Seeing the spine surgeon today made all the difference in Nicks attitude and mood. He’s been down for so many days now because of the pain and lack of expected improvement. But today his mind was put at ease.
They took the 40 staples out of his back so now he’s free to take a real shower. The X-rays looked good and the doctor is pleased.
At some point today, probably when Nick was stretching without a shirt on, about an inch of his newly closed wound opened up. You can see on the picture that the skin looks strange from the ninth staple down to the twelfth, and thats where it wasn’t quite healed. It’s not terrible, but it’s gross. I cleaned it and butterfly closed it so he can sleep with abandon.
He’s still having a lot of trouble walking and is doing very little of it. At two and a half weeks he is still mostly laying down. Standing is really painful and he only has so much stamina, but he’s working on it slowly. The doc said another four weeks and he’ll be feeling back to normal. Just as I had always expected.
His new attitude is the best part though. He’s so tired of being in pain and injured, but after getting the reassurance that he’s okay, he is reunited with his ultimate goal: to get strong and Get Bust Living!
Nick Fener 
I sure hope that he is feeling better every day. I can’t imagine having my back opened all of his hardware that was in him being taken out has to be a huge adjustment to his spine. Hurts just thinking about it. It must be like three steps forward one step back progression. But he will get there.