Cabin Fever

I visited the surgeon today for the first time since my December 1, 2004 back surgery.

The good news: all of the hardware he put in my back is right where it was when I left the hospital. (He removed the titanium from the last surgery and gave it to me the day of the surgery. If anyone is in the market for some scrap metal, drop me a line.) I can stop wearing the back brace while in bed, and that will help immensely in the sleep department. I'm now allowed to drive, but only for short distances.

The neutral news: it's too soon to tell if the fusion is taking. He showed me the x-rays they took this morning, and explained that on one side of my spine, he used a man-made protien as the fusing agent. On the other side, he used my own bone -- from bone spurs he removed from my spine. Time will tell if one agent is better than the other, but I feel a bit like a guinea pig.

The bad news: I will see him again on March 1, and I cannot return to work until I see him then. I really expected to go back during the second or third week of February because I feel like I'm way ahead of the game compared to the last surgery. He told me I could go into the office to sign papers and pick up mail, but I'm not to stay there for more than an hour at a time. Since I've arranged for weekly mail deliveries to my house, there's really no need to go to the office at all.

So I'll keep reading my books, watching my movies, and tinkering with the iLife software on my computer. I've also made the mistake of resuming my hobby of coin collecting, and I'm much the poorer for it.