Hi all,I never really had the chance to post a full story of my experience of my fusion in NYC. Now I cansit up a little longer I will fill you in more on my experience.

I had to arrive at 6am for 8 am surgery. Everything went very smoothly for the admission process. Like clockwork they tookme in to the pre op area where did vitals had someone scrub me, iv nurse started my iv and the the parade of Dr.s the PA, the internist, the anesthesia, the vascular surgeon and then the spine surgeon. No one was rushed, very professional an answered all questions. Family was always nearby taking turns coming in. Everything was very neat tidy and all professionals paying attention to good aseptic technique.dont remember much from the or except big room lots of people.

I guess was in surgery about 6hrs woke up smoothly no nausea, no sore throat, i still remember thinking I can't abelieve I dont even have a sore throat. I guess that was about 3pm, they kept me there till 11pm then went to my room.

the nursing care was tremendous. your pain was managed by a pain team and they visited 1-2 times a shift and made any adjustments, even the nursing assistants were great, always there turning cleaning me up(of coarse I got my period in recovery room which they say is very common)I had a catheter,oxygen, drain from my back incision, compression stockings, pain pump

moved smoothly from cl liquids to full on end of day 2 but adidn't have much of an appetite. The dilaudid made me itch terrible so they gave me benadryl but it just sedated me too much. Pain pump out on am of day 3 and then they take out the cathater and oxygen,the pa's changed the dsgs and took out the drain. My surgeon did see me everyday too. Ihad the some nurses almost every day so had great continuity of care, even the charge nurses would pop in sometimes and make sure everyting was going ok.
I can't say enough about the place and how professional and caring everyone was. It was just a different level of care.

The ride home was rough but I had already posted on that!!
I think I already feel the release of my legs not feeling like they are in lockdown. The only thing differnt I feel is I have a left foot that seems to be warmer than the other but I expect to have some of those altered nerve issues for a while. The surgeon said that my disc space was collapsed and shifted and he lifted it 1cm and now just hope for all the best fusion from this point.

If anyone has any questions on this hospital or physican feel free to PM me. Lynette