Everybody loves to laugh, right? Not if you're Mr. V these days. Almost two weeks ago, he was playing Ultimate Frisbee with some of the high school kiddos he teaches and when he finally slowed down, he realized his back was hurting. By the time he got home, he was huffing and puffing just trying to walk around. Sitting down helped. He needed to get into the shower and get back up to the school for a parent meeting. I asked two friends who would be up there to help out and sent him with a pillow for his back. Or bottom. Whichever one would help him more.
When he got home from that meeting, he could barely stand up to get through the door. He tried to sit on the couch but that no longer helped. He hoped to recline but that didn't help, either. So he tried to find a position on the floor that would feel better. He couldn't lay in one place for longer than about 10 seconds (if even) before he shifted to try something else. I couldn't watch it so I called CareNow and started getting things together so we could go.
We went to CareNow and got in almost immediately. I should mention that at this point, Mr. V was on crutches. And I was considering a wheel chair. After ambling down the hallway, we got into the room, and after the nurses asked a few questions, the doc came in and said he wanted to do an X-ray. We already knew he'd want this. We also already knew it wouldn't do anything - which is what Mr. V told the doc. But he also told the doc if he thought that's what we needed to do, that's what we'd do. Upon returning from his X-ray, he lay back down and I tried to talk to him a little.
This was a mistake.
He told me, "Stop being so adorable," through a chuckle.
"How am I being adorable? I'm asking you a question!" My reply just brought on more laughing. And wincing. Turns out, laughter brings pain. I tried my best to stay silent because I had no idea what would make him laugh next and I can't stand to see him in pain.
The next day, Mr. V stayed home and called 20+ spine specialists. You see, Mr. V has had this pain before. And it was just the same. They tried physical therapy, chiropractic services, "wait and see," and steroid shots. They tried it all for a year and a half. None of it worked. Well, the steroid shots worked for about a week and then he was back to square one. I think that counts as "not working." He didn't want to go through it again. You know what happened when he called all of the doctors? The same thing. No one could see him until November. NOVEMBER! This was October 19th for crying out loud! November was just too far away.
His sister-in-law had a great idea, though. She works for a group in Southlake that specializes in spine care. "Spine" is in their name. We got an appointment for the following Monday. The doctor was really nice and they treated us really well when we went but they were certain that surgery wouldn't be necessary. We were set up for a nerve test because his right leg was numb. Driving home, we talked about our options. We had a card for a surgeon that came recommended by our sis-in-law. The plan was to call him after the nerve test, as recommended by the doctor we had just seen. But we were also going to let my dad still try to get us in with his spine surgeon, one that has been consistently recognized as the best in our area by D Magazine from 2000-2010. The fact that he has already successfully performed surgery for someone in our family and comes with all sorts of honors attached to his name made him the first phone call when Mr. V initially got hurt. Mr. V and I agreed that if my dad could get us in, we'd see him.
I got a call during school on Tuesday telling me that they had a last minute cancellation and therefore had a 1pm opening that day if we wanted to go. Of course, we jumped at the opportunity.
This doctor impressed us a ton. He knew, without asking, the symptoms that Mr. V was experiencing and added, without checking first, that he was probably experiencing some weakness in his right calf. Sure enough, his right calf was considerably smaller than his left. And that pretty much sealed the deal. The doctor told us that we could wait it out or just live with it if we wanted (um, no thank you!) and the weakness would never improve. He'd be limping forever. OR we could do surgery and get the pressure off of the nerve so that his leg would function normally again.
In the car on the way home, we decided to go for it. It's surgery that Mr. V had wanted from the beginning.
We weren't 10 minutes from the hospital and we called back to schedule ASAP. Friday at 11:30am.
Friday morning, we got up and got me breakfast. Then we met Mr. V's mom at the hospital. Let's fast foward to after the surgery, shall we? It took an hour longer than they had said. This didn't surprise me too much since my dad's surgery took longer and he didn't have the scar tissue that Mr. V had. But what did surprize me was hearing that his disc herniation wasn't nearly as fresh as we had thought. Well, it was and it wasn't. There was a part that had been herniated for a long time, a part that Mr. V had probably just gotten used to. It was "baked" onto the nerve. BAKED! Good grief! Doc said he couldn't even move the nerve when he initially got in there. It was more difficult than they thought it would be - he had to shave off the old herniation. He got about 85% of the old herniation out of Mr. V's back. Any more than that and he would risk rupturing the dura, a sack that's filled with spinal fluid. The scar tissue already put Mr. V at a higher risk for spinal fluid leaks than with my dad's surgery. They got all of the new herniation because it was fresh and supple, like crab meat instead of leather (these are the doctor's actual comparisons).
We got to go home that day but goodness I wish I had video taped Mr. V as he was waking up. He was hilarious! He asked me once if he'd ever dance again (like that was something he did before the surgery) and, as I was coming back from grabbing some hot chocolate, I caught him asking his mom the same question followed closely by "did I tell that joke already?" Oh, and the jello. He was in LOVE with his jello and wanted to know if I'd gotten any yet. Just the cutest half-conscious man ever.
Our sweet, sweet friend, the gorgeous Miss F came all the way from Addison to bring us dinner and watch the Rangers lose it before heading all the way back to Grapevine. Mr. V was "sleeping it off" when she came and Miss F and I had gotten all caught up when Mr. V decided he wanted to eat. And boy, did he eat. And a few hours later, it all came up again :(
Sleeping was difficult - for some reason, his pills make him hiccup. And his hiccups shake the entire bed. He waited up until 2:30am to get rid of the hiccups last night.
Today, it is hard to get around and it has taken some time for us to figure out the comfortable chairs and positions. We'd say the surgery was a success, but his legs are weak from the surgery. He was supposed to be up walking around for most of the day and he was supposed to walk around every 30 minutes. We didn't read that until later but I took him to the grocery store with me and he did fairly well. But the laughing thing came up again (who knew that telling him I was watching him on my left when he seemed to be drifting toward the right for no apparent reason was funny) and he had to grab ahold of the freezer bin to steady himself so he wouldn't collapse. We were finally finished with our shopping and came upon a chair so I asked if he wanted to sit but the up and down really gets to him so onward we went to check out.
We are relaxing at home, enjoying some of the tv shows we missed last week when we were at various doctors' appointments this past week.
Thank you to Mr. and (especially) Dr. T in Cincinatti for helping us out with a late night call and the follow up call tonight, thank you to Miss F for the delicious meal that I would not have survived last night without. Thank you to my family for the love and support you continue to give - my brother woke up from a dead sleep (he has a 4am shift at work) to call Mr. V the night before his surgery to wish him luck, and my Aunt K has called and updated my other aunts. It has been unbelievable how you have welcomed Mr. V into our family, caring about him as you would any of us. Thank you to Mr. V's family (I count you as family, too) for calling and showing your support. Thank you to all of my friends out there in Facebook land and those from our new church. We are in awe of your dedication. I am overwhelmed by it all in a very good way. And thank you to our school family who have asked me about this entire process and continue to offer to help in any way they can. I love you all so much and think that I am so blessed to know you.
We are open to visitors as long as you can stand the interesting furniture arrangement that we've set up for Mr. V's convenience!
