Back surgery and biking don't seem to go together too well. I'm sure it is done all the time but I have never read an article about it in CYCLE WORLD or RIDING SOUTH MAGAZINE, so in the next few weeks/months, however long it takes I plan to blog it here.
Never mind how I got to the point of needing back surgery. It was a years long decline that had recently started to have an impact on my riding activities, time to go under the knife or laser, what ever they use.
After about an hour of pre-op time where you get issued your tie in the back gown, asked the same questions over and over again by different people and get stuck several times for I.Vs. and thing like that I am getting rolled into the operating room. It's 10:45am and I remember seeing my surgeon washing his hands and smiling. My next conscious memory was being in the middle of an ER like tv show at 5:45pm. Nurses are running around, people are still sticking me with IVs, taking my blood pressure. My wife has her brave front smile on as I hear someone say, He's lost a lot of blood and the pressure is 65/37, I sure wish the doctor would come in but he says were doing the right things. I'm thinking that doesn't sound too good but know what? I don't give a hoot and I go back to sleep.
I wake up a few hours later and little more aware of my surroundings. I have it all, oxygen tube, IVs all over the place, blood pressure cuff cutting my arm off every few minutes, a catheter, some kind of drainage catching ball running out of my back. I can't move and my mouth feels like the bottom of an ash tray.
End of day one, Aug 6, 2004. I'll add to this as I feel like it.
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