As most of you guys know, the past few years haven't been kind to me, and my most recent headache occurred in January, when I fell on ice in my driveway and broke my neck. It was some kind of funky break, and showed up mainly as ruptured disks. I got to suffer until my docs decided to send me to a neurosurgeon, who freaked and booked me for an operation immediately.
I had a spinal fusion in April, which appears to have healed only partially. Next month, the doc gets to decide if I get the spinal fusion again, this time with a metal rod imbedded in the spine to hold it together. I have osteoporosis and am steroid dependent, so the docs aren't showing a lot of enthusiasm for just letting it wait.
Along with all the stuff, I got boatloads of doctor's orders. I was expected to become "the girl in the plastic bubble," while wearing a hard neck brace. I wore the neck brace exactly as instructed, but tried to get back to my "real life" as quickly as possible. One evening, I decided to start beading, and when I looked up, eight hours had passed, and I was a mess. I was curled up in total agony for the next five days.
Would I be looking at a second major surgery if I had totally followed doctor's orders? Yup, probably - my problems are more complicated than simple rest can cure. But, if I had rested, I'd have had a lot less pain during this recovery period, and probably would be healing better. Why? Because my body would be dedicating energy to healing, not fighting pain.
Try to obey the home care instructions, as closely as you can. The rationale is that nobody ever died of boredom, but lots of people have post op complications because they didn't really listen.
Kathy N-V