Sure. My surgery was 6-8 hours long (it's been almost 2 years, so I can't remember exactly). I was in the hospital for 4 nights. I slept a lot of that time. My pain was well-controlled with a morphine button, oral meds, and a "pain ball" near the location of the incision.

My parents stayed at the Parkway Hotel which is attached to Barnes Jewish Hospital, and then I stayed there for 2 nights after I was discharged from the hospital so that I would be there for a PT consult and a post-op appointment where I got my drain removed.

The pain was pretty bad early on, and I had to be sure to stay on top of it with the pain meds. I had plenty of meds, so it just kind of ended up being a concern about how sedated I wanted to be. After a few weeks, I really wanted to be able to be up and around more, so I started weaning off the meds. I went back to work half-time at 4 1/2 weeks, and by that time I was only taking hydrocodone at night (I was done with the OxyContin). I went back to work full-time at 5 1/2 weeks. I was still pretty tired and in some pain especially when I had to type a lot but generally did pretty well.

I was in PT for almost 9 months after my surgery. Overall I think my outcome was good. I still get some muscular pain off and on, but it's not nearly as bad as it was before my surgery. And now I don't have to worry about my aneurysm causing any problems. I do have some numbness right around the surgery site, but I don't notice it very much.

Please let me know if you have any other questions!