Anyways, Im wondering what kind of experiences you people have had with surgeries, and what I can possibly expect, before, during, and after.
From someone who has experienced laminectomies from the operating side:
Prior to the surgery you can expect some more examinations and possible some more "picture" taking (MRI, X-Ray) and of course the "common" preparation for surgery (no food/drink some hours prior to surgery, physical examination, premedication with sedating drugs a few hours prior to surgery etc.) and of course a thourough explanation as to what is being done, what risks are involved and what postoperative care is to be done.
During surgery you can expect nothing. That is you won't be awake, so you won't notice anything.
After: be prepared to get up soon, and be prepared for some discomfort and pain. Do not expect your leg problems to be gone immediately since this can take up to a couple of weeks after surgery - the pressure that is released by removing some of the bone is replaced by pressure from tissue swelling due to the surgery, since this swelling will often only reduce and disappear over a few days, sometimes weeks, some of the leg problems will remain for some time.
Expect a lot of pain afterwards
Those kinds of pain should be easily controllable with drugs after surgery, you should not feel anything during surgery, don't be too apprehensive of pain, you'll probably have some and some more if someone presses on the wound - but it should be fine with drugs.
Perf, its back surgery, which means the about only lounging around I will be doing is lying on my back for a couple of weeks straight.
Perf. laminectomy is lower back surgery. Means I will most likely not be able to sit upright for a time.
I don't know about your place, but here in good old Germany we expect a patient after laminectomy to stand up and walk 12 hours after surgery (well, we most often do allow patients one night of sleep to get over the hang-over from anesthetic drugs, but then its "up and out of bed"). You should not sit for longer periods for the first couple of weeks after back surgery, but you can and should get up and walk and participate in any physical training your doctor deems necessary.
Usually patients are discharged from hospital 2-3 days after the day of surgery, so don't get too excited about lying around for a couple of weeks. this should usually not be the case.
Now of course I do not know about your case, and it may well be an extremely rare and severe case where prolonged hospitalization or bed rest is necessary, so you should of course consult your physician.
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just yesterday a report came out in the Netherlands telling us duchies that we are twice as likely to die becouse of medical blunders than of traffic accidents.
