My Surgery Experience Part Two: Home Sweet Home
I was discharged from the hospital on Wednesday, May 29, and started my journey home from Vancouver to Vancouver Island. The car ride was not as bad as I thought it would be, as I was still heavily medicated and I actually found the car seat very comfortable! On the ferry boat ride, I got out of the car once and walked around for a bit, and then napped until we docked and arrived at my house.
The first challenge that I encountered at home was how low our toilet seats were. Since I could not bend my hips more than 90 degrees, and there were no handles on either side of the toilet, I couldn't use it. The solution? My dad went to a store that specializes in elderly at-home care, and we purchased a toilet seat booster that had handles on it. I cannot even begin to describe how useful this was for my recovery, it allowed me to have more freedom and not require assistance in the bathroom.
The second challenge at home was being comfortable. Since I was only used to hospital chairs (that have a certain firmness) and my hospital bed (who's height and angles are adjustable, with barricades to help you manoeuvre yourself), sitting in chairs and laying on my bed were extremely painful. I ended up claiming a firmer, taller chair with larger armrests as 'mine,' and my mom put a bunch of pillows on it for back support. When I first arrived at home, I could only stay seated for about 30 minutes at a time before the pain became too unbearable. When I could no longer sit, I'd lay in bed. Getting in and out of bed without the help of nurses was quite difficult at first, but after a couple days we got the hang of it! I'd lay down on my back with pillows under my knees, pillows on my sides, and a 'hug pillow' on top of my chest. I could only lay on my back, comfortably for around three hours, so my mother would come and help me turn onto my side. This required about six to eight pillows, because I always felt like my core was trying to twist, so I needed a lot of pillows in front and behind me. At night, I'd wake up about every three hours, and have to either get up and walk around or be turned over (my poor mom became a bit sleep deprived). I found my bed to be extremely uncomfortable after surgery (I also found it uncomfortable before surgery), so we bought a memory foam mattress. THIS IS NOT A MUST; however, it made an unimaginable difference in my recovery. After getting the new mattress, I could stay in bed around five hours at a time, and I felt as though I was more supported when I would lay on my side, and required less pillows.
After a couple days went by, I still could not sleep through the night due to severe stomach pains when I would lay on my back. This is where my third challenge at home was realized: pain medications. Everyone has a different experience with medicating; however I was on very high doses or morphine, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen. The morphine made me really dizzy, nauseous, bloated, and gave me other unpleasant side effects associated with taking opioids for pain relief. I was taking the maximum dose allowed at home, and after a couple days I worried that I would run out of morphine and be in unbearable pain. This was not the case. As my back pain became more manageable, I realized that the stomach pains and muscle cramps were contributing to my lower back pain, that I would prefer not taking as much morphine. Lowering my dose of morphine helped a bit, and the severity of my side effects decreased, but they did not stop. Personally, I'd rather be in moderate physical pain than be nauseous, dizzy, and have moderate to severe stomach pains, so I stopped taking morphine on June 2nd (I still took the maximum doses of my other medications). After a day or so, my stomach pain completely stopped, and my pain level went from an 8 out of 10 to about a 4 out of 10! I stopped taking all pain medications on June 12th (blog post regarding at home post-surgery Scoliosis life hacks to come).
After a couple days at home recovering, I could tell I was improving faster than when I was in the hospital. I was eating food that I was used to eating, and within a couple days I was eating fuller and larger meals. I think just being in my home, where I was more comfortable, made it easier to get into a routine, and I was able to focus on myself more and what I needed to do to recover as quick, and as best as I could. Of course, there's a lot of things that I cannot do by myself at home though... For example, I still am restricted to lifting less than five pounds, which makes it hard to open the fridge, lift a milk jug, and move stuff around. I also don't have enough range of motion to bend down and pick stuff up yet, so if anything drops on the floor, it stays there until someone can pick it up (oops)!
I will be doing another blog post shortly about how my recovery is going with more up-to-date information!
This blog is my own personal experience and journey with Scoliosis. It is not a medical blog, and if anyone has concerns about their own health, they should see a physician.