OLD MAN MAINTENANCE

Thursday, December 10 - Nerve root Epidural steroid injections @ F4/F5. That's my treat for tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. at the Spinal Care Hospital of Houston. Marsha's treat is she gets to drive me home from downtown Houston. A bigger treat will be if it's during rush hour. Actually, we should be done before the 4 p.m. rush hour if all goes off on schedule. Not permitted to lift, twist, bend for two weeks…..good luck with that. Looks like Marsha will have to do all the setting up at our site. Poor girl.

Friday, December 11 – Well, not to bad a procedure. They took me back about 11:15 a.m. They gave me an IV. I was given a med to put me in a twilight sleep but I was out! Next thing I know the nurse was asking me if I would like something to eat and drink. With very wobbly knees, they released me at 2:00. I think Marsha did a great job of driving home….not sure…..I slept the entire way home.

Later, when I was much more alert. Marsha shared with me some of the things I said while still groggy. She said I had the nurses in stitches….no pun intended…..LOL. They wanted to get me up and walking but I still wasn’t very stable. Two nurses got a walker for me to use and asked Marsha to come around the front of the walker. Marsha asked them why she was in front. One nurse told her that she was going to pull Paul’s pants up…..to which Paul responded…..”She doesn’t know how to do that, she only knows how to pull them down.” Oh brother, the entire recovery room broke out in laughter. Marsha said she apologized for me.  I then had to use the restroom. They would not let me go alone, so Marsha had to stay in with me. When we went to exit the restroom, Marsha couldn’t get the door unlocked. She was making a bunch of racket trying to open the door. When we finally got out, two different nurses were standing at the door. Marsha said I looked at them and said…..”She is a wild one.” Which broke them all up,again Marsha apologized. Guess I shouldn’t talk when I am sedated. Sorry hon…..at least the nurses had a good laugh.

Saturday, December 12 – Went to Carrie's today. Marsha and Carrie spent the day making Christmas cookies. I ate about a dozen..........yum! Marsha said she still has two more kinds she wants to make, and I will have the honor of icing the cutout cookies tomorrow…..Yea for me.

My back actually feels pretty good. I would say out of a 10, 10 being MAD, I am about a 5. Real improvement! So, I spent a couple hours scouting out RV Parks. We are considering moving down to the west side of Houston after Christmas so we will be ready to head West after Marsha returns from her trip to Ohio. I did eliminate one place, but didn’t have any luck finding a good place, need to check more on the internet. We got back home about 6:30 pm. It was a foogy drive. The days have been getting warmer, but the nights are still very cool. 70 tomorrow and 72 on Monday.

Hope to be able to give you a great report on my back in future blogs. Thanks for stopping by.