Hi All!!!
Well, I finally no longer feel like the walking dead (my brain is sort of working again!!), so I wanted to let you all know how much we appreciate your support and ever so kind words!!! Thank you truly!!!!
The surgery went really well, although there was a lot of 'clean up' that had to be done because of bone spurs and arthritic changes in his lower neck. The poor guy's spinal cords looked like one of these hoses, instead of a real spinal cord, which is smooth:
/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/414iXORoSNL.jpg The numbness and pain in his neck and arms is lowered significantly already!! He told me while we were driving home, that he was in less pain that when we drove up for the surgery, just 2 days prior!
His balance is back (he used to be very 'wobbly'), and he has had one migraine the day of surgery, and a really bad headache last night (from trying to do too much, I"m sure).
When I talked to the surgeon right after surgery, he told me that if this had been a 16 year old kid, he would have been telling his parents to expect a loss of range of motion, but because my hubby's neck was so heavily compromised, that he will most likely gain some range of motion in his neck now! And, they do expect the numbness and pain when he raises his arms to subside soon as well.
His throat has been very sore - they had to push it to the side to do this surgery, so there is trauma to the actual throat, as well as the muscles around it in that area. But, he's back to semi solid food already now too!!!
The main pain he has right now is the trauma from surgery, so I can't wait to see how he's doing after that heals!!! Although, I do have to admit that he's going to leave me in the dust! LOL! He walked 1 mile today at 3 miles an hour!!!
He has to wear a cervical collar for 4 weeks any time he's up and moving around (other than a careful trip to the bathroom), and can't drive for 4 weeks (it's just not safe for him - too tempting to turn the head too far). Everything else is pretty much as tolerated, although his rehab is just walking. That's why we bought a treadmill - our dirt road is not a safe place to walk.
So, he's doing really well, and I'm....recovering. LOL! But I'm not as bad as what I could have been, After his knee surgery last year, it took me nearly 2 weeks to no longer feel like the walking dead - this time has been less than a week! Still, we are doing a lot of resting and caring for ourselves and hope to be back on track very soon.
Thank you all for all the support you have given me through this and so many other issues with not only my own health, but the health of my beloved hubby. It really means the world to me!!!
And a special thank you to Julymorning for posting this for me!!! It's true that he had no symptoms return after his knee surgery (I bet you all can imagine the near panic I was feeling over that!), and I don't expect to see any return this time, as they haven't yet!
For those that don't want to hear what was done - please stop reading here and know that I love and respect you for knowing when you shouldn't read upsetting things! That's only taking good care of yourself!
For those that are curious though - he had significant 'clean up work' done on C4, and had C5, C6, and C7 fused. I won't go into the details of how that is done (there's likely a You Tube video of it anyway! LOL!).