After six very long and painful months, Brent had back surgery. He hurt is back the first week of January 2008... Lucas was just three weeks old. Brent spent a lot of time lying on the floor those months because that was the only thing that lessened the pain (lessened, not relieved).
This was also the first spring of his new job. The job he needed to lift and throw bags of seed. The job he needed to climb on and off a forklift.
He tried physical therapy for weeks, it helped some. He tried steroid shots to help the pain, they didn't work at all. The pain killers helped. Tthinking back, he probably shouldn't have been operating some of the equipment he was!
By April, it was decided that back surgery would be the best option. Of course, nothing is a guarantee and he could still have pain. But at the time, it was the best hope he had to feel better. Because of the nature of the seed business, he couldn't have the surgery until spring planting was done. It was scheduled for June 11.
The Friday night before his surgery, Brent was in excruciating pain. I called his parents and asked them to come watch Lucas because I was prepared to take Brent to the emergency room. After some time on the phone with the First Nurse, it was decided not to go to the ER. They wouldn't do an emergency surgery and we already knew that the steroid shots weren't working for him so we might as well stay home. Just five days until surgery.
I remember driving to the hospital the morning of surgery... we left home about 6AM. We had our first Tahoe then - I was driving and Brent was in the passenger seat. We only made it about eight blocks before Brent couldn't handle the car ride. I pulled over and opened the lift gate - Brent climbed in the back of the Tahoe so he could lie down for the 60 mile trip.
The surgery took longer than expected. After speaking with Dr. Kaspar, he said it would be a little while before he was out of recovery and into a room. Shortly after that, a nurse came to get me because while still drugged up in the recovery room, Brent insisted to the nurse that I would be worried and should be allowed to see him. {that makes me smile even thinking back} Later that evening, Brent was up and walking. I couldn't believe it. He said he could tell a difference as soon as the drugs wore off: it was a success!
Besides the pain factor, surgery was just in time because two weeks after surgery, Lucas started crawling!
Recovery photo: June 16, 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment