Moving on from surgery

Joanne has done remarkably post op from her fusion surgery. She is a very determined individual and has impressed her surgeon and her physical therapist. We had post-op visit with the surgeon on March 29th.. 4 weeks out. X-rays showed that the screws were all in place and that all was well. Jo's incision points are healing nicely and she was given permission to start physical therapy and do some driving. (this is where I break out in song declaring freedom..lol!). Actually.... I am transitioning from being Jo's primary caregiver to cheerleader.. keeping her focused on her PT exercises and attempting to make sure she does not over due it!  I'll let you know how I make out with that! :) I think her PT is doing good job kicking her butt twice a week and that reminds Jo that she is better but still has long recovery ahead of her.
Since she is doing her PT now and doing very well with her recovery, I think it is time to end this blog (Sue.. please email me if you want more detailed updates since have not been timely with blog!!!).  I have started a new job and Joanne is plugging along so she too can get back to her "normal" routine.
Thanks for all of your support to Joanne and I during her surgery and post-op. We could not have done it without our family, friends and colleagues.
Peace out!
Shelley

Transition Day

Well.... as true as Spring is on the way and the sun is shining... Joanne has worked to get off the narcotic medication and onto the regular Tylenol and flexiril.  She has successfully made that transition.. wow.. she is something else! Although she still has some pain, she says it is not really different from the vicodin and Valium she had been taking.
She is making sure she takes it an easy... looking forward to dinner with Elise and Julie tonight and an afternoon on the patio tomorrow.

Joanne hired a new aide for the day!

So.. I guess I am getting boring so Joanne hired a new aide for the morning! He made sure that Joanne drank her water and had some of his cookies! He was a big help and we had a lot of fun entertaining JoJo.

JoJo's guardian angel

Every time Joanne sits in the recliner, Cooper stops what he is doing, climbs on to the sofa and makes his way right to JoJo.  He is her guardian angel.  He sprawls out laying on his back as if there is not a care in the world. There is absolutely no room for anyone else. 

False Pretenses

After 15 years of living together, I'm finally realizing that Ms. Shelley has been holding out on me about her ability to cook! Girlfriend has been whipping up some awesome meals lately...tonight she made blackened tilapia and grilled asparagus that was outta this world. So from now on, we'll be taking turns cooking more often! Sorry to let the cat out of the bag Shell! Thanks again for all that you're doing while I'm In rehab mode. You truly are the best! 

Getting out of the house today!

Joanne is dressed and ready to go today! She wants to do a little walking outdoors! No PJs at the moment.. in our jeans and ready to blend in with the crowd!
It does seem like the walls are closing in when you are in the house for a long period of time so I think some sunshine and fresh air will do us both some good!
Happy Saturday!

Day 8--Stir "Craziness" setting in

What a day! The 5:30 am pill time alarm was actually our get up and go time today! We had a 7:30 am follow-up appt. with the vascular surgeon to check out Jo's abdominal incision. Needed this early appt. so we could get in and home in time for me to rush to my 9 am interview.

Got Joanne home by 8:30 am (going 10 miles an hour asking her to jump from car so could get to my interview on time....Just kidding).  

Jo thought a trip to the doctor's was exciting.... pathetic! She is going stir crazy now and it is only day 8.

Thank goodness for the meds.. they are making her sleepy so I can get a nap too!

Big thanks!

Good morning everyone! I just wanted to say thank you to all my friends, family, coworkers and everyone else who has sent me those special get well vibes, books, flowers, iTunes gift cards, chocolate covered pretzels, delicious soups and to my Vermont physical therapy bud, the TENS unit which is helping me out with the pain.

It's very strange being in pjs all day and moving around as slowly as I am, but each day is getting better.

Off to meet with vascular surgeon this morning for follow up. Yippee I get to get out of the house for a bit. ( obviously the vicodine is talking because I would never in my right mind say "yippee" about seeing a doctor!)...

Gotta run... I mean shuffle...to get ready for appointment. Nurse Shelley is telling me to get my butt moving!

Peace out 

Almost Nurse Shelleyism!!!!

Okay... so I was getting Joanne her meds last night and had also had meds out for Cooper and I almost gave Joanne Cooper's med! OOPSY!  Red pill vs. red pill... hmmmmm!
All good.. have moved Cooper's meds to another location so that Shelleyism CAN NOT happen!

Sunny day

JoJo was able to sit up in chair for a bit today and enjoy the sun shining in to the sun room.
Thanks to KT for stopping by to check on JoJo while I was at my meeting. She enjoyed your visit.

Weird breakfast....She's back!

The last few mornings Joanne has had (normal) breakfast foods... Greek yogurt with berries and nuts........this morning, however, her request was for a small spinach salad with cannelli beans and panchetta! Apparently the normal breakfast food concept has left her and she's back to her old ways! :)  Perhaps thats a good sign! 

Walking and sitting!

Joanne is doing well with walking and sat up in recliner chair for a couple of hours today! Seems to feel the difference in the pain now.. knows this is surgery pain vs. her usual back pain! YAH!!!!!

Tried climbing the stairs today and will probably move up to her "CAVE" tomorrow night.  I think she wanted to make sure it was still clean and ready for her! :)

Thanks for the cards, calls, flowers, and gifts.. Joanne really appreciates everything!

Dog Day Sunday.....

Great day to just relax! Jo feels that she is moving little better today. Did get wiped out from her shower and walking around the house.  The animals all want to be with her...as you can see from the caregivers picture! :)
In fact, at one point, had Chloe and Clyde in the sunroom (Cooper has made his way to CAMP) and they started to howl... Joanne could not believe it! We were laughing at how pathetic they sounded.

Good Night!

Little rough go about 8ish... so we increased her meds (as instructed to do) and got passed that period and then Joanne had a good night sleep. I set my alarm to get up to give her the meds so we did not have breakthrough pain.  Sitting up having coffee this morning but will be returning to bed shortly.

Home Sweet Home!

Home is a wonderful thing! Joanne has gotten some good rest today and has eaten some great homemade soup (Thanks Julie and Elise).  She has been up doing her walks around the first floor too! 

I think we are on the right med regiment finally! 

So... as everyone says.. each day is a little better. 

Home sweet home!

Home at last!

Joanne is home resting! We got home about 11:00 am and had an immediate SHOWER! She felt much better after a shower. We have her set up on the first floor and she is now sleeping!
The dogs were glad to see her but I am now keeping them with me in the sunroom so she can rest. She did finally feel hungry and ate a grilled cheese sandwich (what she wanted).

Please call me or text me about visiting.. right now she just wants to rest.

So much for restful evening!

Received a text from Joanne at 5:30 this morning saying that she was up!  She received a roommate at midnight. Unbelievable!
She is still having pain so will have to see how we are going to manage that when she comes home.
Working on first floor set-up as we speak and will be heading in to pick her up this morning.
I think she will do much better once home.
Thanks all!

Home tomorrow (Saturday)

Well.. we were hoping that Joanne might make it home today but she continued to battle nauseous feeling all day and again was sick. Pretty much think it is the percocet so she has now stopped the pain medication and will move to NSAID (basically an extra strength tylenol).  On a good note, the bandages were removed from her incision spots and she walked the hallways three times and has much more mobility today.
So ....home tomorrow. Her roommate finally left today and it looks like she will be solo this evening so hoping she gets some good rest.

Day one post-op

Joanne was doing much better tonight when went to visit her. She was eating her dinner (broth, jello, and juice). She was ready to move on to a sandwich by the end of the evening. We did a little walk in the hallway and watched some TV together! :)
She did get a three hour nap today which was a very good thing! She was tired though tonight so she was heading to sleep when I left her.
Tomorrow is another day and I think she will continue to feel better each day.
She was a great sport with the green hair! Thanks for the votes! Too funny!

Turning a corner

Visited Joanne this afternoon and she is doing better. They had to take her off all IV medication as it was making her sick.  Now on PO pain meds and they are much better. Take longer to kick in but looks like we are finally getting her pain under control.
Helped her get cleaned up and into her own PJs and then we went for a walk in the hallway.  Hoping to get another walk in when go back at dinner time.
She is resting this afternoon and appreciates the texts and calls but is not up to really talking or visitors today.
We are hopeful that she will move on to solid food tomorrow and possibly get to come home tomorrow but really not sure at this point.
That's all for now.. I think I am going to rest a bit too! :)

Post-OP day 1

Jo had a rough night. The dilaudid (pain med) made her nauseous so they took her off that and gave her a morphine shot last night. Still with much discomfort but hoping to get rid of some things today and get up and walking. Please call me if you plan to visit today. Jo has stated this morning that she is not sure up for visitors.
Thanks!

Made it to the room

Finally got to see Joanne about 5 pm in her room. She was a wake but tired.  Spent a couple of hours with her. She got a lovely liquid diet (beef broth, ginger ale, red jello, and apple juice). The soup was not too appealing, the ginger ale seemed good for a moment and the jello was the best but still not too exciting for JoJo tonight.  She was experiencing some nausea and when felt sick could really feel the incision in her stomach.  
She was settling in and resting when I left for the night. She was super tired and needs to get her rest. 
She REALLY appreciated everyone's great vibes, texts, emails, blog posts and die-hards who sat with me all day! 
Tomorrow will be a better day.  We are both trying to get some rest tonight. I will go see her tomorrow am (early--nurse said I could come up early) to see how our girl is doing.  


So some folks were asking....the address at the hospital is:
Virtua Marlton90 Brick Road
Marlton, NJ 08053


Joanne is in room 421. I will post her phone number tomorrow so she can get some rest today.
We are hoping for home Friday but will probably not know if that is possible until tomorrow sometime.
Thanks again for all the support.

And the winning color is...........

GREEN.......stay tuned to see the new hair color!!!!!!   :)

In recovery

Just met with Dr. T.... he says everything went well. Showed me the new x-ray with the spine in line and with the disc spacer.  Looks good. JoJo is in recovery now.. will be able to see her in about an hour when she makes her way to her room.
Okay to take a deep breath now! I think we are now on the road to recovery! YAY!

Still in

The nurse came out at 1:50 to update us. States that the back takes more time but should be finished in 40 minutes or so.  We are expecting to see the surgeon soon.
JoJo and one other person are still on the board ... Maddie and I said.. that's our JoJo... she is making it all about her! LOL!
Hoping to see her in recovery by 3. We shall see.

Moving onto last portion of the surgery

The anterior portion of procedure is complete. Have flipped the table and are now working on the posterior part of the procedure.  Should be another 40 minutes or so!
So far so good!

Wrapping up anterior portion of surgery

Just received call from Nick in surgery and he indicates that are sizing up spacer now and getting ready to put in the BPM (bone synthetic) and then will be closing up the front and preparing to flip the table for the posterior portion of the surgery.
Everything is going very well!
:)

Pre-surgery and surgery

So we were hanging out waiting for Jo to get wheeled into surgery and her last words to me were, "Behave yourself"....that's my JoJo!   As if I can really get in the room to dye her hair green or something!

The procedure actually got under way around 10ish. Looks like about 90 minutes for anterior portion, 30 minutes for the table flip, and then another 90 minutes or so for the back!

All Good!

In Admissions Office

We have arrived at Virtua Hospital for JoJo's surgery.  Sitting in admissions office waiting to get registered! The wifi is working!
The patient is craving coffee and so am I! :)
Will update as we go through the day.
Thanks again for all the good vibes.

Surgery time

Received call from the hospital today. Joanne has to be at hospital by 7:30 am to be admitted.
Her surgery will be at 9:00 am. We are happy with the time... told Joanne this is good Karma!
Her response... "We need some good Karma!".  That's my JoJo!

I will post update to the blog on how Joanne makes out with surgery. With earlier surgery time, we are hoping to get her to her room mid afternoon and possibly up by the evening!

Thanks to everyone for their support, prayers and well wishes! We appreciate it!

Don't forget to vote on what color you think we should dye Jo's hair!!!!   LOL!

Back still hurts

Just to make sure that surgery is still the right thing to do... JoJo and I gave the house the "Spring Cleaning" today, and then walked the dogs! Okay.. my back was sore so I looked at JoJo and she definitely was in some serious pain today.  I figure if the back is killing her now that the surgery pain will be NOTHING!!! :)  Surgery is the right decision and we are now 4.5 days til THE day!

Medically cleared !!!!!

Joanne had her PCP appointment and had a little funky EKG so was referred to Cardiologist. Thankfully we were able to get into see the cardiologist today.  The cardiologist said that Joanne's heart was strong and no issues. So she is officially cleared for surgery.
MRI completed.. uneventful! :)

Looks like we are now ready to go for surgery on March 2nd.

Stay tuned!

Medical clearance and MRI

PCP visit scheduled for Monday, 2/21 and MRI too!  Once get these behind us then count down for surgery... 10 days and counting.

Update on Surgery date

Joanne received a call today indicating need to change the surgery date. Rather than push it back, Joanne decided to move up the surgery. Her surgery will now be on Wednesday, March 2nd.

We had surgery seminar this evening. It was informative and helped us better understand what to expect. Thankfully, Joanne only needs one level of fusion. There were others there tonight that were having cervical fusion and or multilevel lumbar fusions.

Post-op, Joanne should be able to lay on her back or side and walk by that evening.  Because the surgery will brace the spine, and spine will not be able to move at the L4-L5 location, she will be able to move as tolerated.

So.... her two week count down has now begun! Will keep you posted.

Pre-Admission Testing Experience

Joanne completed Pre-admission testing today. Registration may have been the most difficult part of the day.. gave the registrar the wrong insurance card, stated she was single which led to the registrar asking if I was the mother! LMAO!
Then on ride home, Joanne states that I need to bring proof that we are civil union couple so I can make decisions if she is unable to and with that statement she ends by saying, "Hope catching you on a good day that day!" Priceless.....

Appointment with surgeon and preadmission testing this week.

Appointment with Dr. Testaiuti on Thursday, February 10th and pre-admission testing on Friday, 2/11//11.
Link to Jo's surgeon:  Dr. Mark Testaiuti, MD