Jeepers!
Interesting that you got the souvenirs. Grateful that it appears you are progressing well. How is Mrs. Cowboy doing?
Did those aqua colored rods run through the open / head part of the screws? Titanium?
They usually just give you the chance to have the nuts & rods, but, along the one screw being broken, all the rest were loose (go ahead, say it; I've already heard it from my brother & brother-in-law), so he pulled them and started anew.
Yes, the screws go in the vertebrae, the rods go in the U-channels on the screws (which spin 360° and, the joint between screw & head being a ball-and-socket, have a nice amount of up-and-down play as well), then are locked down with the nuts, which thread in on top of the rods.
Yes, titanium.
Mrs. Cowboy is struggling. On April 3, they revised C2-C6 fusion to C2-T3. Came home April 8, doing great.
Wee hours of April 13 I call 911 and the ambo hauled Her off to the local ER, where they shipped Her back to the much bigger hospital where all this was done; turns out T3 had fractured and was pressing on Her spinal cord, so on the 14th She got a T3-T4 laminectomy and was rerevised to C2-T6.
After a week or so, we got Her into a superb acute rehab hospital and She was doing fabulously - for about 2 weeks.
Then She started getting massive spasms in all four limbs; they gave her something for that (which She took for many years due to tremors from another med with no problem, but not in over 10 years).
And She began to fade. I mean, couldn't form a sentence; asked the year, She said "19". I mean, almost all the way gone. After a bit, they shipped Her back to the regular hospital, where the ER neurologist looked at things, asked a few questions, said "Yeah, the spasms are from the gabapentin, the cognitive decline is the cogentin; stop them both & admit Her".
A week of letting that out of Her & back to the fancy rehab place, but with no appetite (put together everything She's eaten in the last month and you probably wouldn't have meal) and still not anything remotely like Herself. I mean, I was sitting there watching Her, wondering if I'd ever talk with Her again, and checking every now and then to make She was breathing.
And, of course, no appetite = no eating = no strength = no getting up for therapy = insurance scum kicking Her out into a subacute place.
Which is where Her case manager really screwed us.
They had given us a list of 32 places to choose from - and it turns out Her niece rates subacute places for a living; took the list, gave us 5 to pick from. And we picked one.
As I was not able to do things like shoes & socks, they didn't want me going home alone. so it was decided we would be roommates at a subacute for a little while, and Her case manager started Her approval process first, so mine followed it. ("Where are you going?" "The Grove Of Fox Valley." "I thought you were going where your wife was going." "Yeah." "She's going to The Grove Of St. Charles" "Oh. Well, I guess that's where I'm going.")
So, instead of the nice place her niece suggested, the place we picked, we got sent to a similarly named place that said beloved niece had (far too kindly) characterized as "kind of a shithole".
I will not bore you with the horror stories, but suffice it to say this where I hope Do.....er, my worst enemy spends his last days. I cannot believe this dump is licensed.
So, I spent several days (and nights) - um, lets' say "advocating firmly" for both of us. Then day before yesterday my insurance said I was doing too well to be there and cut off my benefits, so yesterday I came home.
And while I consider myself fairly adept at expressing myself in the English (well, at least the American) language, I cannot give you any idea of my guilt & terror at leaving Her there alone without me to stop things like CNAs trying to transfer a woman who currently lacks strength to stand from bed to wheelchair with neither a gait belt on Her nor the chair wheels locked.
On the upside, we are waiting (and being encouraged of the chances) to get Her moved to the County Rehab & Nursing Center here in town (was really hoping for today, but you know, there are reasons people shoot insurance CEOs....(not advocating here - just observing). This will 1) put Her in a decent facility (the only publicly-owned nursing home left in IL), 2) put Her where I can get there in 5 minutes instead of 40, and 3) put Her where friends can visit - which I'm hoping will be beneficial.
And, while She is still suffering the physical effects of both the fracture and the drug reactions, Her cognition has improved more in the last 2 days than in the previous several weeks; I begin to think I'm going to get Her mind back as its normal self.
OK, I'll quit unloading on you now - and thank you for asking.
Peter
