It’s hard to keep an old bird down. This particular Turkey, having endured a pain in the neck that threatened to do some more serious damage, had the surgery needed to ensure facile typing fingers and restored sarcasm. I entered the hospital on July 10 and left on July 16. Now, I’ll be in a neck brace for 12 weeks.
The surgery itself was a triple discectomy in the cervical spine, followed by bone grafts and fusion of four vertebrae with titanium plates and screws.
There was never much pain, but I spent some extra time in the hospital because of a secondary infection of unidentified origin, which was treated aggressively with Vancomycin IV twice a day.
Now, I’m back home and bored. You see, there are some severe restrictions on my activities. It should be obvious that with a neck brace in place, I won’t be able to drive for the whole 12 weeks. Also, I can’t lift objects greater than 5 lbs. I can’t stoop or kneel. Just shoot me, already!
What I can do is walk and work, which should get me through this. Walking is my favorite form of exercise, anyway, and I should be capable of working several hours a day from my home office, which will stave off the boredom.
Furthermore, I can use the convalescence period as a good excuse to get a new, big screen HDTV for the family room just in time for football season!
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Parkeyboy says
Keep on Cluckin’ Turkey!
When can we expect your bold prediction for the 07 season?
Take it easy and rest up.
The Redhead says
Welcome back, Turkey! Long may you blog.
The Redhead
Pete Hallman says
Glad to see ya made it, Turk!
An infection of ‘unidentified origin’? Look no further than the hospital itself. I know, I know…..cynical bastard.
Those restrictions may have a bright spot: if you have a 5 pound lift limit, you’d best find an attractive assistant to help you take a whiz.
At least that’d be MY excuse……..
The Nittany Turkey says
Thank you, folks for all the well wishes, and particularly for Pete’s optimism, although my “assistant” tells me that it ain’t that heavy. (She must be thinking of her ex-bf Jamal or something.)
My suspicion is that it wasn’t an infection at all, because the blood cultures never grew anything. My white count (at one point 25.2) was probably elevated due to my immune system’s response to the invasive surgery and the allografts. I’ve got enough foreign bodies in me at this point to charter a deportation ship.
And, Parkeyboy, I won’t make you wait much longer for this year’s fearlessly cynical prediction. I have to catch up on some work and stuff, and then maybe buy one of those 103″ Panasonic plasma screens, and then I’ll be primed for the season. I’m not extremely pessimistic this year, but I cannot be as rosy as Phil Grosz, who seems to be able to gold plate a turd and pretend it doesn’t stink. (By this, I mean his assessment of the O-Line.)
And Redhead…finish the Larry King blog!
Run Up The Score says
I had no idea! Welcome back — glad to see you’re okay and getting better.