first of all it’s most important to say that the surgery did go well and was a total success!! My surgeon seemed extremely happy with how it turned out. He showed me the cat scan of my spine and how it looks now and it’s pretty crazy seeing all the metal and screws. But it was, in his own words, “UH-mazing” so I’ll take that as an absolute win.

It looks like a normal spine now, minus all the new stuff. Meaning to say, that the curvature is normal again, the disc herniaton is gone... it’s pretty amazing

So like, in the long term that’s probably going to be super awesome! We’ll know more about how genuinely successful it was in a few weeks to months as I get into physical therapy and all that.

MEANWHILE HOWEVER, THIS HOSPITAL STAY HAS BEEN THE MOST MISERABLE GODDAMN THING EVER.

Partially because holy shit this is far and away the most pain I’ve ever been in and partially because holy shit no one can seem to get their shit together to save their lives, much less MINE

the first night was the worst and thankfully last night was better. But man. What a bad night. I didn’t get out of surgery until 6 PM and wasnt moved to my hospital room until 10 PM so staffing was obviously very light and that went poorly for me

Leeeets just, here, laughs:

Since I don’t have nearly the energy to type all that out again

The second thing has been that the anesthesia wore off more slowly than I thought. We managed to change my pain protocol yesterday in the late morning and I was comfortable (ish...) for a few hours, but it turns out the anesthesia was/is STILL leaving my system and quickly failed to do anything to help the pain.

But by the time that became clear, once again there was no staff around who could manage my pain. so that just. happened. I’ve just kind of been lying here wishing for sweet sweet death.

The last and third thing is that it’s looking like I may actually be in here upwards of four days instead of the two I expected! Yyyyyyaaaaaaaayyyyyy

My expectation rn is that I’ll probably be released Saturday, but maybe if there’s a miracle I can go home tomorrow. We’ll find out

protip kids, try to avoid ever needing major back surgery

.... on the plus side though, the food has been pretty good 🤔

OH NO ... oh my god, I am so sorry that your care has been so horrible

but I am glad the surgery itself went well and the food is tasty!!

I'm glad you got the surgery behind you. but I'm sorry for the hospital trouble

W-WELL….

!!!!!! that sounds like a nightmare but pip i'm so glad your surgery went well!! i hope they get their act together and you're comfortable for however many more days you'll need to be there

w-wheezes wELL I'M GLAD THE LONG TERM PROBLEM WENT WELL

WELL... new spine! the rest of it is lame tho D:

Pip my love, I'm so glad it went well and I hope your recovery goes well too <3

but yeeesh

oh my god hi guys

you’re all so kind, thank you so much

Yeah apparently my care has been really messed up? We’ve been talking to a patient care coordinator and she’s apparently horrified at how my care has been handled

So that’s, uh, something

crepusculae: tysm Kayla!!!! yeah lmao, one of the best things of the past few days has been the food so silver linings ig!!!

Intercession: yeah it’s been. a lot. two nights in a row I was just kind of abandoned to be in a ton of pain, it’s lucky I was able to even sleep last night... So we’re working to make sure there’s something in place tonight so I’m not just left to my own suffering devices

DrFishbone: LMAO YEAH MY FACE DO

*also not do wtf

birdseed: IT HAS BEEN A TOTAL NIGHTMARE I’m just hoping that by the time they want to send me home, my pain is controlled and I’m more comfortable. I know I won’t be OUT of pain, that’s impossible rn, I just want to know it’ll be at a level we can manage at home...

It’s not like we’ll be able to come back to the hospital if the pain turns out unmanageable. the ER would laugh me out of the room and tell me to call my surgical team... so we have to get this right

nightstarfever: WEEEEEEEEEE’RE WORKIN ON IT!!! tbh just to get out of pain I slept for hours today and that kinda helped so that’s something!!

ghosthotel: LAME LMAO yeah pretty much. new spine though!!!

idolhell: thank you so much nina yeah we’ll... see... laughs into the void

the rough part rn is I’ve been taken off all IV medication, all my meds are oral now. that would be fine but ofc oral medications take a while to kick in and if I’m having extreme pain...

man I’d love to go home tomorrow. I miss my cats lmao 😭

new spine who dis??

but I literally cannot leave until my pain is controlled and [TMI warning] I have a bowel movement... so at this point I’m just twiddling my thumbs and waiting

i hope that you'll be able to go home very soon!!

LMAO TRU THO

new spine... I wish I had the cat scan images so I could share... they’re metal as FUCK (figuratively and literally)

In the long term I know it’s going to be really amazing and I can’t wait!!!!

In the short term ............... WE’LL SEE, LAUGHS

i'm glad the coordinator seems to be y'know, HORRIFIED AS WELL HOLY SHIT

i'm so excited for your future, my love

YAY SLEEP. but oof I've got my fingers your coordinator will throw hands in your honor

metal as fuck literally and figuratively ewnsgkjfdn

I remember doing rotations in the hospital surgical unit and there's literally a check box for needing to have a bowel movement before discharge

Wishing you the best!!!