RECOVERY

First and foremost, let me thank everyone for their concern, the flowers, the balloons, and the cards. Thanks to everyone who called my daughter and followed up with her about me. I truly want to extend my gratitude to everyone for the blessings.

In my last blog post, I wrote about how I had to reschedule my surgery, which turned out to be a good thing. It actually gave me enough time to prepare myself mentally. I had to come to terms with the reality that I may not make it. The reschedule also gave me time to write my will, send it out, prepare my kids, and let them know the details of the surgery.

February 15^th: Surgery

I woke up early and my daughter, Solsky, took me to the hospital. We arrived around 10am, did all our paperwork, and got ready. My daughter Solsky stood beside me the whole time. My spirits were up, until I realized what I was signing. I had to choose a “healthcare proxy” so that I could set up who would take care of my medical needs in the event of my incapacitation. It was disturbing to truly realize just how serious the surgery really was. I gave it to Solsky to make all my decisions. The paperwork was getting scarier and scarier. I was shook! So when they started asking about the anesthesia, I started asking questions.

They explained how they were opening me up and fixing the spine. I had a great surgeon, Johnathan Stieber (http://www.stiebermd.com/), who I highly recommend as one of the finest specialists for back surgery in the country. He is a 5 star doctor with a 99.7% successful rate, with me adding one to his belt as being part of his success rate. Take a look at Johnathan Stieber's website. It's amazing the technology that they have now to go in and fix a spine. Back in the day, the risk factors were all included in the process of having surgery. Now, your risk factors are all in the recovery process, like if you have diabetes or some sort of disorder that would get in the way of healing properly. I was so nervous! It petrified me knowing I would be put to sleep for 8 hours. I was afraid that I would wake up through the anesthesia! That was my worst fear. He was great at getting me to calm down, easing my fears, and giving me confidence that the surgery would be a success.

Between 10:30 and 11 a.m., they escort me to the operating room. I gave my daughter a hug and let her know that I truly love her. All I remember after that is them telling me I was going in and me saying one word before I was out.

After Surgery: Ten and a half hours later

The moment that I got up was the greatest feeling ever! As soon as I opened my eyes, I could see that all my children were there: Solsky, Priscilla Star and my nephew Steven Diaz. Knowing that I woke up alive, knowing that all my family was there, got me so excited that the staff had to tell my kids to leave because being overexcited was making my blood pressure go out of control. The kids told me that while they were leaving I was saying crazy things like “I have superpowers!” and “I am the bionic man”. It's really funny when you think about it. The doctors were explaining to Priscilla that they had to reconstruct my back, so they had to clean up my back and make sure everything was put in place before even getting to work on the spine, which is why it took 2 more hours. The extra work made the total time 10 1/2 hours in surgery. I went in at 11 and got out at 10:30 at night. Thankfully, I did not wake up under the anesthesia, as I had previously feared.

I fell back asleep and I woke up the next day, in my room, asking the nurse if I had seen my children. I thought I was dreaming that all my kids were there. While I was inside my room, I was receiving flowers, cards, letters, from numerous people that knew that I was getting this operation. I also received from my dear friend Karen Fowler and the Electric Co. Staff Edible Arrangements, balloons, and cards. I truly want to thank everyone again for their concern and love for me throughout this ordeal. You have no idea how encouraging it was to know that so many people, even if they didn't know me personally, cared enough to send their well wishes.

I immediately felt my condition upon waking. I was unable to walk, had tubes all over my body, was in excruciating pain. It was uncomfortable to sleep, especially knowing that I couldn't move. It was so frustrating. I was unable to take myself to the rest room, so I had to be taken care of by the nurse. Although I felt uncomfortable, mentally I knew I had to get better so I could get discharged. I knew that I had to speed the recovery process so no infections occurred. I had to mentally get myself out of the bed...and I had to do it all by myself. No nurse or physical therapist could really help me. It was all up to me.

February 18^th:Release and Recovery

I was released on a Friday evening because I was anxious to get out of there already. I was homesick! When I was discharged, they gave me my prescriptions, and my godson (Manny Rosario), his girlfriend (Jovina), and my daughters come pick me up. I had so much stuff in the room that they had to carry it all out. Manny was still with me, even after he had come to the hospital every single day. He was faithful to bring me chicken noodle soup, crackers and Gatorade. All he kept telling me is “Jess get better. Six pack!” meaning we are going to work out together and get a six pack. I can’t even imagine having a six pack! He is psyching me up about working out, me getting better and just working out with him.

On my way home, we had stopped at every drug store to try and get my meds. Can you believe that none of them had it? It was kind of frustrating for me because I was in a car an extremely uncomfortable due to my condition. I was so anxious to get out of this car. It was the worst ride I ever had.

Once I got out of the car it was all I could do to get up the steps. It took me 45 minutes to get up 5 flights of steps to my home. FINALLY, as I arrived at my apartment, I realized that I could lie in my own comfortable bed and have a normal sleep! What a relief! One of the greatest feelings in the world is knowing that you are going to be able to sleep in your own comfortable bed.

The next day, they finalized my outpatient procedures, which provided me with a home attendant, nurse aid, physical therapy. As the process has gone on, I have been getting better, walking more, and having less pain. It's still frustrating that I'm stuck in the house trying to get caught up with all the business that I had to put on hold. I am grateful that the people involved with the pilot shoot wanted me to be there. Kind enough that my Executive Producer paid for my nurse to come down to do the TV shoot for “The Mediators” of which I am the producer of the show...but I will give u more details about that later.

All in all, it's great to be back home with my family. I cannot thank you all enough for making this recovery process more tolerable through your love, prayers, and well wishes. You have no idea what a blessing you all

Until next time
Love,
Jesse Jess