Surgery

There's that dreaded word! It was thrown at me yesterday with no other option. I had to cry to the nurses to let me have an appointment with the neurosurgeon earlier than a week and a half from now and they took pity on me and gave me a 9:00 am slot yesterday morning. The first time I met with him I was improving so there was nothing to do but schedule a follow up for March. This time, after describing to him the pain that made me wrap my right arm up over my head and grab it with the left hand to keep from screaming he said my only options were drugs (which aren't taking much of the discomfort away) and cause me addiction or surgery and that would take place on Thursday. Great way to spend Valentine's Day! It's an over night stay and then home on Friday if all goes well. Apparently I jumped from being able to use therapy and traction to the bell ringer end of show! On top of this they sent me to get my pre-op done. Blood work, EKG, and chest x-ray. All that with my arm still wrapped around my head and a blood curdling scream just waiting to be released. Of course, yesterday was the day that my long awaited snow fall (whoopee, an inch) was coming down I had to deal with driving in that with one arm.

My daughter is taking the day off to sit and hold my hubby's hand while I'm going through this nightmare. Have to put on a brave face so he doesn't know that I'm scared, too! I guess the fact that this is happening fast is better than having to dwell on it for weeks or months. I have a cousin who's gone through this already and is now facing lower back reconstruction of her spine. One of the worst backs that the her surgeon has seen. I guess I have nothing to complain about when I think of what she's gone and going through. You can always find someone in much worse shape and realize the hand your dealt is a piece of cake.

I'm taking a book or two with me to the hospital but don't know if I'll get much reading done. Always prepared though. I started a really old one. "Madame Bovary" by Gustave Flaubert. I finished off "The Orchard Keeper" by Cormac McCarthy. I loved his "The Road." I liked his "All the Pretty Horses." I loved his "No Country for Old Men." I hated this one! Actually started it months ago and was so disgusted with it that I put it aside with only 40 pages to go and didn't bother picking it back up again until yesterday. It's finished and if I would have read it first, I wouldn't have probably read anything else by him. Good thing I didn't.