Pain! I want to live forever! (That IS how the song goes, right?)

View from my hospital room at UC Anschutz

Well, I am still here.

It's been about a week since my third back fusion. I was in the hospital until late Friday night and then returned Monday to have my wound vac (unaffectionately named "Vacula") taken out.

Today starts the long haul of healing. The tape for the wound vac flayed areas of my back. I have two incision wounds, which are surprisingly painful. That's not to mention the nerve.

"The nerve" is the nerve root to all of the nerves in my right leg or where all of this started. This is the one that held the cyst. The surgeon said that they had to peel the cyst, the bone, and scar tissue off the nerve root. She said that the nerve was inflamed and angry. She expected that it would settle down in three months.

That means that if all things "go to plan" I will have this horrible nerve pain for at least three more months. Ugh.

Mostly, it's not that bad. I have slept a lot. Once or twice a day, the pain is unbearable. I take meds and sleep.

We are watching reruns of The Great British Baking Show. We were watching the Marvel movies in order until the whole "The world is ending!!" got a little old.

I'm listening to audiobooks, non-fiction book summaries on Blinkist, and attempting to learn French on Duolingo.

I am grateful to have the space to wait out the healing. The husband is home with me to help. We assume that we've already been introduced to the novel Coronavirus or Covid-19 as it's been in Colorado for a long time. So far, outside of all of this pain and healing, we are healthy with no signs of fever or Covid symptoms.

How are you? What are you watching? reading?

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