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Alright, my friends. I need your help and encouragement. I've always been known as a Pollyanna... but these last couple days have been hard.
My surgery is Monday, and I had my preop yesterday. I had bend films done a little over a year ago. My doc was very pleased with the flexibility of my spine, and was confident of a good correction. I postponed surgery for a year, due to financial reasons and life being hectic at that particular time. I had a wedding planned to a wonderful new husband and we moved due to his job transfer to a different community. We had two house payments because of it. I didn't want to have surgery until we sold the old house. I also was stuck with a lot of debt that my ex left me when he quit paying his bills that my name was still attached to. So I waited a year until all that was straightened out and I could afford to be off work long term.
I shouldn't have waited...
Now, I have shrunk 3" in the past year, and my curve progression has been swift. My new bend films taken yesterday were not good news. It showed lumbar correction from 70+ degrees to approximately 58 degrees. Not nearly the flexibility I had just over a year ago, before my shrinkage. I have a lot of arthritis and spurs in there, too. I also have to have pelvic fixation now. Due to lack of flexibility, my rib hump will not be decreased as much as we hoped. So I was given the option of thorcoplasty. This has really thrown me for a loop. So much to digest with surgery only 4 days away... I was really prepared and psyched up for the pain and recovery, with the benefit down the road of a straighten body and a missing rib hump. (Or mostly so- I AM realistic.) Now my mind is like a hamster in a wheel...it won't stop analyzing, wondering, regretting, finding ways to think positive. It needs to just be quiet!!
Lesson learned- If you are having pain issues and thinking of surgery. Don't put it off too long! PLEASE monitor your curves. If I had just done it a year ago, it would have been so much better off. That dang hindsight... BUT, looking at the bright side, it will still stop the progression, and not get worse like it has done. I have to stay positive! And my husband and I are the same height, so I probably won't be much taller than him. I thought I might tower over him. So that's one good thing...
My wonderful hubby has been so nervous these last few weeks. But he keeps hugging me, handing me tissues and tells me he loves me, hump and all. I am so lucky. He feels so helpless these last few days, knowing how upset I was with the news, and knowing there isn't much he can do, besides be there for me. He keeps telling me "I'll take care of you, baby."
Well, I feel a little better. I hope I've planted a seed in the heads of anyone on the verge and wondering about waiting versus just going ahead and doing it. You know you will have to have surgery someday, anyway.
Any thoughts/information on thorcoplasty would be appreciated! I hear the recovery isn't too pleasant with the addition of it. But in for a penny, in for a pound, right??? Might as well do it only once, get it over with, and hope for the best possible results. She gave me the option, and we decided that I give her permission to do it or not, depending on what she finds once she is in there. IF there is a good possibility of a lot of correction with it, she can go ahead. If it is only a little correction, we will opt out. I trust she will do whatever is best for me.
Thanks for listenting to the long venting!!!
Jenee'
My surgery is Monday, and I had my preop yesterday. I had bend films done a little over a year ago. My doc was very pleased with the flexibility of my spine, and was confident of a good correction. I postponed surgery for a year, due to financial reasons and life being hectic at that particular time. I had a wedding planned to a wonderful new husband and we moved due to his job transfer to a different community. We had two house payments because of it. I didn't want to have surgery until we sold the old house. I also was stuck with a lot of debt that my ex left me when he quit paying his bills that my name was still attached to. So I waited a year until all that was straightened out and I could afford to be off work long term.
I shouldn't have waited...
Now, I have shrunk 3" in the past year, and my curve progression has been swift. My new bend films taken yesterday were not good news. It showed lumbar correction from 70+ degrees to approximately 58 degrees. Not nearly the flexibility I had just over a year ago, before my shrinkage. I have a lot of arthritis and spurs in there, too. I also have to have pelvic fixation now. Due to lack of flexibility, my rib hump will not be decreased as much as we hoped. So I was given the option of thorcoplasty. This has really thrown me for a loop. So much to digest with surgery only 4 days away... I was really prepared and psyched up for the pain and recovery, with the benefit down the road of a straighten body and a missing rib hump. (Or mostly so- I AM realistic.) Now my mind is like a hamster in a wheel...it won't stop analyzing, wondering, regretting, finding ways to think positive. It needs to just be quiet!!
Lesson learned- If you are having pain issues and thinking of surgery. Don't put it off too long! PLEASE monitor your curves. If I had just done it a year ago, it would have been so much better off. That dang hindsight... BUT, looking at the bright side, it will still stop the progression, and not get worse like it has done. I have to stay positive! And my husband and I are the same height, so I probably won't be much taller than him. I thought I might tower over him. So that's one good thing...
My wonderful hubby has been so nervous these last few weeks. But he keeps hugging me, handing me tissues and tells me he loves me, hump and all. I am so lucky. He feels so helpless these last few days, knowing how upset I was with the news, and knowing there isn't much he can do, besides be there for me. He keeps telling me "I'll take care of you, baby."
Well, I feel a little better. I hope I've planted a seed in the heads of anyone on the verge and wondering about waiting versus just going ahead and doing it. You know you will have to have surgery someday, anyway.
Any thoughts/information on thorcoplasty would be appreciated! I hear the recovery isn't too pleasant with the addition of it. But in for a penny, in for a pound, right??? Might as well do it only once, get it over with, and hope for the best possible results. She gave me the option, and we decided that I give her permission to do it or not, depending on what she finds once she is in there. IF there is a good possibility of a lot of correction with it, she can go ahead. If it is only a little correction, we will opt out. I trust she will do whatever is best for me.
Thanks for listenting to the long venting!!!
Jenee'
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