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 |  Writings about things that have occurred in my life. Not in Chronological Order |
| Things that have happened in my life, good or bad. The entries will not be in Chronological order |
A Better Day Well, for the past 10 days or so, I've lived with pain from the spinal surgery. I have always been one who detests taking meds routinely for some reason which is a big part of why I've had so much pain. That, and the fact that I 'expected' to recover from this a little faster than I have. But when you realize that the surgeon had to cut through the muscles in the back of the neck and separate them to get to the spinal column, it makes sense that this would not heal quickly. I was expecting too much, and was unrealistic in my expectations of recovery. Today has been a good day. It's not been pain free, but it's been A LOT better than it has these past 10 days. On a separate note, I received a compliment of sorts at work today. Last year I spent a week cross-training one of our Asia Pacific instructors on a series of topics that he needed information about. It went well, and he was very appreciative of what we did. Now a woman who works for him will be in our Fort Lauderdale complex delivering a class, followed by a couple of weeks in Schaumburg. She e-mailed me today asking if I could be available one of those weeks to cross-train her on several subjects. Well, as you might imagine, I don't control my schedule, but I am free one of those weeks. I informed my managers about this, and now I am scheduled to work with her the first week in April. Being asked to cross-train someone is always a compliment in my eyes. But having a manager you cross-trained a few months ago recommend to one of his employees that she ask to have me cross-train her also is a bigger compliment. The first week of March starts my 'new schedule'. While I'm not scheduled to travel a lot, I will be teaching a lot more. Some at home, some in Schaumburg, and some in the field. Starting the week of Valentines, and going to the end of June is 19 weeks. I will deliver 7 weeks of online classes, 6 weeks of Field classes, 1 day of 'Virtual Professor' (I'm in a Virtual Classroom waiting for people to come in and ask questions), 2 weeks delivering classes in Schaumburg, and 1 week in Schaumburg Cross-Training the Asia Pacific (APAC) instructor. One of my 'free' weeks will be a week of meetings and such during Memorial Day week. So yep, it's gonna get busy, and remain that way the rest of this year. Believe it or not, I'm looking forward to it! That's all for now. Aren't you glad? Till next time, y'all be good, take care of yourselves, and love those who love you. And of course, keep on writing!  Jim Dorrell |
My Cervical Spinal Surgery On 1/24 I had surgery on my Cervical Spine. This was necessary due to the numbness and associated weakness in my left hand and arm. I found out a couple of things after I'd been prepped for surgery. The resident doctor who would be assisting during the surgery stopped by and talked to me for a minute. He said something I wish I'd known earlier. "This is probably the most painful surgery we do." I was thinking, 'You just had to say that, didn't you.' There was one thing slightly different in my surgery than most. This surgery is normally done by accessing the spine from the front, making an incision in the front of your throat and moving your vocal chords and larynx to the side to gain access to the spinal column. I've had problems swallowing at times, not often, but often enough. When I mentioned that to the surgeon during our meeting, she decided she would access my spine from the back of my neck. As a result, I have a six inch incision starting right about the middle of my neck, going down. The reason I have so much pain is she had to cut my neck muscles and pull them apart to access my spine! Yeah, everything's been a pain in the neck for the last 8 days, pun intended. (I have a 'clean photo', taken after the bandages were removed, should anyone want to see it). The surgery itself took FOUR hours. Something else I didn't know. Doing this from the posterior side, they had to immobilize my head. So they used pointed rods in a brace type setup to hold my head in place. She couldn't have me moving my head at all during surgery, could she? I still have tender spots around my head where those rods dug into my scalp. She fused the C4, C5, C6, and C7 vertebrae together by placing a small screw in each, then using four 4 inch rods to keep them properly spaced. Surprisingly, I have almost full movement of my neck in all directions. I've lost some flexibility, but not a lot. I was sent to recovery, and ended up spending 3 hours there. The reason was my breathing. I took a few deep breaths as needed, but not near enough. Essentially I was still out of it, and wasn't breathing right. I'd take a breath, exhale, then stop breathing for a bit before inhaling again. They finally transferred me to my room. I guess that in moving me from the gurney to my bed, I flashed whoever was around as I thrashed my legs in the movement.  I don't think that anyone who saw that was overly impressed.... I remember none of this, but 'you know who' recorded a video of the whole process. I only remember waking in my room around 4:30 or so.Monday was a blur, I went into surgery right about 8 am, I'm told I went into recovery right about noon, and was in my room sometime between 3 and 4. None of that is in my memory other than pre-surgery. In fact, I remember someone saying they were starting the meds to put me to sleep, and I said something about 'Good night everyone, see you later!" I was out very quickly, and remember nothing after that. Tuesday and Wednesday were better, it was when the doctor removed the gauze pads and tape from my incision that I asked them to snap that photo. She had inserted a drain on either side of my incision, they were removed Thursday morning. Tuesday and Wednesday I was in and out of it all day, mainly because they had me on morphine and Tramadol. I was finally discharged about 2pm. My home meds included Tramadol (an Opiate based medicine), and Valium. I took those Thursday through Saturday, but stopped taking the Valium after that. Right now I alternate Tramadol and Tylenol three hours apart. I do pretty well, as long as I can remember to take my pain meds. Even taking the pain meds, it's difficult to sit up right (even wearing the soft cervical collar) for very long. That's all for now. Aren't you glad? Till next time, y'all be good, take care of yourselves, and love those who love you. And of course, keep on writing! Jim Dorrell |
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Oops... there she blows!