Pain Rating: 
My wife and I arrived at the Outpatient department of Boulder Community Hospital (BCH) around 10.30am and were taken to a Pre-Operation room. Here I un-dressed completely and put on a hospital gown. As required, I also removed my wedding ring (as no jewelry was permitted) and put all my clothes in a plastic bag with my name on it.
The nurses then proceeded to put compression stockings on my legs as well as compression straps - this would be used to simulate blood movement around my body, while I was under general anesthetic.
Around 11.30am, an IV was administered into my right forearm - it was placed in this location as I would be laying on my stomach for surgery with both my arms facing forward. A saline solution was added to the IV (as I hadn't drunk or eaten anything for almost 12 hours) and a bag of antibiotics made ready for use with the IV.
Around this time, Dr V's Clinical research director and representatives from Abbott Laboratories appeared and answered some questions I had regarding hospital costs, surgical procedure and recovery information (The representatives from Abbott Laboratories would be present during surgery itself to assist in anyway necessary - this was done since I was one of the first patients to receive this treatment at BCH).
My surgeon, Dr V (Villavincencio), was running late with a prior surgery so my surgery time was put back until 12.45pm. At this time, the Anesthesiologist appeared and explained about the general anesthesia that was going to be administered. In addition, since I'd had prior heart surgery and because of my low resting heart rate, the Anesthesiologist explained that electrical pads would be stuck on my body to force the heart rate if necessary. Before being wheeled into the operation room a sedative was given to me, through the IV, that would relax my state of mind.
Around 1pm I was taken to the operation room, still in a conscious state. Around ten minutes later the anesthesia kicked in and I have no recollection of anything else until I woke after surgery. As I understand it, the surgery took about 45 minutes - from incision to stitching and I was moved back to the post operation ward at around 3pm.
Example of surgical procedure with Wallis Device
(Image courtesy of Nicholas Boeree, FRCS)
(Image courtesy of Nicholas Boeree, FRCS)
At this point, my wife was notified that the surgery had been preformed successfully. Around 3.20pm, I woke from anesthesia and the resident nurse confirmed that the surgery had gone well.
Since I seemed to have recovered very well from the anesthesia, they took me to the X-ray room at around 3.30pm to take several X-rays of the back and confirm that the device had been placed correctly. Below is copy of that X-ray:-
(X-Ray courtesy of Boulder Community Hospital)
Since I was still experiencing some pain from the surgery itself, I was given a dose of morphine to help relieve the pain.
Between 3.30pm to 5pm, I continued to drink plenty of fluids and perform some deep breathing exercises to help oxygen circulation. At 4.30pm, my wife and kids came to see me and the nurses finally removed my IV. At 5pm, while I was given clearance to go home, one of Dr V's assistants wanted to review my condition before releasing me. Around 5.30pm, we left the hospital, with the following conditions:-
- I was to take one or two painkillers every 6 hours, whenever necessary
- I was to take a one muscle relaxant no more than 3 times a day, whenever necessary
- I was given antibiotics to be taken 4 times a day, for 5 days
- I was not to bend forward from my hips, while the pain persisted
- I was allowed to walk around as much as tolerable
- No lifting of anything over 5 to 10lbs for 4 to 6 weeks
- No sitting on hard surfaces
- No sitting in general for more than 2 hours
- I was to start on light foods and move to more regular foods, if everything was tolerable
