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Thursday, June 30, 2005

Dad's Back

My Dad had surgery today for a bulging disk in his back. I've been watching my father have pain off and on for about 2 years, and military doctors kept telling him it was his sciatic nerve, but couldn't tell him why. He'd gotten to a point in the last three months where he was walking hunched over like he was 87, not 57... so the family convinced him to get a second opinion. One simple MRI, and whaddya know, there's a problem. It had to be painful, as my father has never had surgery before. He won't go to the doctor unless he's near death, and can't stand the sight of blood or needles (He passed out once when I got a shot as a small child). I can't believe the simplicity of this surgery - it sounds rough enough; they removed the bulging disk and fused the two around it together. The simplistic part? He's already walking this evening and will be going home tomorrow. I'm so happy, it was so hard to watch him struggle just to sit down and play with his granddaughter. Now if we can just get him to listen and take it easy for the next six weeks.

3 comments:

Teri said...

I'm glad to hear the surgery went well. Wow it seems back surgery has come a long way, I can't believe he was walking on the first day.

Unknown said...

I can sympathize with the sciatic nerve thing. Glad to hear he's doing so well after major surgery.

Martin said...

I'm finding that older adults tend to listen to doctors orders less and less as they age. They take less of the pills prescribed. They perform activities that could jeopardize what a surgery corrected. But, I think it is that they believe after all the misdiagnoses out there that they can't fully trust doctors. I still can't understand that. I'm happy to hear he's getting around better. It's hard to watch our parents suddenly go from acting 50 to 80. My wishes go out to him for a quick recovery.