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Surgery Results
Aug. 3rd, 2005 09:46 pmWell, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jennlk is out of the OR, awake (when I left her) and quite uncomfortable.
The doctor did wind up doing fusion of both L5-S1 as expected and L4-L5 as was warned as a possibility. He said that the deterioration was fairly extensive there as well and it had to be done or there would still have been considerable pain.
There was a fair amount of blood loss due to decompression of the area, but nothing much out of the ordinary. The doctor was not concerned about that.
Jenn is on IV fluids and a morphine pump for now, with a fair amount of pain (after 1st post-op painkiller but before the morphine, she said "8" on the 1-10 scale; but I think her "8" would be my "11") She's required to lay flat for 24 hours before the bed can even be inclined.
In all, the surgery lasted a bit longer than expected (5.5 hours) and the doctor did a bit more than expected, and had some things that just wouldn't cooperate, but in the end seemed to think it was an acceptable outcome. We've all had a long day, but things have gone about as expected, and we all are hoping for the best. The "best" still means months of recovery, but hopefully with a real life at the end of the tunnel.
jennlk is out of the OR, awake (when I left her) and quite uncomfortable.The doctor did wind up doing fusion of both L5-S1 as expected and L4-L5 as was warned as a possibility. He said that the deterioration was fairly extensive there as well and it had to be done or there would still have been considerable pain.
There was a fair amount of blood loss due to decompression of the area, but nothing much out of the ordinary. The doctor was not concerned about that.
Jenn is on IV fluids and a morphine pump for now, with a fair amount of pain (after 1st post-op painkiller but before the morphine, she said "8" on the 1-10 scale; but I think her "8" would be my "11") She's required to lay flat for 24 hours before the bed can even be inclined.
In all, the surgery lasted a bit longer than expected (5.5 hours) and the doctor did a bit more than expected, and had some things that just wouldn't cooperate, but in the end seemed to think it was an acceptable outcome. We've all had a long day, but things have gone about as expected, and we all are hoping for the best. The "best" still means months of recovery, but hopefully with a real life at the end of the tunnel.
