Yesterday I celebrated being 1 year post-op! This past year, through my second fusion surgery of my life, I learned so much about myself; my strength, my resolve, my grit, my determination. I am so grateful to my surgeon, my family, and my fellow warriors here who helped me through so much. I went “dark” on the forum because life continued on and after the immediate healing, physical therapy and getting back to work, life continued to roll on! Our son turned 4 this May and in June our daughter turned 2! They keep my husband and I busy and I am so thankful I am still able to squat down to their level when needed, sit and lounge with them to read books, and get on the floor and play with toys with them.
As fitting for a 1 year anniversary, on the day of I met with my surgeon for my 1-year post-op. With x rays in hand we talked for a good while about what we saw. All my hardware, new and old, along with my curves are stable, steady, and show no signs of compromise. My bones are fusing well and all is good there…(can you feel the but coming?)… …after disclosing to him some symptoms I began experiencing in my neck and in my legs over the past 4 months, we saw that I am now bone-on-bone in multiple spots in my C-spine. Not the news I was expecting to hear for at least 10-15 more years. I have a CT scan coming up soon and we will re group after that but he is thinking I will be needing a laminectomy. In the mean time my primary care provider advised me to discontinue the gabapentin since it hasn’t seemed to be helping, and instead start being on a muscle relaxer for my neck stiffness (always by the end of every day I am completely seized up) and then OxyContin for shooting leg pains from likely peripheral nerve damage in my legs that I have been having.
I guess I will take the bad with the good, especially since I don’t have a choice, but I have to keep remembering that as much as this wasn’t all rainbows and glitter 100% I am far and away much better than where I was before this most recent fusion.
54644D25-87FF-4C41-A8C6-E770C279DB7C.jpg
As fitting for a 1 year anniversary, on the day of I met with my surgeon for my 1-year post-op. With x rays in hand we talked for a good while about what we saw. All my hardware, new and old, along with my curves are stable, steady, and show no signs of compromise. My bones are fusing well and all is good there…(can you feel the but coming?)… …after disclosing to him some symptoms I began experiencing in my neck and in my legs over the past 4 months, we saw that I am now bone-on-bone in multiple spots in my C-spine. Not the news I was expecting to hear for at least 10-15 more years. I have a CT scan coming up soon and we will re group after that but he is thinking I will be needing a laminectomy. In the mean time my primary care provider advised me to discontinue the gabapentin since it hasn’t seemed to be helping, and instead start being on a muscle relaxer for my neck stiffness (always by the end of every day I am completely seized up) and then OxyContin for shooting leg pains from likely peripheral nerve damage in my legs that I have been having.
I guess I will take the bad with the good, especially since I don’t have a choice, but I have to keep remembering that as much as this wasn’t all rainbows and glitter 100% I am far and away much better than where I was before this most recent fusion.
54644D25-87FF-4C41-A8C6-E770C279DB7C.jpg
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