Monday, December 18, 2006

But you can read and believe this...
December 14th 2006. Six months to the day since my surgery.

"Well Doc, what do you think?"

"Looks good. Give it a shot."

And with a conversation just that simple, my career begins again.

Doctor Thalgott held up the x-rays of my spine and I could clearly see that the two vertabrae had healed together. The pain that had kept me immobilized for the past few months is pretty much gone now. Just have some muscles spasms to deal with. No big deal.

Needless to say, I went out and partied that night with the surgeon who assissted, Ray Troche, and my girl who kept me fed and medicated. You want to see a real pain in the ass, see me when I'm so racked with pain I keep passing out and have no concept of how much time passes and keep wanting things and wondering why I don't have them yet. Well, I would pass out every few minutes and just wonder where my prune juice was. Doh! Thanks Kris for putting up with me.

So, now I can carry my little girl again. Now people can punch me in the head for your amusement.

So thank you everyone who stood by me. And believe me, there were those that said this was the end for me. But they don't know me too well. But if it wasn't for my sponsors taking care of me, I would've been hating it. They made it possible for me to sit on a couch and heal instead of flipping burgers at Mickey D's.

Thank you Levi B., Yokd.com, Metabolic Adaptation (still the most incredible supplements I've ever had), Xooma, Sprawl, and even my strength and conditioning coach Mike Dolce at strengthcoachonline.com, he's been helping me get my strength back day by day.

And especially thanks to all the fans and supporters who've sent me constant reminders that I've been a positive influence in their lives. Believe me, it means a lot to me knowing that I've touched people in a positive way, because really, that's all we can hope to do. To be remembered for helping others to achieve their goals and change their lives for the better.

Now I need to get back into fighting shape so I'm going to give myself several months to do so. I just can't rush this, so I'm hoping to be back close to the middle of the year. I know it's a while to wait but remember my back muscles were literally cut apart and sewn back together. I've had a lot of muscle atrophy and I need to come back ready to throw down with no worries.

So be patient with me and I'll do my best to come back a better fighter than I ever was before. And everyone will see that with determination and drive and a few good people around you, you can come back from anything.

Nathan "Rock" Quarry

Fortitudine Vincimus

That being said, ouch.

Spinal fusion for those that hadn't heard. An incredibly invasive surgery. And I'm still recovering so that's why I haven't posted for a while. Wanted to be able to give some positive news. :-)

Well, the surgery went as good as it possibly could. Had it down in Vegas, performed by a Dr. Thalgott, assissted by Ray and Rober and even had Dr. Sanders there, who operated on my ankle during TUF 1. A truly incredible crew. And the surgery was cutting edge.

Basically they came in from my left side just below my short ribs and ran a cylinder up to the shredded disk. Through the cylinder they chewed up what was left of the disk and sucked it out. Then they put a new prosthetic spacer disk in it's place. It puts my vertabrae back in alignment and at the proper distance from each other. Then from the back they cut me open right at the disk spot and screwed the two vertabrae together. And another cut was made just above my right rear hip so they could scrape some bone material off and put it all around the prosthetic.

If I would have had this surgery just a year ago it would have been twice as bad. But with the crew I had it just went great. Took about 4 hours, about half the time it does for most other crews. So what can I say? The surgery went great.

Now for the horror story. Thalgott and his crew did everything they could to make me as comfortable as possible and do a great job. Unfortunately the hospital Thalgott had to use wasn't on the same page. Well, that's not entirely true. Some of the nursing staff was outstanding. Some.... Not so outstanding.

Valley View Hospital for 5 days. The first nurse I had seemed to have trouble keeping time. I was on a cocktail of painkillers. Morphine on a push button, oxycotton and perkasets and shots of demerol. Every two hours I was to get the perkasets or a shot of demerol. Over and over my nurse would forget my pills or shots. So I'd go 4 hours without anything and then she'd come in and say, "Oh yeah, guess I forgot. I'll just give you both now." Yikes. I'd go from extreme pain to being completely gone. But my next nurse was amazing. Made sure I got everything I needed just right. And when she said her shift was over I begged her to write down the medication schedule for the next nurse. Which she did. Which the next nurse proceeded to erase as soon as she started. Yikes.

On Thursday began physical therapy. Keep in mind I had the surgery on Wednesday. So the day after I'm up and walking around. That was really the goal. A true credit to the surgeon. But the first therapist.... Geeze. She walks in and says, "Ok, it's time to go for a walk. Let's go." So I start to roll over to the edge of the bed, I was told by my surgeon to roll like a log. After a back surgery they don't want you bending at the waist for about a month. As I'm scooting she grabs me about the hip and shoulder and yanks me to the edge. At which point I'm just screaming in pain. She then throws my feet off the side of the bed causing me to launch upright again screaming in pain and I grabbed her about the shoulder to keep my self from falling off. Her response? "Don't grab onto me!!" My response, "Could you please tell me what you want." "I just told you!!" "Could you tell me before I do something to upset you?" And her response to that was, "That's it!! Lay back down!! I'm not going to deal with you!!" Oh my God. I looked at her in my haze of conciousness and said, "Please... Have some compassion. I just had major surgery. I'm sorry if I've done something to upset you. Please be patient with me." To which she said, "Fine. Come on." Far be it from me to judge her, but damn. Why would you choose a profession in which all you do is help people with an attitude like that?

I'm jumping all around here with the time schedule but I'm trying to insert the stories and finish them all at once. :-) Wednesday night I got a roommate. He was a man who was apparently moving a large oak table and tripped and it fell on him and broke his back. Crushed a vertabrae. For some reason there was no one who could perform surgery on him for 4 days. It was like being in one of those VA hospitals you see in the movies. Every few hours I'd hear this, "Ok, Mr.... We need to take a look at your back." "Ok, please be caref...YAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!" Grown man screaming at the top of his lungs. I felt so bad for him and his family. (You know, right now he's probably telling the exact same thing about his roommate (-: )

But what was the worst of it all? By far? Piss on the toilet seat. Constantly. Every time I went into the bathroom there was piss on the toilet seat. The nurses would dump out the bags from the catheters and get them all over the seat. Oh, and every time I was in the bathroom the nurses would knock and come right in. It was like, knock and open and then "Oh, sorry." Even when they would say the name of someone else they were looking for I would say, "No, not in here." And they'd come right in. "Oh, sorry."

Left the hospital on Sunday. Should really have stayed another day, but I couldn't deal with Valley View any more. It was about Tuesday though that I came out of my haze. Finally realized where I was. I had made it through the surgery and was at my hotel. I called a few friends to let them know the surgery had gone well. To my surprise they said I had already called them. I had no idea.

I wasn't allowed to eat the day before the surgery and I couldn't keep food down for about 4 days after the surgery. So I went without food for about 6 days. Not too big of a deal, I just lost a lot of weight. It's starting to come back now.

Started physical therapy last week. Real physical therapy, not just walking around. Stretching out the scar tissue and loosening up everything. The previous pain is pretty much gone. No more vertabrae scraping on each other. Now it's mostly surgery pain. That and muscles seizing up. That sucks. But it's better than it was.

Gotta thank Dr. Thalgott and Ray and Robert and Dr Sanders for such a great job. And my physical therapist Noah Goodwill and his wife who's getting me back in shape, Christine. And my sponsors who have really stepped up in my time of need, Yok'd Clothing, Metabolic Adaptation, Xooma Worldwide and my friend Levi. Without all of you believing in me, this road would be a lot harder. And of course all the fans of the sport, and me, who have sent me kind words of support.

Like I said at the beginning, you can't complain about the journey if you're happy with your eventual destination. And don't think I'm writing all this to get sympathy, really most of it is written with me laughing. Especially the piss on the seat part. Not so much the first physical therapist. True dat. But really I'd been getting a lot of messages asking what the story is and I wanted to fill everyone in.

So that's about it. Fight again? Not sure yet. But it's looking good. Just need to finish healing. The prosthetic put in my back is cutting edge and they tell me my back is going to be stronger than ever when I'm done. So keep sending me your good thoughts and I'll keep working on getting back in the cage to get punched for your amusement. :-)

Oh, and as usual, not proofread to give all a y'all something to rip on if that's your thing.

Surgery went well. Posting this off my phone. I was told by the surgeons that it went as well as it possibly could. I will give more in depth later. Thanks for all the positive energy that has been sent my way. The road to recovery will be long and a hard one. I can't wait to get on it.