences did his surgery, and I learned that people come from all over to have him operate on their backs. We arrived at Rex yesterday afternoon for the surgery, and Rex CEO David Strong actually helped to wheel John in. Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer Mary Lou Powell couldn’t do enough to help and was instrumental in getting us with the surgeon and into the operating room. Mary Lou and Bernadette Sprong, vice president of finance and CFO, even sat with me in the waiting room. Talk about caring service — it doesn’t get any better than that. I love Rex Hospital.

Post-Surgery

So it turns out that John had a herniated disk between the fourth and fifth lumbar (whatever that is), and a piece of that disk broke off and wedged itself into his spinal column, which was what was causing all the pain. I just hate when that happens.

He got out of surgery, woke right up and promptly talked his doctor into letting him go home rather than staying overnight. Don’t you just love men? He’s off all his pain meds now and has strict instructions that he is not to lift anything heavy or strain himself for the next six weeks, which gets him out of helping Ryal to move this weekend. I have no expectation that he will actually follow the doctor’s orders.

Did I mention that Ryal’s growing up on me? He’s bought a house, and he’s getting married. Next thing I know he will be investing in the stock market.

So my life hasn’t been very fun lately, but I promise I’ll get back into the swing of it shortly.

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