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Image in public domain<\/em><\/p>\n My back surgery is scheduled for later this morning. I’ll likely be out of commission for a while so I won’t be able to photograph birds or post to my blog for at least a few days, although I’ll try to provide a surgery update as soon as is practical (family and friends keep track of me here).<\/p>\n If all goes well I’ll be released from the hospital by tonight or early tomorrow. There will be a six week recovery where my physical activities will be limited, especially no “BLT’s” (bending, lifting and twisting). But I’ll be able to walk, drive (as long as I’m not on pain meds) and potentially even photograph birds from my pickup so I’m hoping that Feathered Photography will be back very soon.<\/p>\n Let it begin.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Update early morning on Tuesday, first day after surgery:\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I was released from the hospital late yesterday afternoon, same day as my surgery. I was still loopy from anesthetic so it’s a damn good thing I didn’t have to drive myself home, which I wouldn’t have done anyway. So far my pain isn’t bad without opioid painkillers but I’ll play that by ear. It’s still very early in my recovery and I’ve got the drugs if I need them. Last night I slept much better than I expected to, possibly due to lingering effects of the general anesthesia and exhaustion.<\/em><\/p>\n One thing that definitely got my attention was the size of the incision dressing. Several years ago, after a very similar back surgery, the dressing was less than 5″ long. This one is almost a foot long vertically.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n I’m already seeing at least one sign (a possible symptom improvement) in my recovery to be cautiously optimistic about but there’s a couple of other things I need to keep my eye on that could go either way as I begin to heal.<\/em><\/p>\n