first night / Day after

Not a good night I'm afraid, I called the hospital about 9:45 last night to see how Kelly was settling down for the night, the nurse told me she had to give her oramorph (neat morphine) and that she would sleep like a baby, well unfortunately this was not to be the case.

On the first attempt to get Kelly up she had great difficulty and tremendous pain "indescribable" (her words) but this pain was in her right leg, now check out the cocktail of drugs that followed

• 4 oramorph
• 8 tramadol
• 5+ codene
• loads of paracetamol (lost count)
• 2 diclafenic
• 1 injection direct into her leg

and still a sleepless night.

Surgeon was contacted in the night and said this is common for this type of surgery and we were given 2 explanations:

1. the spacers which have been inserted in 2 levels has now pushed back up the vertabrae and this could be the cause for the referred pain to her leg.
2. nerve endings in the L1, L2, L3 area may have been bruised during surgery which are directly linked to the leg

In both cases we have been told there is no cause for concern and should ease off over the next few days, Surgeon has requested some x-rays

Day 2-

Physio- very good meet with physio she was impressed with Kelly's ability to carry out the exercises which included 5 steps up and down, physio commented on Kelly's excellent core muscles, this was the benefit of 4 years of pilates and swimming- highly recommended for anyone with similar illness and should be a pre-requisite to having this operation.

Was able to sit up and wash herself as she has been told she is not allowed to get wound area wet for minimum of 2 weeks to prevent infection

Kelly was able to walk around on crutches, short journeys around the ward and to the washroom

X-ray: apart from taking Kelly down to x-ray in a chair and then having to wait almost 45 minutes, then climb on to the x-ray table, well the state Kelly was in when she got back to her back required an immediate injection of morphine to calm her down.

We were told earlier today that Kelly may go home, but due to the level of pain she is still in and the issue of her leg it was decided she should remain in hospital, her surgeon is scheduled to see her in the morning.

Cocktail of drugs today:

• 5 oramorph
• 2 diclafenic
• 4-5 codene
• 3 morphine injections
• 8 tramadol
• loads of paracetomol

Well that's all from the Hubby for tonght, sorry if I laboured on a bit, time to get some sleep