The two hour car ride was soooo long and yet.....we were home before I knew it?!? Strange, what drugs do to you. It seems as if we hit every bump in the road and I was sure my head was going to fall off! I had cradled myself with pillows and even using Ben's sweatshirt as more support. I couldn't get comfortable. As soon as we walked in the house, a surprise waited for me. My Aunt Mary owns an electric recliner that she had offered to me several times. I had thought about accepting but I couldn't bring myself to. Erica knew all about this and she must have asked every single day leading up to the surgery, "Don't you think you should get the recliner from Aunt Mary?? Don't you think you might want it?" I can be stubborn and just kept saying no. Well, my little Erica ignored me! While I was in the hospital, she decided that she wanted me to have it because she was certain I would be more comfortable in it. She spoke to my sister Ursula and Ursula got in contact with two of my cousins, Joey and Tommy, and they went to Aunt Mary's and got the chair. Ursula met them at my house and they brought it inside. I felt awful for them when I heard this - it was soooo hot out. Before Ursula left, she put the air-conditioning on - so when we walked in after that very unpleasant car ride, there was the comfy electric recliner and the house was cool!! If you know me at all, you KNOW that I despise the heat! What a pleasant surprise that was and I was so touched by Erica's choice! She was worried that I'd be mad at her, but how can anyone be angry when someone does something like that out of pure love?? She helped me into some comfy pj's, I took another Percocet and she lovingly helped me into the recliner and off to sleep I went.
I won't bore you with all of the details of that recovery, but I will mention some highlights. It sucked! There was a great deal more pain that I had anticipated. And the description I gave in an earlier post saying that my head felt like earth stuck on the top of a skinny pencil is still the best way of describing it. I truly felt like a bobble head and thank God I wore a neck brace for 2 weeks. I did remove it for showering and when I was reclining in the chair, but I felt much safer with it on. Everything was difficult, especially eating and swallowing. To this day, I think my throat is smaller. I have never been one to have difficulty swallowing pills, but now I do. Sometimes, out of nowhere, I seem to choke on my own saliva. Sometimes when I drink, it doesn't seem to go down "right". I have spoken with several people who have had a cervical fusion and they all say the same thing. Every single one experiences the same sensations as me. Weird. My neck mobility was difficult at first. I went to PT and it improved slightly. I just figured it would take some time to gain the flexibility back.
Now, I would like to mention one little problem that I had when I was in the hospital and that I still had weeks later. I could speak a little more than a whisper now, but it was hoarse and deep. If I tried to speak louder it hurt. At my second post-op visit with Jeff, Dr. Glazer's PA, we discussed the voice since it didn't seem like it was improving. He remarked that the hoarseness should dissipate by the next time I came, and if it hadn't, that Dr. Glazer would want me to see an ENT to investigate what the problem was. Now, let me back up a step. Do you remember the anesthesiologist that I spoke of? The "newbie" that had my blood spraying all over prior to surgery?? Well, the morning after the surgery, Saturday morning, he came into my hospital room and announced to me that I had been a "very difficult intubate" patient! He asked if I had ever been operated on before and if anyone had ever told me that I was difficult to intubate? I said, "No". He said, "Yeah, we had a helluva time and I hope you're not being operated on in the near future, but if so, you better make sure to tell the anesthesiologist!" and he left. My sister, Bob, Ben and Erica were all in the room. I think we were all speechless. WHY none of us thought to question him, or to question Dr. Glazer about this conversation the following morning when I saw him before discharge, I'll never know!!! My excuse is going to be pain and drugs, the kids, well, they're kids, Ursula, well, she wasn't there the next morning, but I do wish my husband had bothered to ask some questions. To be 100% honest, I think I was in so much pain, I really didn't care what he had to say. But I knew what I heard. So when my voice wasn't improving, I started to wonder if what he had said to me had anything to do with my current throat/voice problem? Hmmm.....the medical sleuth I can be, I started to do some searching online. OMG!! It happens again! I diagnose myself online! Seeing that Jeff had mentioned that if it didn't improve that Dr. Glazer would want me to be evaluated by an ENT, I decided to take things in my own hands and I called up the ENT who aided me with my mono - Dr. Feldman. I was able to get an appointment for 5 days later and when he walked in and said, "What's going on???” I told him the whole story. The poor guy had to practically sit in my lap to hear what I was saying. He then started to look down my throat and then said, "Ok, I need to do an endoscopy". Ok, I thought. I had no idea what that was, but ok. He told me to lean my head back and close my eyes. Then he said, "Do NOT cough, do NOT swallow, breath through your mouth only, NOT through your nose". OK, as I kept my eyes tightly closed (if I've learned anything with all of my medical experiences that I can relay to you -- ALWAYS do what the doctor says, if he/she say's "close your eyes", for God's sakes CLOSE YOUR EYES!!) and suddenly he is putting something up my nose!! And I can suddenly feel it going down my throat, my eyes start to water and I want to cough. As if he sensed it, he calmly reiterated, "Valerie, breath through your mouth. Follow me" and he started breathing through his mouth. It calmed me down and he quickly finished the exam. I gagged as he took it out. YUCK!! GROSS!! Well, that's an endoscopy!! And he verified what I had already diagnosed myself with! My right vocal cord was paralyzed! He proceeded to tell me that it either happened from the intubation or the surgery itself. He explained that in a difficult intubation, they very well could have "scraped" the vocal cord in an attempt to intubate, especially when time was of the essence. Or it could have been Dr. Glazer, as he gets really, really close to the vocal cords during a cervical fusion. However, he stated that if he had to take an educated guess, it was probably the intubation. If it were the surgeon, he felt he would have seen a little nick, but he didn't, which led him to believe it was "bruised" rather than cut. He said that although it's relatively rare, it certainly isn't unheard of. The good news was that it has 80% chance of recovering on its own and the bad news was that it could take up to a year to heal!!! And he recommended that I NOT be intubated again unless it was completely cleared up! I said, "Wait a minute - I need this spinal revision". He just looked at me and said, "Not unless this clears up!” He asked me if I had spoken to Dr. Glazer about this situation and I said "No" because I hadn't even seen Dr. Glazer yet, just Jeff. I was going to be seeing Dr. Glazer about 2 weeks later for my final post-op, so I decided to pre-empt the visit with a letter. I sat down and wrote down everything, exactly as it happened and put it in the mail. I received a voicemail days later from Dr. Glazer (he had been at a medical conference), saying he had no idea what I was talking about, because NO one had ever told HIM that I had been a difficult intubate and that we could discuss this when I was going to be seeing him a week later or call him back. He also revealed that he had a phone call in to Dr. Glidden, who was (at the time) Chief of Anesthesiology AND who was the attending during my surgery!! I decided not to call him back as this was a conversation I'd rather have in person.
Appointment day came and Dr. Glazer announced a startling comment. He said he had been so shocked by what I had said in my letter, and he was taken aback because he had absolutely no idea what I was talking about, that he immediately called and spoke with the Chief of Anesthesiology, Dr. Randy Glidden. He said that they reviewed my OR notes and NO WHERE in the notes is it stated that I was a difficult intubate!! They ended up having to review the OR notes that day and it appeared that the "newbie" anesthesiologist made an error. A grave error. The day of the surgery, I was told repeatedly that the reason my surgery was delayed by 4 hours was because there had been a "complication" in the surgery before me. Evidently, the difficult intubate was the woman before me! That "newbie" anesthesiologist got us messed up! Plus, Dr. Glazer was appalled that even if it had been me, the way in which this resident treated me was unacceptable. He said, "It's not bad enough that you WEREN'T difficult to intubate, but that he didn't treat a patient here at BIDMC with compassion". He then said that Dr. Glidden wanted to meet with me personally to apologize for the incorrect information that have been given to me. I agreed to this. He called to Dr. Glidden but in the meantime, I was brought to another room to see a knee surgeon before meeting Dr. Glidden.
So, let's back up a bit..................c'mon, you had to have known there would yet another part to the story! Since when have I ever had things go without complication??? Ok, in the meantime going back to after the surgery and when I wrote my letter to Dr. Glazer, I had returned to my local ortho and told him that Dr. Glazer was requesting an MRI of my knees and that he was hesitant to proceed with my spinal revision surgeries without having my knees evaluated with an MRI to rule out any major problems. I hope you are sitting down for this one!! HE REFUSED!! Yep, you are reading that correctly, he refused!! His exact comment was, "All you have wrong with your knees is pseudogout. There is absolutely nothing else wrong with your knees! I am refusing the MRI because that is how confident I am that I am right!” I was aghast. I requested that he put that in writing to Dr. Glazer. Well, it just so happens that one of the doc's I worked with at South County Pediatrics was appalled that I told her this. She said, "I have never heard of a doctor ignoring the request of another physician! Why refuse an MRI? It doesn't cost him a penny; you have to pay for it". She was soooo mad, so she said, "The hell with him, Valerie. I'll write the darn script for the MRI's!!" I replied, "You will? You don't have to, I'll just call Dr. Glazer and he'll have to!" and she said, "No biggie, here you go!" and she handed me the script. So off I went for a bilateral knee MRI with a script from a pediatrician!!! That is kind of funny, except for the fact that it was that way because my own orthopedic wouldn't write it- and basically out of ego. Rather patheric, if you ask me. I arranged for the MRI's in Wakefield, RI and got the report and disc (no old-fashioned films anymore!) and managed to snag a appointment with another knee surgeon in the office next door to Dr. Glazer for the very same day as the post-op appointment in which I would be discussing my letter with Dr. Glazer. (Dr. Glazer had referrred me to this doc when I made a phone call to his office). His name was Dr. Robert Glen Davis. Now keep in my mind, "the" report was read as my having nothing wrong with my knees except osteoarthritis and some "abnormal" area's in both knees. No other explanation. All I knew was that I didn't care what the damn report said, I had knee pain and there had to be some reason - for God's sake, I knew that I wasn't crazy!
So, now....while I was waiting for Dr. Glidden, I was going to see Dr. Davis. He reviewed my report and films and said, "Wow, how did your knee's get like this and WHY do you have pseudogout at your age?" Good question. He definitely diagnosed me with pretty significant osteoarthritis in my knees, so he suggested a steroid injection in each knee. I said, "Sure." I mean anything to reduce the pain. It had gotten to the point of torture to get up in the morning, climb down stairs or get up after having sat for more than 5 minutes. Boy, those were painful injections, but within 30 minutes - the pain was simply gone. My friend and neighbor Dee came with me to that appointment that day and as we were walking to meet up with Dr. Glidden, we passed by a room and Dee said, "Valerie, they are calling you in there". We proceeded into the room where Dr. Davis was looking at my disc that I brought of my MRI's on a computer screen. In the room was Dr. Glazer, Dr. Davis and what I would presume to be two residents. Dr. Davis proceeded to tell me that he completely disagreed with the MRI report from RI and that he was confident that I had meniscal tears in both of my knees!! However, since he had just done the steroid injections, we decided that we would review it in 6 months. I didn't say a thing, but I knew this also meant I wouldn't be proceeding with revision anytime soon. I suppose that is why I didn't say anything. Hmmm.....I got to put it off just a little longer. Now the question was, was this a blessing or a curse??
From there Dee and I went and met with Dr. Glidden. He was a personable man who apologized profusely over the error that had occurred and Dee and I later agreed that he seemed nervous. We both suspected that between him and Dr. Glazer, they were probably scared to death that I was going to sue them or something. I'm not sure. The whole story DID seem sketchy to me, yet..........I really do trust Dr. Glazer and I have no reason -whatsoever- not to trust him. I can't imagine why he would involve himself in a lie, so I decided to just trust them both that this was just a horrible mistake and Dr. Glidden assured me that when I was to be operated on again for my spinal revision, that I could refuse to have a resident be on my case and I just had to request an attending instead. In fact, he told me that he himself would do it if I so chose. We left the hospital after seeing three doctors and 6 hours later - we were exhausted. I had so much to absorb in my mind. It was a very long day indeed. But.........I had no knee pain. Thank God for small miracles!
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