Four More Days

This entry probably won't have much to do with my back, and it's gonna be pretty short.  I've had some pain in my right lumbar region today, but that's the least of my worries right now.  This sunburn is awful!  I have painful water blisters all over my nose and some on my forehead, and my arms and legs are beet red.  It's just bad all around.  I'm going to eat with some friends at Mazatlan despite the fact that I look like a burn victim.  At least those antibiotics in the hospital will help with the healing!

So here's what I have to do over the next few days.  I have to start using my antibacterial soap in the shower starting today, keep taking my calcium horse pills, and not take any pain medications until the surgery. We're heading to a hotel in Raleigh Wednesday night because I have to be at the hospital at 6:15 on Thursday morning.  Also, I can't eat anything after midnight on Wednesday, which will not be fun.  I'm gonna be so hungry Thursday morning!  I'm sure the Jello after surgery will fill me up though.

I wanted to make a correction on the last post without actually changing it. Instead of replacing my vertebrae with rods and screws, Dr. Hey will just be drilling into my vertebrae and putting in rods and screws to straighten them.  He'll be using cadaver bone, too.  Before the surgery and before I am anesthetized, I'll be given a shot of Lorazepam to calm me down.  I'm gonna need a big dose of that, I'm sure!  Then I get the hand IV and a lot of other stuff to keep me asleep, they insert a breathing tube, and they put pins in my hands to make sure they're working all right.  I know it's a lot more complicated than this, but that's the way I understand it!

Anyways, I'm about to shut down the laptop and head to bed so I can read some more of Cold Mountain, which is an excellent book, I must say.  The movie is great as well, so I recommend both.  Off to lotion up my burns and brush my teeth.  Four more days until a straight spine!