The good news is that the surgery was successful; 95% of the herniation was removed, the not-so-great news is that the surgeon found that the disc was so calcified that it had to have been herniated for at least a year (!)  — I don’t remember having any back pain like that a year ago. The acute attack I experienced that put me on this path was in August 2012. Anyway, so instead of slicing away all of the herniated disc tissue, he had to chisel more than half of it out. He actually used the word “chisel” when describing it to Kate, so I imagine myself as a slab of meat on the table being chopped away on.

The fact that the herniation was there much longer means nerves may be permanently damaged. We won’t know how much for several months. I am doing OK; the major shooting pains caused by the herniation is gone.

The chop shop

My surgery arrival time was 10:15 AM. Kate and I were taken to the pre-op room, where we waited for the usual — prepping, IV insertion (in on first try!). TV was programmed on “E”, so we were stuck watching Joan Rivers and Kelly Osbourne blathering on about fashion on the Golden Globes for a while. The nurse attending to me talked about people she’s seen come in who are addicted to plastic surgery…hmm.

NOTE:  All of the staff at the hospital treated us so well, recognizing Kate as my spouse. It’s worth mentioning because you can’t take that for granted everywhere. North Carolina actually has had a law on the books allowing a patient to designate health care proxy for some time; this predates President Obama’s executive order to medical facilities to treat same-sex partners as spouses if it receives federal funds.

I was in the operating room at 1PM and my wife Kate reports that I was out of surgery around 4PM. This was supposed to be a 90-minute operation, but there was a complication once the surgeon got cut me open and took a look at the spine.