The Surgery That Changed My Life

Ok so now the year is 2001 and I am sitting in the doctors office waiting for my doctor to come back and talk to me after I had my x-rays taken. I could hear two voices out in the hall and really didn't realize who it was until they said "she is going to need surgery at some point" It was my doctor and a colleague talking about me! My doctor came back in the room and to be honest with you the rest of that conversation was just a blur. She really didn't recommend anything. She prescribed pain relievers and muscle relaxers and sent me for an MRI. I went home took my pain meds when needed and the pain that sent me to the doctor subsided for the most part. I was still left with my "normal" back pain, but by now it had been so long I think I just had gotten used to it. The MRI results basically confirmed what the xrays had already said. I still wasn't working so I went about doing some home improvement projects that I had planned...namely putting a new floor in the kitchen, hall and laundry room of my house. This of course required me to be on my hands and knees for long periods of time removing the old flooring...(horrible job and I do not recommend doing it). It probably took me about a month to remove the old flooring and get the new floor in also. Right after this I was planning a 40th birthday party for my husband. I was happy to throw the party, but also excited about showing off my hard work in putting in the floor. I love to throw parties and work very hard to make sure that everything is perfect....I get totally stressed out doing it, but when my guests are pleased I am happy that I did all of the work. Life moves on, the weather gets nice out and I have a ton of projects planned for my backyard. I had projects planned for the backyard, but I could do them at my leisure so I thought at the time until husband's younger brother called and asked if we could host his small wedding reception in our backyard. I agreed to this adventure thinking at the time it it a catered affair so all I would have to do is clean my house and spruce up the yard. Well I went way beyond that and worked my tail off making sure everything was perfect. During all of this work I got a bad case of tendonitis (tennis elbow) from all of my yard work. I lived with that pain as well as my back pain until I couldn't take it anymore. I made an appointment to see my doctor. Doctor D is a female, she is about 4 years younger than I and I really do not know her very well since I rarely get sick and had recently switched to her when my original doc retired. I complained about my elbow which by now hurt even at rest. I don't know what it is about her, but she doesn't seem to have much compassion for people in pain. During our conversation I started to cry, she immediately asked if I was depressed? Why is it that when woman cries she is automatically depressed? I said no, I didn't think so I just couldn't take all of this pain anymore...My back or my elbow. She hemmed and hawed and then put me on steroids for my elbow and gave me a card for a rehab specialist to see about my back. The steroids worked almost immediately for my elbow, but they made me feel horrible. I finished the five day supply happy that my arm didn't hurt anymore and I made an appointment to see the rehab doctor. She was a nice woman who worked in an orthopaedic office in another nearby town. She took x-rays, gave me a corset to wear, sent me to Physical Therapy,had me tested for diabeties because I had some numbness in my feet, and gave me some mild pain pills. It turned out that I did not have diabeties, but they had to check. I saw her a few times, but my back didn't seem to be getting any better so she said I should go see an othopod. She said I could see someone in her office or she recommended an orthopod nearer to my home. I chose to go to one closer to home because the drive to nearby town was hard on my back. Sitting for any longer than 15 or 20 minutes was beginning to be torturous for me. I knew Dr B. When I was 14 he repaired my broken elbow and at 14 I thought this man was dreamy...LOL I broke my elbow ice skating and had to have surgery to repair it. I had a 2 inch screw and some wire put in and after a few months my arm was back to normal. I went to my appointment with Dr. B. He had aged quite a bit but he was still quite handsome. I showed him the xrays of my back which clearly showed a grade 2 slip of my L5-S1 (Spondylolisthesis), explained my symptoms and also told him about my recurring tendonitis in my elbow. I reminded him that he had repaired said elbow many years prior. He tried to find my old xrays, but they were in archives by now so they took a new xray of my elbow just to make sure it wasn't some complication from that. No my elbow looked fine on xray...He did some other tests on my arm and yes confirmed I had tendonitis....Duh. He had a girl from PT come in and show me some exercises to combat my problem(which eventually did work). Now for my back. He basically wrote me off...He told me to walk. Mind you I was a little over weight at the time BUT I had been walking faithfully 3 miles 5 days a week for over a year. I told him this and all he could really say is that surgery is a last resort for this kind of thing and that I should exercise as much as possible and lose some weight. Well let me tell you the crush I had on him at 14 quickly faded....Now I am thinking what a grumpy old doctor! I left his office feeling worse than when I came in. I went back to see the rehab lady again one more time. By now I am frustrated, my back bothers me more than ever and it is starting to really interfere with my life. She had one more thing for us to try. An epidural injection in my back. I wasn't really thrilled at the prospect of this, but I agreed. I had it done and the relief lasted maybe two days at best. I go back to tell her that the injection really didn't help and that it was traumatic and expensive and I really did not want to try again. This time she tells me to go back to the same ortho practice, but I should see Dr T...Why she didn't tell me this the first time I have no idea! So I waited a while and made the appointment. I went to see Dr T in the fall of 2003, yes this was about a two year journey. I liked him the moment he came in. He was friendly, funny and as confident as could be. He looked at my xrays and MRI and basically told me that since I had been through all of the non-surgical remedies without any help surgery was my only option. I don't know what I was expecting, but surgery kind of scared me. He said that he thought I was good candidate for a anterior/posterior lumbar fusion with instrumentation. He explained that they would be making an incision in my abdomen, remove what was left of my disc...Which wasn't much, and insert a cage to take up the space left behind. Then they would turn me over and do a laminectomy and fusion from the back side. I was stunned and overwhelmed. He told me to think about it and come back in a few weeks. I went home in a daze and began researching this whole thing. I spent hours online reading information, watching actual back surgeries on television and online. The whole thing was very scary, but the more knowledge I had under my belt the better I felt. My back was only getting worse. He told me that my spine was unstable and it was likely it would get more unstable as time went on. I was too young (40 at the time) to be so debilitated. So I put together a huge list of questions and went back to see him.....To be continued.

Time To Get Started

Well, I signed up quite some time ago to write my thoughts and all I ever seemed to do was read other blogger entries. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading the blogs that I have found...mostly medical in nature. The reason I wanted to write my thoughts down was because I am at a turning point in my life. I will be 43 years old in a week or so and I have finally decided after a 21 year absence that I wish to go back and finish my undergrad degree, but the kicker is that this time I want to be pre-med. 20+ years ago I was a wide eyed art student...I finished my 3rd year of college and was lured away by a job offer managing a record store(I guess it would be a CD store now). I had worked there for years part-time and I absolutely loved it. I was tired of living at home and yearned to make some money. I realized at the time also that I was fooling myself thinking that I could make a living by drawing and painting, which was my talent at the time. I told myself that I would go back to school and finish my degree at some point.....
Fast forward to the year 2006, I now have been married for 18 years and have two children. I spent a good portion of my children's younger years at home with them. I thought it was important. I worked a few odd jobs, some from home some outside of home. When my youngest went to kindergarten I was asked to be a swim assistant at my local YWCA where I went nearly everyday to workout. I had to take a short class to prep for this duty. I loved swimming, the hours were perfect so I forged ahead. Quite rapidly my superiors at the Y talked me into becoming a lifeguard and Red Cross Water Safety Instructor. Here I was 38 years old and in classes with 15 year olds becoming a lifeguard...it was hilarious, but I excelled at it and got all of my certifications. I worked at the YWCA for 3 years until a back condition sidelined me and I felt it was no longer smart to dive down 9 feet to pick people up off of the bottom of the pool . I took about a year off from working, thank god for my hard working husband who affords me lapses in employment. At this same time I started to notice that my back pain was getting worse. I mostly ignored my gradual decline in health where my back was concerned until one day I could hardly move. I woke up that way and couldnt think of anything I had done to cause such a drastic change. So in 2001 I went to see the doctor who after asking me a few questions and could see that I was in pain sent me for x-rays. I have had back x-rays before and was actually told many years prior to this that I had a congenital defect in my back, nothing serious of course and that it may or may not cause me any future problems. At that time the doctor didn't think it was what was causing my back pain, but that I had muscle spasms so he prescribed muscle relaxers and a short course of physical therapy. I was fine for many years after that. But in 2001 when the doctor asked if I had any pain going down my legs and I said yes she sent me for more x-rays.....this is where my journey to spinal fusion begins and how it affects who I am today.