Scoliosis

surgeryyyy (fuck me)

So I had surgery. Probably should update this story that I always forget about.

So I went in on July 26th and did some tests and got my blood taken which was not too fun, and then that night and the next morning they had me use these extra strong disinfectant wipes.
Then the next morning i woke up at 4am and drove down to the hospital and waited for like an hour, and then they took my height and weight and blood pressure and shit. Then they hooked me up to an IV and these feet things that make sure you dont get blood clots. And then like 5 different doctors came in and talked to me and my parents. Then they pumped some anesthetics into my IV and that's the last thing I remember. I was told later that my last words to my dad were "psychedelic drug trip" so if I had died that would have been my last sentence lol.

I woke up in the recovery room, before they take you to your actual room. They told me beforehand that I wouldn't remember too much from that room, but I remember waking up in absolutely excruciating pain. I remember screaming and crying and being incapable of focusing on anything besides the sheer pain. My entire back felt like it was both on fire and aching stronger than anything I'd ever felt. My spine had been stretched out, yes, but so had all the muscles in my back with it. So now not only did the center of my back hurt, but also every muscle around it.

I was delusional and on medication in the recovery room so I don't remember much, but I will never forget the pain.

Nurses told my parents later that medicines can affect people with red in their hair differently, and that medication often didn't work as well for them. I have kind of red hair, which might not have had anything to do with it, but the medicine didn't do shit.

I woke up in the recovery room in excruciating pain, and instead of the usual morphine level of 2, mine had to be brought up to 20. It still didn't help much.

Later, they told me that I actually had 3 curves in my spine, not 2, and that they had had to fuse my entire spine except for the bottom 2 or 3 disks I believe, and except for my neck. Basically my entire back.

Because I had so much fused and so many muscles pulled along with it and so many organs shifted, and because the medication did so little, they told me that the pain I went through was worse than childbirth, many times over.

My mom told me later that childbirth wasn't even a fraction of how much pain I was in (even though childbirth is thought to be the most pain a body can handle), and that they told her after the fact that this was basically the most painful surgery you could have.

Of course I had no idea about how painful it would be until after the surgery, because no one ever tells you how bad things will get, otherwise you won't do it.

They moved me to an official hospital room and put me on more and different medication, I think at varipus points I was on Morphine, Oxycodone, Hydracodone, and Valium (not positive about spelling on those) just to name a few. Maybe it was the red head thing, but none of the medicines helped much with the pain.

The days were a blur, I honestly don't remember a lot. I remember being in constant pain, but less severe by the day. I remember sleeping a lot. I vaguely remember sitting up for the first time and feeling extremely nauseous, standing for the first time and feeling like I'm about to faint, and walking for the first time and puking in a bucket in the middle of a hallway in the hospital. And let me tell you puking with rods in your back is such a painful experience holy shit. Your body has been stretched and can't bend or curve like you naturally do when you puke, but your body tries to anyway involuntarily, so it's excruciating to feel the rods stopping you from bending.

Now I'm not saying any of this to discourage people from getting the surgery. Not everyone will have nearly this much pain. It depends how much of your back is fused, how much of your body has changed, whether the drugs work for you or not, etc. Most people probably won't have such a bad experience with it. But I did.