[Cirobi]

Hi everyone,

I've been mostly lurking and reading posts as I try to mentally, emotionally and in some cases physically prepare for my surgery date which is about two weeks away. The daily level of pain in my back has worsened over the last couple of months, so I've been trying to train myself to let my darling boyfriend take over tasks I no longer feel comfortable attempting. I've also been trying to prepare myself around my house as much as possible with some of the details that will hopefully make recovery more comfortable.

I'm at the point where I've started pre-surgery appointments for testing and meeting doctors that will be involved and the whole thing has definitely become more real now that I'm this close. Since this is the first major surgery I've ever faced, I'm definitely at the point of being very scared of the whole thing. I'm comfortable with the procedure in terms of what is going to be done and how they'll do it, but just the idea of major surgery has me freaked out. I won't be backing down because I'm entirely frustrated by the fact that I'm in this gray area of able bodied but not - able to do most things but I pay for it in severe pain later.

So, I turn to the group for general advice. How do you prepare yourself for this type of thing? Is there anything I should make sure I pack for my hopefully short hospital stay after the surgery? How do you know what to bring for a hospital stay? Are there any little things I should consider doing/preparing around my house before I go in for the surgery?

Sorry if this seems a tad frantic at all. By nature I'm a worrier (unfortunately), so I just want to be as prepared as possible before-hand so that I can rest and recover as smoothly as possible.

As always, thank you. This forum has been the best and most helpful place to be since I came across it and since I found out surgery was likely my resolution to these back problems.

Kind Regards,
Sara