1 Year!

It's been a year this Friday since I was fileted open, had lots of bone cut off, 28 screws drilled into 14 vertebrae, 4 rods hooked onto those screws, and hours and hours of putting a lot of pressure into slowly cranking my back into a straighter position. Wow! I made it! There were some times when I definitely wanted to die, or at least be totally unconscious, but I can say now that it was worth every minute of this last year to feel as good as I do now. I honestly knew I would end up in surgery some day, but I never ever dreamed that doctors would be able to straighten a deformed spine. It's a miracle, modern medicine! I had my 1 year post-op appointment Monday morning. I was really excited because I knew I would be getting my curves measured. I had not been measured since right before surgery. Then, my largest curve in the mid-back was 70 degrees and my low-back curve was 55 degrees. Dr. Chang predicted that at my age, he should be able to correct it about 60%, to 30 degrees in that largest curve. Well guess what? Both of my curves measure at 15 degrees now! I think I smiled all day long Monday, just because of the number 15... kind of stupid, I know, but it made my day.  Dr. Chang says I am still healing because I itch a lot. My nerves are still regrowing and my arthritis is making me ache which will be a life long thing. I'll take the regular old arthritis ache over the muscle pain any day! I am taking one muscle relaxer per day and Naproxin, which he said will probably help me for the rest of my life. I'm still having trouble with upper back/neck pain after sleeping. Dr. Chang says it's because I'm fused up so high, I'm going to have to have good neck support so it's not hanging too low. I can't seem to find a pillow that is not too puffy or too flat. I'll just keep trying. Other than that, my low back seems to be hurting less and less and the stronger I get, the better it should feel. I feel so blessed to be feeling like I can go on with my life, somewhat normally, whereas before surgery, I knew I couldn't go on much longer pushing myself like I was. My pain was debilitating and I could not do much anymore. Now, I can be the wife and mother that I longed to be, participating in activities and going places. I feel like the luckiest woman alive! I've said it before, but I thank all of you again for the many prayers offered in my behalf. I have no doubt that they helped me through this, that Priesthood blessings healed me in the Lord's time. I thank all of those who helped me physically through the first few weeks when I couldn't help myself, for all of those who helped Jim and the boys when needed. What a year! 

The x-ray taken Monday looks exactly the same as the 6 month one, which is good, so I won't post that again. I did have Jim take a photo of my scar a year later though, so here it is.

    One year down, many more to go!