back home

I had a wonderful trip with my youngest sister.  A much needed break from life for both of us as she takes care of our elderly mom.  I must say that hubby did perfect while we were gone.  No crisis or emergencies.  He took the next step towards back surgery.  Looks like it will be a 2 day process.  6 hours of surgery on a Friday with an incision through his stomach, they put the intestines aside and reach the back from the front, then another 6 hour surgery on Monday where they go in from the back to finish up the process.

That way, he is not under anesthesia too long, less chance of risk.  He will be in the hospital for a week, being fed via an IV.  If he doesn't resume regular food within 8 days, he will be transferred to a nursing home.

I'm thinking with all the complications from diabetes....what are the risks that he will be in a nursing home for an extended period of time?  It took about 8 days after his heart surgery for his systems to fire back up normally.  Now they want to do 2 operations, back to back?  More than I can wrap my brain around at the moment!  I will give it a week or so to sink in, but he did quite well - he recorded the doctor's visit for me and took photos of the models.

They want to fuse 4 discs, insert rods, bolts and a cage.  He keeps asking me what he should do and I can't answer him.  I don't see how he can continue with his current level of pain.  He's basically immobile, so he can't even exercise. He's probably put on 40-50 pounds since his open heart surgery which is not helping a thing, but since he can't even walk more than a few steps, he's bound to gain even more weight.

The earliest they can do the surgery is going to be the end of January.  He could easily gain another 50 pounds by then.    And it's so sad because eating is the only thing left that he truly enjoys that he's physically able to do.

I talked to him a little about just giving up and getting a wheel chair.  He's not willing to do that.  I'm not sure I'm ready to go through such an intensive surgery and what appears to be an extremely long recovery period - maybe 9 months or longer.  I told him to go ahead and contact the surgeon and get surgery scheduled.  We can always decide not to do it.  I need more information as I'm still not certain what type of research to do.

So while I had a nice break for the last 2 weeks, I certainly got myself tossed right back into the middle of everything in less than 2 seconds!  LOL!!!

Choices and decisions.....it's part of what diabetes is all about.

DW