[SnowWhyte]

Hi Everybody!

Sorry I've been awol for so long, but I'm finally back with an update post-implant surgery!

First, it started off with a bit of a mess... after almost an hour's drive (by my dad and step-mom) to the surgery center I got there and was told that my surgery was rescheduled for the next day ("didn't I get their voicemails?" er, "NO!").... Then after some haggling it was determined that they would indeed do the surgery that day (Thursday 27th). So I was very relieved as I didn't want to put my parents through having to drive all that way all over again. Anyway they bring me back to pre-op and start with the standard questions when in comes my surgeon's asst. who pulls the nurse out of the room and says "hold off for a sec..." Now what? I'm thinking. Well it turned out that my surgeon had to leave immediately to do an emergency removal on a patient who (I assume) developed an infection. So after all that, my surgery got postponed till the next day after all! But I understood, of course, and pray for the patient who had to have the emergency surgery.

So onto Friday the 28th, they were extremely nice about everything, even giving my dad a gas card for the trouble! They got me in right away and it went fairly well... except after the leads being tested and being put "deeply" under, I woke back up and WOWZA was I in pain! It was temporary, but boy it hurt! But it seems that that's just me- I ALWAYS 'come to' when I shouldn't during surgeries... I warned them but I guess they still couldn't prevent it.

Then after waking up and getting some more morphine, as I was in LOTS of pain, I got ready for the trip home, which wasn't as bad as I expected. They sent me home with my Medtronic pack but didn't attempt to show/teach me anything about it that day, nor did they turn on the unit... That all was done at my first follow up appt- last Thurs.

So the first week was rough. Ice was and still is my best friend. but I'm so pleased with the Stim placement and results... Dare I say that the placement and coverage is better now than with the temp. stim... And I think that after just the first programming it's pretty close to perfect. I can't wait till my next appt- this Thurs- to program the AdaptiveStim! It will be so nice to not have to adjust it as I change positions.

I also am looking forward to my back pain letting up... It's really killing me, although it's easier to take now that my stim is programmed and it's obvious WHY I'm going through this pain... That there IS an upside to it!

So that's been my life for the past couple weeks.... Hope you didn't miss me too bad

Love ya all

~Colleen