Week 9 - Day Before Procedure

Hello from Baltimore. Brad and I left immediately for Maryland after work last night, which was interesting. High winds and rain through central PA; saw lots of transformers blow and at one point there was a tree that had fallen on the interstate, but no damage to us or anyone as far as we could tell. Made it to Cockeysville about midnight and fell asleep pretty instantly. It was a very long day. A long week, actually, and I'm pretty exhausted.

Today we went to the hospital and saw my spine surgeon first. Dr. McAfee is just the best, I must say. They did x-rays and everything looked perfect. Perfect bone growth, everything is in place. Based on how the x-rays looked and how I've been working and the fact I drove from Ohio to Maryland, he stated that I looked more like a patient who had surgery 4-6 months ago instead of 9 weeks ago. He couldn't believe I could drive that long of a distance, and immediately recorded it in his recorder where he gives his patient notes. I now will start therapy in Ohio to help rebuild my muscle strength, and will do a follow-up in two months. I have no restrictions, including no more medication restrictions.

The whole ortho staff was so friendly and warm to us. My case manager made sure that I was taken care of for the vascular procedure tomorrow, making sure that the correct lab work was going to be done, etc. She told me to call her and let her know how things went; they are all anxious to hear how it goes. It's really a great office.

I had my bloodwork done, but no call from the vascular office giving me the count or telling me to come in today. My guess is they will do a quick count in the morning and then do a transfusion. The surgeon wants my platelets at 50k, and I'd be amazed if they were at that level on their own. I could actually see the filter in my spine x-ray shot, and it's a lot bigger than I thought it was. I kept thinking it was some little thing, but in terms of length it's the size of a toothpick with three long prong-like arms that join together at the end. Now it makes a bit more sense why I might be reacting to it so badly.

WhileI was able to drive last night, my hands feel like they have a thousand pins in them today and my legs are killing me. We went to another Marriott hotel today (they have a promotion and to get points you have to stay at a minimum two locations so we're just playing the "game") around 2pm. We're staying in a Fairfield Inn that is across the road from the Residence Inn we stayed in back in December. We're in a mini-suite and it's an amazing hotel. It's so modern I feel like we're in a Westin Hotel. Everything is so modern and state-of-the-art. The beds are also new; we saw the delivery truck when we were here in December and were jealous, as the Residence Inn beds were horrible. This will be a good place to stay for a couple of days.

Tomorrow I check into the hospital at 6am, and then I think the procedure is scheduled for somewhere between 8-9am. I don't know what's involved, just that it will be longer than when they put it in, which took about 20 minutes. I'm guessing I could be at the hospital until at least 2pm, as last time they kept me several hours to make sure the drugs wore off, that I wasn't bleeding, etc. We'll then head back to the hotel and I'll rest for the day. Saturday the plan is to head home; hopefully weather will cooperate.

Well I can't type any more as the pain is too much, so I'm off for now. Thank you all again for your support; I know I'll be ok, I'm in great hands. I honestly wish I could go here for all of my medical care, it's just a wonderful environment and unlike any place I've ever been.