The Back Story

For those of you who do not know, Neil herniated two discs in his back early this year. He was recovering from shoulder surgery and tried to change a flat tire. While over compansating for the shoulder, he hurt the back. The day before Mother's Day, he fell. Made it so much worse. The surgery to fix it was yesterday.

I am blogging from his bedside right now. The surgery went well. He has relief already, and it will hopefully get even better as his body heals from the surgery trauma. Didn't want to keep you in suspense. He is sleeping off the pain meds right now. I am hoping the doctors are correct and he can go home this afternoon.

Now for the funny stuff. Neil's grandmother (Babba) sent him a stuffed animal- a puppy dog. God bless her. I laughed for a hour.

We slept so late since Neil didn't have to head to the hospital until noon. Neil parents came with us because they were in Atlanta to board a plane to Europe, and we all moseyed over together.

Once Neil was called into pre-op, I was given a restaurant style pager to get updates on his progress. About 30 minutes after he went back, they paged me to join him. And then it began...

We waited for over 6 hours in pre-op. No shit. Have you ever seen an ADD girl wait in a hospital environment that long and not hurt herself? I was cracking Neil up.

1. There was Big Momma beside us. She was having a valve replacement and the anesthesiologists were using her case to train residents. She was too funny. Kept telling everyone they were on her "team." The heart monitor would beep on rhythm and then suddenly pause or jitter. I would freak out every time.

2. Old guy on the other side of us that didn't have anyone with him and needed to make a phone call :(. Turns out he was a bit confused in general. Couldn't remember when he had that lung surgery. Or which lung. Or his phone number.

3. We went through 5 nurse changes before we went back. By far the best was Nick, a large black guy with braids, who talked loudly and made jokes. He sang Michael Jackson's Black or White. His cell phone keep ringing- the ringtone? Soulja Boy. Yup.

Eventually, Neil went back and everything was fine. I met him in his room around 10:30 PM and we had a good night. I'll update more later. Thanks for all your well wishes...