Day 2 - thanks to all the help & support

The ride home to my aunt's place turned out to be a little more uncomfortable & bumpy than I'd have liked it to be. Added to that was the fact that I got late taking my pain meds. Another thing I realized at home was that I was feeling really cold to the extent that I was shivering uncontrollably. May be it was the weakness from the surgery.
I had a lot of trouble swallowing that evening & into the night. Tried crushed pills with apple sauce etc, but it was tough. Even while I was dealing with all this, it was settling down on me the truly wonderful support & help structure I had around me. My brother in law & his wife am sure kept things light during a tuff time for everyone else while also keeping Trisha occupied. My wife n my mom, am sure were having it the worst while I was in the OT, but they have been my pillars thru all of this. And then there is Alka Bua who we can't thank enough.

I don't see myself where I am today without all of this positive energy, wishes and help.

Day 1 - post op - baby steps

I was hoping that I'd be released after the overnight stay coz the nurses didn't let me get much sleep thru the night. Every hour there was someone or the other either checking my BP, or giving me a blood thinner shot to my tummy or giving me anti-biotics thru my IV. Plus the elderly gentleman I was sharing the room with was in a lot of distress.

Finally asked my nurse around 3am for a sleep aid, but it was a problem swallowing the pill. That is pretty much where the swallowing problems began to surface. A couple of Doc's stopped by & told me the plan was to have me have breakfast in the morning & then take me off the pain killer pump I had been using to get pain relief thru the IV) then the physical therapist was to evaluate me & if all went well, I'd be released. 

So they put me on oral meds (oxycodone + Tylenol) in the morning. The swallowing problems were really beginning to surface at this point & it was painful taking the meds orally. They took the catheter off and it wasn't painful as such but left me with a kind of a burning sensation that lasted about 45mins.

Next to come off was the drain coming out of the surgical site, again not too painful, but a slight persistent pinch that I can still feel on day 2.

The physical therapist came in around 3:15 pm with a walker etc. She first talked me thru instructions on taking care of my spine (in essence, no BLT: bending, leaning, twisitng). Then came the interesting part where I was getting up from the bed after more than 24 hrs. The way I had felt on the bed, I thought this might be a breeze. But no sir, I immediately felt woozy as I sat upright & then I knew I had to take it slow. Had to make an effort to walk in the corridor even with baby steps. The next test was that stairs & I was descending like a 80 yr old lady. One step at a time. Climbing back up was less of an effort even though it was again one step at a time.

Any how since I guess I didn't trip & since my BP after the walk was moderately up, they decided to let me go.

But on this day it was clear to me that the path to recovery was going to be "Operation Patience" (aka RG3)

D-day: As good as I could expect it to be

Reached the hospital at sharp 10:30am. Procedure was scheduled at 12:30pm. Spent about 30 mins for paper work & was then taken to the pre-op wing where I stripped down to a hospital gown, wore some knee high compression socks ( to avoid clotting I was told). The usual BP, temp etc along with another blood screen & was hooked onto the IV drip.
The doctor came in & said the procedure should take about 1.5hrs. Really calm & reassuring as usual and I was truly not feeling anxious or scared or anything. I was ready to get this done. Kind of felt like it does when I am really ready to face a tough test at school. Made some markings at my incision site.
My family members were allowed to come in pairs & I could see on their faces that it was really sinking into them what was eventually gonna happen. The nurse was also kind enough to even allow my almost 5 yr old & I am proud how brave she behaved seeing me even though she knew there was something serious going on.
Really friendly anetheist took me thru a standard questionnaire and hooked me on to some "happy juice". At around 12:10 pm they proceeded to roll me in to the Op theater #7. I was transferred to the op table & that is all I recollect.
It was around 3:15pm & my family members were getting anxious expecting the surgert to be over by 2:00pm. The surgeon went & updated my family members in the waiting room & to their reliefs told them he was happy with the surgery & spent time with each one of them including my daughter.
I believe I came out of anesthesia around 3:30pm in the PACU with the two anethesists on both my sides. There was some questioning I don't remember but I immediately realized that I no longer had any pain on my right arm or shoulder blade. They also told me the surgery went really well.
My wife n mom were the first to see me and they were so relieved. I was still a bit foggy but all I kept  saying was that I didn't have any pain on my arm.
4 months of misery were history. They transferred me to a room around 7pm. Had some clear soup & puddling. I was by then aware that a drain was sticking out of my inscision site, a catheter to take care of urine & a pain pump to let me control my pain medication based on when I wanted to have some. Since it was a shared room, my wife couldn't stay with me.
So that was D-day... As good as I could expect it to be.

ACDF Tomorrow

Am back!!!
But certainly not to the most exciting of reasons. The reason am here is to blog my experience thru an  ACDF ( Anterior Cervical Disectony & Fusion) surgery I will go thru tomorrow afternoon.

The past almost 4 months have been the most painful I have ever experienced & don't wish the same on anyone. We'll skip much of history, but I've been diagnosed with a large C6-C7 cervical disc herniation and according to multiple opinions my case falls in the 15% of herniation cases that need surgery.

The surgery itself involves an incision to the right of my Adam's apple & then removing the compromised disc, replacing the space with a cadaver bone & screwing up the 2 vertebrae with a titanium plate. Watch out Iron Man, U'll meet Titanium Man tomorrow.
Anyhow, the thing is that I've never broken a bone in my body & am going in for a spinal surgery tomorrow. Yes, there is a bit of trepidation & anxiety for the 1% off chance in any such procedure that I might not see Arjun or see Trisha grow. But am not really not too disturbed about it. It is getting the 1% attention from me too. Am going to a really good facility & a reputed surgeon, which is the max that can be controlled in this affair. Plus we've tried all kinds of conservative treatments over the last 4 months & am clear that this is the only way out of this pain & misery. So this has to happen now especially since Neha is just 6 weeks away from her due date.

I had some misconceptions about the recovery & thought I'd be back to being myself (as of Apr 2013) in a couple of weeks. But I understand now that is not going to happen.
So that is what I am blogging about, my recovery after ACDF. (More tomorrow if I am in the capacity to blog)

I hope we win this one

French GP...
It would be interesting to see how the tyres play out in this race coz looking at the practice times, it looks awefully close. Ferrari looked bad in the first practice on Friday but did an amazong job in the second. Mclaren surely looks super fast rite now followed by Renault and Ferrari. But if the bridgestones are consistent over the race then the small deficit in the current performance should not be much of a worry. The qualifying slots should also help ferrari slightly in staying up on the grid on sunday.
This being the French GP, Renault might be tempted to go for glory on Saturday in qualifying. They might try to qualify up front with lighter fuel loads. That should be good news for Monty and hopefully Ferrari.
Kimi's bad luck has come back to haunt him. Its actually not his bad luck but Mclaren's scheduled goof up. I was expecting it in the previous race itself. But it has moved Monty up the order.
I dont know y i feel so optimistic this time but I am gonna bet on Schumi winning this one. I guess its the fan in me writing this. The fact is that the american races have not given a suitable measure of the improvements the teams have made relative to each other.
My prediction for the grid on sunday is : Monty, Alonso, Schumi, Fisi, Barri

Race day

Ok we have the grid and the ferraris are on the clean side of the track. 5th & 7th isnt gr8 but they've might have got more fuel on board. I also take back my suggestion yesterday to light fuel and run in the front for some time coz we've seen the Bridgestones are not good at race start and if they cant be in the front at the end of lap 1 there is no point short fueling.
For the race today it looks like the Renaults are doing a short stint and so is Kimi. Michelin problems have brought in another dimension into the whole thing. Would be interesting to see how the teams react if there is a tyre failure during the race. The above 2 should help ferrari (if they are carrying more fuel). I would say that the ferraris should be on the podium if they have a clean race. Otherwise Kimi looks good for another one.
Lookin fwd 2 this one

I'm back ladies...
I'm back in India too.
Past couple of weeks have been rather hectic coz of the travel and the n settling back down and hence the silence.
F1...
Two races have gone past with thankfully nothing much to write about.
Ferrari could have done better in Nurburgring had it not been for the first corner incident. But well it could have been even worse had they touched some1.
Canada was an eye opener showing how far the ferrari "package" has gone back in the grid. The start was amazingly pathetic and even with a fuel load lesser by about 10 laps, the race pace was sad. Its too late for the championship for Ferrari this year and I've officially written them off. They'll be around but not consistently enough to bring them either of the championships.
Which means its all between Kimi & Alonso. Kimi got paid back in Canada after the tragedy that struck him at Nurburgring.
Lookin fwd to Indianapolis... Yours truly could have been there but...
Friday practice times show that McLaren are gonna have another easy 1. It is encouraging to see the Ferrari's up at 3rd,4th but they trail by half a second which is huge. Also encouraging is that they've finally had a trouble free friday practice. As of now the Ferrari's look good to make it to the podium behind Kimi thanks to Montoya, Alonso, Fisi having to qualify early.
Ferrari could try and again short fuel Schumi to get pole and have a clear track to push. The way I see it, it's the best strategy than having to run in trafic and not able to move fwd specially coz of the fact that Schumi has forgot the art of overtaking on the track.