Part 2 - Sciatica is gone! Surgery was at 7:30 this morning

For the first time in two years, I have no more pain in my sciatic nerve.

Am sitting here typing on my living room couch w/o my contact lenses, so please excuse any typos.

My son Dan picked up Sarah and me at 5:45 this morning and drove us in the semi-darkness to Abington Memorial Hospital for my 7:30 a.m. surgery.

Since the signs for the beautiful new Lenfest Building were difficult to follow, we made a couple loops around the hospital before we found its main entrance.

At check-in on the mezzanine, there were loads of patients waiting, like us. for their own "same-day procedures."

The nurses were fantastic, esp. Patti Patterson who took c/o me from the moment I went into the exam room.

I did take photos but am in too much pain from the incision to load them now. I'm on Percoset every six hours plus something else to augment it.

The pain is much better since leaving the hospital.

I knew right away the surgery worked.

I was in the Recovery Room and squeezed the toes on my left foot.

No pain at all.

Then I concentrated on my once-throbbing puslating electrified butt.

Nothing!

When I was sheeled into the Operating Room I took a good look around. Steve, my nurse anesthes'st and Debbie, the RN. took great c/o me.

I told them I was gonna see what I remembered up until the time I went out. At Einstein, where I'd had my kidney t'plant, I remembered practically nothing, probly b/c it was a four-hour operation, major surgery, invasive, while this was minimally invasive.

I was in this OR for two hours.

"Your herniation was huge," said surgeon, Dr Guy Lee.

I was so happy to hear that.

Two years of misery. And more. One summer I could not move. The ambulance came and took me to the Abington Hospital Emergency Room where painkillers restored my mobility.

Sarah is sleeping upstairs in my bedroom. She and I watched two episodes of the Twilight Zone last nite before going to sleep.

She wasn't scared, but I was terrified, covering my eyes. She told me one of the episodes was written by the famous author of something I can't remember.

Last nite Sarah, who is preparing for the Philadelphia half-marathon, jogged in the 90-plus heat in our hilly neighborhood. The run was so difficult she had to stop and walk a couple times. Then she prepared one of her magnificent meals for Scott and me. I was mindful I must stop eating and drinking by midnite.

She made flounder, encrusted with ground almonds and a pesto sauce. The basil was from a farm close to her Brooklyn neighborhood. She gets all her produce from them, as do many other people who support this small organic farm and enable it to survive.

I am quite tired and will return, after this post, to my downstairs bed, where I sleep face down. I'd asked Dr Lee what position to sleep in and said said, Anything you want.

Later on, I'll tell you how wonderful he is.

Nicole and Baby Grace came to visit in the hospital but they just visited with Dan and Sarah in the visitor's lounge. Dan showed me Grace's latest photo on his iPhone.

Thanks for your support all of you! The healing phase has already begun.

Am going straight to bed now w/o editing this.