MY SISTER IS HOME!

I got this email from Susan yesterday.

Gayle,

Congratulations !!! He looks beautiful. Look forward to seeing more pictures. Please tell Carl and Janie that we send our congratulations on their new addition to the family and wish them all the best

Things are going pretty well. I still have quite a bit of pain, but this is to be expected. I am very optimistic at this point though, as the pains and aches are for the most part different. I wake in the morning painfully stiff, but this feels better after going for a walk, doing my exercises and taking a hot shower. This is totally opposite of pre-surgery when I would wake up in minimum pain, but have a huge increase as soon as I was upright. Most of the pain seems muscular in nature. Sometimes the old familiar nerve pain is there, and that is scary, but they expect that I will notice a lot more improvement once 4-6 weeks have passed and the nerves and muscles that were stretched to insert the new discs have a chance to calm down. Total healing may take 6 months to a year, but as long as there is improvement, I can deal with it. I am already on a lot less heavy duty meds than pre-surgery, so that is good also. Look forward to the day when I no longer need to take these horrible meds every day to function. I tire easily, but it has only been 2 weeks since major surgery and trying to get back in "our time" also. Germany was 6 hours ahead of us, so our time schedules are a little messed up.

Ryan is taking a 5 class credit load at Luzerne College and had to start right in when we got home, but he seems to be handling it well. Two of his classes are night classes at the college and 3 are classes that he does on line. At least he doesn't have to run to the school every day.

Thank you so much for all the good wishes and prayers. I read your blogs when I was over in Germany also. A big thanks to all your friends and family for keeping me in their thoughts and prayers also. Now I just need to be "patient" as Dr. Bertagnoli says and keep healing and recovery as my top priority. I can't say enough about how wonderful Dr. B was. So skilled and compassionate and so in demand; but never too busy to talk to you or explain things. He is just so down to earth despite his famous status.

Again, congratulations and thanks for everything !

Susan