As in a Chuck update… It’s Sunday evening, and last Monday seems like ten years ago. Chuck came home Friday afternoon, after spending four days recovering from his (drum roll, please) Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (hereafter to be called his ACDF — to see a semi-gruesome video of the procedure, and read more about it, check out this link). He had a fairly uneventful recovery, at least as the hospital saw it. We saw it a little differently. He fainted on Wednesday night, a result, depending on who you talked to, of a) the surgery and resultant stress b) all the anesthesia and other drugs catching up with him c) not getting enough hydration d) all of the above. Luckily, our friend Kyra was there (winner of the Always-There-at-the-Right-Time-During-Chuck’s-Hospital-Stay award, prizes to be announced later) and when he passed out (in a chair, luckily) she got immediate attention by running out into the hallway and shouting in Advanced Nurse (a language we never mastered) incomprehensible medical-speak. A crowd of hospital staff converged on our boy and after much poking and prodding determined nothing was wrong with him. Phew! His recovery continued until his release day, Friday. And that day dawned brightly until Chuck choked on a pill, spit it and a bunch of stomach acid up and made his throat really sore. Since late Tuseday he had been trying to eat things like BLT sandwiches and turkey dinners (hey, they put him on a regular diet, as far as he knew it was fine). The surgeon saw him after the choking incident and said gently, “You know, you really ought to stick with soft foods for a while.” Doh! Now they tell us! Brightly attired in a Hawaiian shirt, he departed the hospital that afternoon a sadder but wiser man. We packed like we were leaving a hotel room, taking the shampoo, no-rinse soap, hand lotion, spit pan, pee bottle, and gauze pads (okay, not your average hotel room) with us. Arriving home, Chuck got to try out his new recliner chair. The neck brace makes sitting anywhere a sucky experience so the chair was a bit of a bust for him, but everybody else is really enjoying it. It’s taken two nights for Chuck to find the most comfortable place in the house to sleep (the brace is really getting in the way of his regular forty winks), and it turns out to be the couch, propped in a corner. We’re taking regular walks around the neighborhood, eliciting many doubletakes (what happened to those two?!?), to which I have the ultimate comeback: the honeymoon is officially over!
Thrilling hospital shots here.