I’m home from hospital now. A full 9 days now.

My experience was amazing! How odd is that? I just had a vertebrae in my lower back removed and it was amazing!

This is Tim taking photos of me trying to appear calm. Five minutes and it all started happening!

I could not fault the staff and medical team on my case. I didn’t wait longer than 15 minutes to be called in. And when we did they had us so busy answering questions and signing my life away, that I wasn’t nervous at all. I was completely calm through the needles and gas. That lasted 10____9____8___7_____________(3 hours later) __________ recovery room.

These are my sexy compression stockings. Despite them being totally unatractive they’re also really nice to wear!! The ones with the orange lines on it are like a blood pressure machine for your legs. Evert 3_5 minutes they would automatically bmow up and put pressure on your legs BUT they alsi VIBRATE!?!?

The drugs!! That first 12 hours after any operation are THE BEST hours ever!!!

Foggy from the anesthetic. High on morphine. You want to talk but you really just want to be moaning ” yeah man, trippy”

Without a word of a lie I believe it took me more than four hours to write my first status update. I kept passing out mid typing only to startle awake an hour or so later with my finger still resting on the last letter i had typed. My hand still holding my phone in position. It would take me ten minutes to clear my head enough to figure out what i had been trying to say, would figure out what i had to continue with and pass out again. Or post incoherent replies.

The food wasn’t so bad i had Tim bring me nothing. Normally i just get him to bring me Macca’s.

My three nurses were pretty cool. One of them we called my *happy* nurse (aka. Very obviously gay) was so awesome. He joked with me all day and we gossip and shared chocolate. Ill really miss him! When i went to say good bye to him he gave me a quick gay hug and said “Thanks for the chocolate sister”

I was out of bed within 12 hours of the operation. Walking about. I’d been begging to get out of bed for hours over night but i wasn’t allowed to get out until the physio’s came.

I was incredibly surprised at how little it hurt. I fainted after four steps after my c-section with Jaxon. That’s a pain Ill never for forget. I expected far worse for this. But it wasn’t as bad as i feared.

Now by that I don’t want you thinking this was a walk in the park. Oh! My! God! It was pretty darned awful. By

day two i was getting snappy at them because they said I’d be controlling my pain with a clicker thing. Apparently i was dealing with the pain this trauma to well to warrant anything other than panadol. Nothing they gave me really entirely worked. I could walk quite well without pain but laying down was and still is an interesting experience. Sitting is not the best experience either. After 4 minutes i feel like i might be skewed through my lower back with a burning hot metal stake.

On the Wednesday afternoon the physio’s had cleared me to go home. They got me a shower chair which is handy and gave me tips about how to use the pain of this op to slowly change my lower back with posture. If i start hurting while I’m bending, I’m doing it wrong.

Here on day nine I can last hours without any pain killers and sometime only need panadol. Im very stiff and can’t even lean much less bend and can’t swivel either. Or lift more than one kilo for the next 3 weeks. Night time’s are by far the worst for pain. I can last about four hours of painful rolls and uncomfortable positions. Then i have to move to the couch with 22 pillows to get comfy.

So far i have no regrets. Everything has gone to plan and Im recovering in line with whits expected. All i need to do now is fully relinquish my roll as Mummy to Grandma. Its hard to see your house run smoothly by someone else leaving you un-needed. Grandma, i have discovered has some very good parenting tips.

I’m so happy Im not in unbearable pain. That nerve pain. Nerve pain only occurs when Im over doing it. So when i have it i need to get up for nothing but toilet and meal times. And for chocolate. Im thankful i can still walk and that now i can take Dougie for a walk around the block without having my foot feel like a brick with numb toes and an achilles heal that could be being twanged all day.

Im glad that the pain isn’t so bad. Its only a tiny bit worse than any pain Ivee had before but THIS time i know it will get better.

And thank you Mum! Im going to build you the nicest granny flat one day so when you need me to care for you like you’re doing for my family right now you’ll feel right at home. You’re amazing!!!

(quick thank you to Unique for having Jaxon for us all week. LIFESAVER!)