Three Days until Surgery

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Well I am now officially three days away from my back surgery. I went to the liberty of checking the doctor out online the other night. He has been sued for malpractice but there are no sanctions against him. He has been in practice since 1988 and graduated top of his class prior to that. He settled in this area because he has family here. The malpractice suits came to a settlement of course and stemmed from a patient dying as a result of rejecting the implants. The doctor is a neurosurgeon and uses titanium alloy implants and cadaver bones in his patients. Apparently the patient in question rejected the implants and had serious complications as a result of the rejection. He died the day following surgery. However the doctor has also done over 5,000 backs and that was the only patient that had such complications of the 5,000. I'm comfortable that it was the patient's body that killed him and not medical incompetence. The same review board that gave me this information gave the doctor stellar ratings. They are a board that researches malpractice so I feel confident that I'm trusting the right man. With all that said I will tell you that I am a little intimidated by the surgery. I'll be under anesthetic for at least 4 1/2 hours. When I had my gall bladder removed they had a hard time resuscitating me due to my oxygen dropping to low levels. I keep asking myself "What if that happens again?" I don't have a lot of choices. I have to have the operation because I have a herniated disc in the L1 area of my spine. I fell off of a porch and landed on a flowerbed on my back in 2008. It caused a wedge fracture of L1 and I have been in pain since. During the winter there are days when I cannot straighten up due to the pain and muscle spasms. We have already exhausted cortizone therapy and physical therapy. I couldn't handle either one. The only alternative is posterior lumbar fusion surgery which I will undergo on Monday. Basically the doctor will make two incisions about five inches long in my back. Through these he will remove the bony structures from the back of my vertebra. Then he will remove half of my crushed disc and replace it with an artificial one. After this he will insert cadaver bones to hold the disc in place . He will secure the cadaver bones with a metal cage consisting of rods and eight screws. Then he will close the incision. I will spend 2-5 days in the hospital. After that I will come home to recuperate. The staples will come out in ten days. I will be wearing a back brace for six weeks. Of course it would have to be the hottest six weeks of the year! I will also undergo physical therapy. One of my biggest concerns is pain management. I am a recovering addict. Now I am faced with serious surgery and the use of narcotics is going to be mandatory for pain management. I will come out of the operation on morphine and be switched to percocets for two weeks. After that I will be looking at another four weeks of vicodin. I have already discussed the fact that I am in recovery with both my doctor and my sponsor. Both said that I could opt to stay in the hospital a little longer if I felt it was necessary to deal with the addiction issues. I may have to go through treatment again. My biggest concern is not my ability to take the medication as prescribed. I know I will do that. I'm basically allergic to percocet anyway. It makes me itch. So I definitely won't abuse it due to that. The vicodin does the same thing. I can only tolerate it in small doses. So my concern isn't abuse but rather that it will trigger my addiction and cause me to want my drug of choice which, believe it or not was Benadryl. Yes you can get high on the stuff! I worry that the vicodin will lead me to it. I don't want that. I like being sober. I ask all of my Bubblews friends to keep me in prayer. Pray also for my wife. She's terrified although she's trying really hard not to let it show. She's afraid I'm going to widow her. I told her that I wasn't but she still worries about me. She has Generalized Anxiety Disorder so she's a worrier anyway. So pray for us both.