Brian Back Injury

Bo & Bitey (our furbabies) are enjoying having Brian set up in the living room. Though Brian is beginning to get very tired with laying around, our furbabies love the company as they sleep all day next to him. (Picture from 12/22/08)

It is also fun for the cats to help Brian with his school work. (Pictures from 12/22/08)

Unfortunately, Brian was not able to join me for any of the family Christmas parties, but his parents, Dawn and Erik came to our house for Christmas Eve for dinner and to exchange gifts. Bo & Bitey were right in the middle of the action. (Pictures from 12/24/08)

Pregnancy - Second Trimester

Brian was able to feel one of the baby's kicks today. He said that it just felt to him like I had a gas bubble, not like his baby was kicking his hand, but that it was still a cool experience. I can't wait until he is able to feel most of the kicks and they feel like his baby kicking his hand.

Pregnancy - Second Trimester

The baby's kicks are getting stronger. Today I noticed that you can now visually see our baby boy kicking by looking at the front of my shirt. My shirt moves with the strong kicks, but there are still a lot of little kicks and movements that aren't visible.

Brian Back Injury

Brian's surgery was put on a trauma waiting list at Spectrum (downtown) for Friday 12/19/08. We were at the hospital at 130pm for surgery that was supposed to happen at 4pm, however, he did not actually get into surgery until 9pm. It was a long wait and Brian was in a lot of pain (the two morphine shots didn't last very long). The surgery was only supposed to be 1.5 hours long, but ended up taking quite a bit longer. I was not able to see him until 130am Saturday.

The doctor explained that he removed about 1.5 inches of disc and extracted the fluid from around the nerve. He reported that the surgery went well and he expects a full recovery. Apparently Brian has some degeneration and arthritis in that area of his spine, therefore the doctor expressed the importance that Brian take care of himself with exercise and diet. (Not a bad thing - we could all use a reminder to take better care of ourselves.)

When Brian came out of surgery he was quite dilerious. He was determined that I had caught a shoplifter, which I "shouldn't have done in my condition". That same shoplifter stabbed Brian in the back when trying to steal a $250 stereo. It was quite funny to listen to, but also showed that Brian wasn't quite ready to be on his own at the hospital. He hadn't eaten for over 30 hours and I wanted to make sure that he got some food into him, so I stayed at the hospital with him and everyone went home for the night. His parents drove us to the hospital and had waited with us that entire time (my family was there a majority of the time as well).

The next morning Brian worked with a physical therapist who cleared him to leave the hospital. Brian's instructions for the next two weeks are to lay flat on his back as much as possible, with limited time sitting (20-30 minute intervals), limited stair climbing and a 5 pound carrying/lifting limit. My Dad and Nick brought the mattress down from the guest bedroom and put it on the pull-out couch in the living room for Brian to use during this time. Brian's parents brought us home and helped us to settle in. They also took care of all of the shoveling after the big snowstorm that we had Friday night.

Brian Back Injury

I took Brian in to see a neurosurgeon/orthopedic doctor. The doctor explained the MRI to us and the fact that therapy would not help. Brian's disc between his fourth and fifth lumbar was completely blown out and extruding into the nerve that runs along his spine. There was a lot of fluid that escaped the disc and was along the spine as well. The only way to relieve the pain and the numbness in the leg would be to remove all the disc and fluid from around the spine. Because of the severity, he suggested that we consider surgery tomorrow.