Surgery Centers

Having spent more time than I care to think about in out-patient surgery centers this past year, I've come to a conclusion: They're depressing places. It doesn't matter how new and high tech they are, they're still depressing.

The place B had surgery yesterday is brand-spanking new; it's been open less than a year. It has comfortable chairs and lots of magazines and nice art work and plants. But it was still grim. Everyone there looked miserable and stressed - and those were the people waiting on loved ones. I won't even go into the people waiting for surgery - except for the one toothless man in the corner, sound asleep, snoring with his mouth open. He didn't even wake up when the nurse called him back for his procedure.

B was told to arrive at 1:30 for his 3:30 procedure. At 3:30 I asked the receptionist if she had any idea how much longer it would be before he was called back and was informed that he was sixth in line for surgery with that doctor, who had arrived more than an hour late. At 4:30 they finally took B back for his procedure - three hours spent waiting for an operation that took 45 minutes.

I was glad that I had my knitting with me. I am now six inches into a sock for B - it's lovely gray Arucania wool. The knitting helped to distract me from the drivel on the TV, which was tuned to FOX news. Blech. Fortunately, the coverage of the plane crash in New York ended the conservative propaganda. But then I had to listen to the two women across from me discuss how unfair the media had been to that poor, poor Sarah Palin. "They just kept focusing on her personal life. I mean who cares what magazines she reads. She's the governor of a big state!" Double blech.

Any way - the surgery went well. B is up and around this morning, pain free so far, but that may be a result of the heavy-duty meds he was given after the procedure. The doctor told us that it make up to a week for the effects of the nerve deadening to kick in, but once it does, it should last for 12 to 18 months. I hope the doctor is right.

So B is perky today - he even volunteered to drive carpool this morning - and I feel like I've been hit by a bus as a result of the stress.

Nerve ablation

As I've written before, B was diagnosed last year with arthritis in his neck, a result of his diving career. Turns out that hitting the water head first from 10 meters up does bad things to your neck - who would have thought it.

Last winter he had several rounds of facets injections to deaden the pain in his neck, allowing him to function. The pain relief lasted for about 10 months, but about a month ago the pain returned with a vengeance. He had another series of injections last week, but they didn't work.

So today he's having nerve ablation in the hopes that this will stop the pain. The next step is for a neurosurgeon to go in and shave down some of the bone in his vertebrae to relieve the pressure on the nerves. After that, I don't even want to think about.

Please keep your fingers crossed that this works. He's too young to be having these kinds of problems.

My poor arthritic husband

B spent much of his childhood, teenage years, and collegiate life as a diver - springboard and platform, not SCUBA. He dove for the University of Texas and was on some US National teams. I met him toward the end of his diving career and had no idea of how good he was until the time the UT coach handed me a bunch of awards that belonged to B that had been lying around the coach's office. When I asked the coach if B was any good, he looked at me in disbelief and said, "Um, yeah. He was really good." I wish I had known him at the peak of his career. I love watching him dive, even now that he's older and not in shape for it. He installed a one-meter board up at our lake place so that he can dive when we're up there.

But all of his messing around on the board for fun may have come to an end. For the past couple of months B has been complaining about pain in his neck. He's been going to the chiropractor, which I disagree with, and getting regular massages, which I'm jealous of. The pain, however, kept getting worse. He's now wearing a neck brace. Last week B went for an MRI and a CT scan, which showed damage between his C2 and C3 vertebrae. The MRI seemed to show fractures in his vertebrae, but the CT scan, which is better for looking at bones, didn't show any fractures. Phew.

This morning we went to see an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in necks and spines. The diagnosis - arthritis in his neck. The doctor's immediate recommendation is an injection of anesthesia and steroids into B's neck. That should relieve the pain and get B to the point where he can do rehab, which would otherwise be incredibly painful for him right now. B has an appointment tomorrow with an anesthesiologist to talk about the procedure. The next step would be a procedure to cauterize some of the nerves in his neck. After that, the last step would be to fuse his two vertebrae together, which would eliminate a lot of the range of motion in his neck. This is not an appealing option, especially not at his young age.

The doctor this morning wasn't particularly helpful. He basically said, "You've got arthritis; you're screwed. Here are some pain pills."

The other night B ran through a list of his diving friends who have back and/or neck problems, and it was a frighteningly long list. He's also been doing research, and there aren't many studies on platform divers and the effect the sport has on their bodies. There's just not a huge population of people to study.

I'm just relieved that B has chosen to take action on this. He has the tendency to just ignore things in the hopes that they will go away. Let's hope that the injection and rehab will make a difference for the better.