Coming Home

Coming home was SO uncomfortable. It was so painful to drive the three hours with a neck fusion that wasn't healed. The best thing I could do was tilt my chair pretty far back so the bumps didn't affect my neck as much. When I got home the girls weren't home yet. I missed them so much and the wait for them to come home was just as bad as the drive I think.
Once I was settled in my husband had to go back to work and my mom lived at my house until I could do things on my own again. She lived with me for three weeks. She drove my kids to school and dance. Cooked, cleaned, looked after my son who just turned 4 three months earlier.

I didn't have my first real shower until about 8-9 days after surgery. It was an exciting day when I was allowed to. Sponge baths just don't cut it. I had to wait until the bandages had come off on their own. The stitches were on the inside.
This was after the large bandages could come off but before the small ones were off. You can see there was a lot of bruising from the surgery.



This was the incision on my hip, which is still quite swollen. They needed to take a piece of my hip to put in my neck for the fusion. (ignore the stretch marks, from kids :p)

I also had to wear a collar every time I was in a vehicle to stabilize my neck. I wore this for almost three weeks.

And I was on Tylenol 3 and a heavy anti-inflammitory for pain.