Things have gotten very close to back to normal around here (I'd estimate 80%), so much so I haven't had much time to post. However, I know how helpful these posts were to me when I was pre-op and so I wanted to commit to continuing my updates, or at least when I have some milestones to report.
So to recap, at Day 21, I returned to work (average 4 hrs/day). I couldn't drive, but am lucky in that I have friends and my hubby work at the same place as I do, so I got rides from them. For the first week, I'd come home at lunch and nap - getting ready for my kids to get home from camp. If I didn't have crazy 4 and 5 yr old energetic/demanding kids, I feel like I could have worked the full day.
At Day 22, I had my first vestibular therapy session (evaluation). She was very pleased with my progress and estimated I was 75-80% "normal" (yay, walking!) I asked her for her estimate, because I was anxious to begin driving (shuttling kids around etc). She thought I was fine and that gave me the courage to begin with short driving trips. So Day 23 I drove 2 miles (mostly neighborhood) to pick up kids from their summer camp.
Day 27, I feel confident driving and drove to work for the first time. My car doesn't have a/c, so that's a bummer bc it's 99 degrees outside, but since I'm now confident I'm probably not going to die from my AN (again, you have to remember I was in a very dark place leading up to surgery, thinking I was not going to wake up from the surgery), we have an appointment to fix the a/c in a few days.
Day 27, I'm scheduled for 32 hrs this week and feel my best when I'm at work, although I am lucky bc I have a cushy desk job - it's much tougher to come home and take care of the kids than be at work. I really did not anticipate how difficult taking care of the kids would be post-surgery. If you are a mom with young kids, my advice is make sure you get as much childcare as you can find and afford post surgery - it's by far the hardest thing (for me). That being said, I do think that I'm lucky in that I feel good - there are now times that I start to forget I had surgery. (This just started today). I'm slower at most things and I have to pay attention and act deliberately on tasks, and there are just some things (loading/unloading dishwasher, putting away groceries that I am just not up for and hubby/kids are stepping in to help).
As far as negative symptoms, I do get weird head ache zingers - they aren't real headaches that are constant, but seem to be positional - like if I lay on my back the wrong way, I'll get what feels like a head ache, but goes away when I turn over/adjust my neck. My eyes also get more tired from focusing on the monitor, so I try to minimize reading/internet/tv to conserve my energy for work. Also my cheek continues to feel mildly Novocaine-d, but I have full facial movement, so I'm just patient with that symptom. When I type I notice I make more typos/skip words, as if my fingers can't keep up with my brain. My saliva issue has seemed to resolve, too. I suppose I do get a bit dizzy if I've been laying down and get up to go to the bathroom in the dark, and I can find certain head mov'ts that make me dizzy, but I've been religious about my PT exercises and do them almost constantly. I try and insert them throughout the day. The only symptom that has me kind of worried is I seem to be waking up at night (3am) with terrible reflux. House had me on some kind of medicine to prevent ulcers (which can be caused by the steroids I guess) and I just hope I didn't get ulcers from the medication. I'm trying to schedule an appointment with my GP to either get more of the medication House gave me or something else....
There are sometimes that it's hard because I think I overdue things and try and be up to my "old" self and it just isn't fully possible yet. Especially waking up and getting going in the mornings - first time in my life that I feel like I could sleep and sleep and sleep in the mornings. But overall, I continue to feel "high" on life and thankful that I have had such a good recovery.
PS One last thing - for those that may be preparing for immediate SSD, I was mostly SSD 18 months prior to surgery - it happened suddenly and I remember being really bothered by it. Of course the surgery completed the SSD process, but I was already used to adjusting for it, so that may be why I'm not having as hard of a time with SSD adjustment - I'm really more like 20 months post SSD, not 1 month. If it's any help, post surgery it really doesn't bother me that much, with the exception of it feeling more off-balanced than prior to surgery.
