It took a long time to get comfortable in bed on Saturday night, trying different pillows to find one right for my neck. I did sleep reasonably well though despite being up for a few wees in the night.
I spent much of the day sat in the family room so I could look out over the garden. I slept quite a bit more there in the morning. The extent of me needing to continue to do very little – just like when I was in hospital – really hit home. It didn’t take much at all by way of gently mobilising to absolutely knacker me out. I started to compile a list of questions to email the SCS team for Monday.
Mid afternoon I got a call from physio Katie. Bit thrown by the fact she started by saying I’d left hospital without seeing her again. She said she had wanted to come back but had been swamped, and the ward had presumed that as I was using my stick independently I was ok to go. She agreed that was fine, but wanted to refer me to outpatient physio as she is a little concerned with my walking. We had a bit of a chat about my dos and don’ts, and she emailed me a post spinal surgery advice sheet. She felt I’d been given advice based on the fitting of the device, but that it was more about the spinal surgery – and the fact I’d had another laminectomy in particular – that should’ve been factored into my discharge.
Last night took me a long time to get comfortable, and even my go-to playlist didn’t work it’s magic for a while. I woke about 5.30-6 and dozed before listening to the Today programme. I must’ve nodded off again about 8 (I vaguely remember the 8am news coming on) and eventually got up about 9. I pootled around a bit and then sat back on the family room and did stuff that I really don’t remember what but it clearly killed time. 😀
The specialist neuro physio, Karen, rang in the afternoon and went through the questions I’d emailed the team. She had also sent me an email response but wanted to have a chat as well. Karen basically reiterated the post-surgery advice that Katie had told me, and clarified that, where my discharge summary said I’d attend a nurse-led clinic in 3 weeks, that should’ve read 3 months and is in fact the appointment I’ve already received for September. Karen had spoken to Mr Mundil about the lidocaine patches, and they arranged for a prescription to be sent to the outpatient pharmacy for Ruth to collect. Mr Mundil also advised I should use some tramadol if I need to.
One of my questions was about notifying DVLA. The advice is that I should tell them, but the type of device doesn’t usually cause any concerns. I can’t drive for 6 weeks anyway.
Having collected the patches, and also picked up some spare dressings, Ruth removed the dressing from my neck. It’s starting to get very itchy now. At the moment the lidocaine seems to be helping, so we’ll see how the rest of the night goes.
Next main step is removal of the sutures on Thursday. 😀