I was up and walking the day after spine surgery. They also had me walking a small set of stairs. Angie & I thought I would be spending a few days in a rehab center. The physical therapists were against it - they thought I was doing well enough to go home, plus we avoided the chance of infection.

I think that I received excellent care while in St Francis Hospital - from the doctors all the way down to the people that cleaned the room. I tried to thank anyone who did anything for me, and as a result I got a nickname - the "Rock Star Patient". I had the most serious surgery of the floor, and I complained the least.

Coming home was a little scary - the physical therapists showed us how to get in and out of bed, get in and out of chairs, etc. I didn't have much of an appetite after the surgery, and this continued for a few days at home.

I started having bladder spasms on the second day - these would wake me up from a dead sleep. We called my urologist, and they wanted me to come in for a bladder scan, which we resisted for a couple of days because I was so wiped out. We finally went to the office and the bladder scan showed that I was retaining urine. They put in a catheter.

I was nervous about the catheter because I had some bad experiences with a catheter in the emergency room. This was a piece of cake. I immediately felt better and started sleeping for 10 hours at a clip. I was also taking a daily nap - I was making up for months of sleep deprivation.