Home again!

We made it home yesterday afternoon. It is soooo nice to be home! Lizzy is doing really really well. She hasn't had any pain medication (not even Tylenol) since yesterday morning and says she doesn't have any pain. I don't get that. I think if I had my head and skull and brain cut open I would be feeling at least some pain less than a week later!

The drive home was fairly uncomfortable for her - she really doesn't like wearing the neck brace, and we had to stop and rearrange things halfway home, but we made it without incident. Some kind friends brought dinner for us and after unpacking we were able to relax.

I don't think we realized just how tired we really were until we got here. We all went to bed by 8:30 and slept pretty hard until morning. It was good to start catching up a bit.

Lizzy is getting around pretty well. She's still unsteady on her feet, needing someone by her side in case she stumbles, but every day we see improvement. The PT taught her how to go up and down stairs safely and she does pretty well with that. She ate and drank a lot more yesterday which was a big relief to us ... that's been one of our bigger concerns.

She will be able to gradually increase her physical activity, but can't do anything strenuous for 3 months. It will take that long for her neck muscles to repair and restrengthen. After that point, she'll still have some limitations, but should be mostly back to her old self. I think within a few more days she's going to get very tired of sitting and lying around - she seems anxious to do more, but we've been cautioned to not go too quickly - it's not uncommon for this surgery to have to be repeated if things aren't allowed to heal properly.

Jacob was Lizzy's escort out of the hospital. He spent the whole morning with her and walked her out to the car. Before that, while Lizzy was getting her hair washed, Jake kept Hospi company.

Buddies - ready to go home!