Now it's really real.. I made the call this morning to schedule surgery, and it's happening in a little over two months. Crazy, I never thought it would actually happen. I'm super excited to think my pain might be gone, and definitely terrified of the whole thing. I keep thinking about how I'll feel after surgery, when I'm just laying there hurting, and what that's going to feel like.
I still need to get pre-op clearance from my gp, and the cardiologist, but I have no reason to believe that will be an issue. I also need to go give blood prior to surgery. The surgeon, Dr. Tribus(pronounced Trib-you), anticipates a 10 hour surgery, and thinks I'll stay in the hospital for 5-7 days post-op, before being moved to an in-patient rehabilitation center for up to six weeks. I'll be using a tilt table there. It's like a flat padded table that they'll strap me to, and then the whole table tilts up to get me in the standing position so I can get upright and walk. He said this is used so I don't bend at the waist when getting up out of bed.
I don't have any current x-rays in my possession to post on here, but I may by the end of the week. Well actually I took a picture of a computer screen that had my x-rays up, I'll put that up here for now. I didn't even ask about curvature degrees, I just know it's progressed, at least the pain is telling me it has. It's really affected my work lately, which is very frustrating.
I mentioned in that old thread that the genetic testing came back negative for Marfans, but as Sharon said, there's a pretty large margin of error to that test, and that doctor isn't completely convinced because I do show some of the symptoms. As long as I stay diligent and get yearly checks on my heart, I should be fine.
I'll post more as this thing moves along....
I still need to get pre-op clearance from my gp, and the cardiologist, but I have no reason to believe that will be an issue. I also need to go give blood prior to surgery. The surgeon, Dr. Tribus(pronounced Trib-you), anticipates a 10 hour surgery, and thinks I'll stay in the hospital for 5-7 days post-op, before being moved to an in-patient rehabilitation center for up to six weeks. I'll be using a tilt table there. It's like a flat padded table that they'll strap me to, and then the whole table tilts up to get me in the standing position so I can get upright and walk. He said this is used so I don't bend at the waist when getting up out of bed.
I don't have any current x-rays in my possession to post on here, but I may by the end of the week. Well actually I took a picture of a computer screen that had my x-rays up, I'll put that up here for now. I didn't even ask about curvature degrees, I just know it's progressed, at least the pain is telling me it has. It's really affected my work lately, which is very frustrating.
I mentioned in that old thread that the genetic testing came back negative for Marfans, but as Sharon said, there's a pretty large margin of error to that test, and that doctor isn't completely convinced because I do show some of the symptoms. As long as I stay diligent and get yearly checks on my heart, I should be fine.
I'll post more as this thing moves along....
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