Tag Archives: Scripture

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One Year Post-Op Spinal Fusion

I’ve been thinking about this post for a while now. For obvious reasons, it’s time to update you on how my back is doing, but I’ve also wanted to just kind of catch you up on life in general.

So a year ago today I was in Post Falls, Idaho having surgery. I woke up after surgery the proud recipient of 6 titanium screws, 3 rods, and 2 intervertebral cages and a 6 inch incision. Oh…I also had a small drain and a catheter in. Within a few hours they had me up and out of bed and walking (ok shuffling) down the hallway. Overnight they transitioned me from a morphine pain pump to oral pain killers – and made me get up every few hours and walk. Early the next morning they took out the catheter and I had a visit from the physical therapist who showed me how to put on the back brace and made sure I could walk without assistance and go up and down stairs. I was taught how to “log roll” to protect my new spine hardware – and minimize my pain – everything had to move as a unit – knees, hips, and shoulders all at the same time. I stayed a second night in the hospital and the next day I had the drain pulled out and was able to take a shower before getting dressed in my own clothes and headed a few blocks away to stay at my pastor’s home for a few days before I headed back south to my own house.

So the biggest question I’ve gotten when folks hear I’ve had spinal fusion is, “What did you do to your back? Was it an injury or car accident? ” Nope – it’s just me and the way my joints wear out. I’ve probably had a few muscle injuries over the years – pull a muscle moving hay or whatever – but I didn’t fall off a roof. I wasn’t in a car accident.

I have a condition called Mayer Rokitansky Kuster Hauser Syndrome (MRKH) Type 2. I was born with an incomplete reproductive tract – missing my uterus, cervix, and the upper 2/3rds of my vaginal canal. I have a pelvic kidney, mild scoliosis, and all the joints in my body tend to wear out quickly. Over the years I’ve had surgery on both of my shoulders, both of my feet, and now my back. In all cases, there was considerable damage to the cartilage and the bony structures of the joints themselves. For my back specifically I had advanced degenerative disc disease, paired with spondylolisthesis, and stenosis. Basically that means that I had two vertebrae that had slipped out of place causing bone on bone contact – creating arthritis and narrowing of the canal where the nerves and spinal cord pass through, and it destroyed the discs. I had pinched nerves causing issues of sciatic pain primarily on the right side, with numbness going all the way down to my toes. I had spine and hip/pelvic pain on both sides with daily muscle spasms that I just sort of lived with for years.

So after an MRI and a visit to the top spine specialist in the area, I was scheduled for surgery. I am now fused from L4-L5 and L5-S1 – so my sacrum between my hip bones and the two lowest vertebrae are all now fused together with screws, rods, all the bone that grew together.

Over the course of my recovery I’ve had a few struggles and set backs, as you might expect – but at the end of the day I’m glad I had the surgery. I am walking everyday, and I do yoga during the week – continuing to rebuild strength and flexibility. I have to work specifically on strength and support in my core – deep core muscles to support the spine specifically – while I’d like to have a flat toned tummy – that isn’t my priority. My priority is having strong and balanced muscles that keep me healthy and my spine supported – which is more than a 6-pack abs package…it’s deep pelvic floor muscles, it’s strong and flexible hips, its the glutes and hamstrings doing their part, and it’s flexibility and mobility in my upper back as well. It is a well rounded and planned out series of routines that keep my whole spine and body in good shape. I still struggle with the stability of my SI joint specifically because it wants to take over the mobility that my spine lost. I have to remind myself to move my hips with my waist and use the deep pelvic muscles to keep everything moving as a unit. It’s the twisting movement that gets me in trouble. My lower spine just doesn’t articulate anymore, and so I have to turn ABOVE the fusion, and keep my spine square within my pelvis. What tends to happen now if I’m not paying attention is that I turn further than my spine is capable of, and so the lower spine where it’s fused tries to turn and “displaces” itself out of the pelvis. My hips/pelvis must stay straight and square and my turn needs to originate basically at the rib cage. When it comes to my workouts, I have to work specifically the glutes and hips to keep the pelvis strong, and not just my abdominal core. It’s been an interesting challenge and change of mindset. But let me assure you, my body tells me when I’m not following the rules – having my SI joint out of whack is no fun – but I’m learning what to do to help ease it back into place – and more importantly what to do to help prevent it happening in the first place (aka do your therapy and pay attention to how you twist!!)

Along with the daily walking and yoga and core work, I’ve also worked very hard to fuel my body in a much healthier way – I’ve cut out all artificial sweeteners, and focus on lean meats, lots of vegetables, some fruit, and limited starches and whole grains. Sure, I still eat the occasional sweet treat – but I feel better when I eat better and do my exercises. I use a step & activity tracker on my phone, and I track my calories everyday too. Each day I take a handful of supplements – a multi vitamin, calcium, glucosamine, chondroiton, MSM, Vitamin E, and collagen – and I drink as much water every day as I can. My goal, and my doctor’s goal is to try and keep my body and specifically my joints as healthy as possible to avoid more surgeries. Bottom line, I’m glad I had the surgery on my back. It wasn’t a walk in the park – but it has made it possible for me to be much more active and pain free than I was a year ago. This recovery process has taught me patience, resilience, and as funny as this might sound, it’s taught me about direct consequences. Just when I think I’m fine and should be able to whatever I want – my body reminds me that nope – you can only do what you are CAPABLE of doing. That’s not to say that I don’t challenge myself – but just that I have limitations that are reinforced with titanium – and recovery is a long slow road.

Kind of like life, right? We aren’t here for just a moment, we are here for a lifetime. We have opportunity every day to glorify God – to allow His light to shine through us and onto those we encounter each day. So smile! Hold the door open for someone. Wave at a child. Tell that young girl she is beautiful. Visit a friend in the hospital or nursing home. Pray for someone. Share the good news of God and His Glory that is waiting for each of us, and God promises us it will come to those who believe and trust. How have you been a blessing to someone lately?

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A Graceful Rehabilitation

I’ve been thinking I need to give an update, let you all know how the rehab is progressing. The change of physical therapist has been good. I’ve been able to switch things up and make some real progress. I’ve seen Brenda 3 times now, and have been doing my home exercises and when I see her each week she works on something else.

The first week was that darn IT band and trigger point massage in my hip and glute, and using my roller massage stick on my hamstring and the IT band itself. The incredible tenderness has diminished, and the tension has released significantly. I continue with stretches and work to build balanced strength. It’s clear it’s all working, as my SI joint is much more stable, my pelvis aligned, and the IT band isn’t holding so much tension.

The second week, she worked the soft tissue in my hip and then put me through the paces on the Pilates Reformer – doing a lot of core work and leg work. More stretching and a reminder to keep the rest of my spine above the fusion mobile. While we want good stability around the fusion, we want strength and mobility in the rest of my spine.

This week when I saw her, I asked her to help me trouble shoot the left foot nerve pain. We went through what I have been doing at home, the stretching and “neural flossing” and she did a body mechanics assessment. She had me make some small changes to the way I had been doing the neural flossing, and focus on a couple different ways to stretch and work my ankle and foot. With some soft tissue work – more trigger point massage- in my calf and ankle area she helped release some tension, which should help that nerve to glide more freely. I’ve had to do some home massage and really work at the hot spots – so as it heals from the massage work, the hope is that the nerve will glide smoothly and that annoying nerve pain will diminish. Again I’m in a work it hard for a couple days, and let it rest and heal a day or two and then go back after it for a couple days. Hopefully soon I’ll see some progress.

I feel like I’m at a point finally where I’m really ready to go at this rehab and recovery thing on my own. I’m glad I’ve pushed to continue with the physical therapy past the initial 6 week protocol. I’ve needed to work through problems that have developed as I’ve healed – the SI joint, the IT band, the nerve in my left foot – all the while continuing to retrain muscles to support my spine. I’ve been careful, but I’ve also pushed myself in rehab. I didn’t want to just heal the incision and let the bone heal – I wanted to really rehab my body to get back to a place of strength and stability that I haven’t had in several years. I wanted a new lease on life, so working on healing and rebuilding strength has been important to me – a full recovery. I’m so thankful that I have good insurance and the ability to take the time to recover that I’ve needed.

I see my surgeon again in February – almost exactly 6 months from my surgery. That’s about when my physical therapy “prescription” runs out again. I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, like my recovery and rehabilitation has been a success, and that I will back to myself and my “pre-fusion” activities soon.

I’m looking at spring and summer craft fair dates, and feeling like I am physically able to do the work of setting up and tearing down shows. I need to spend some time making soap in preparation for that – and I feel like I’m physically able to do that too. I have to admit, there was a time when I was wondering if I would be able to get back to the soap biz – so it’s a very good thing that I’m feeling like all my hard work in rehab has been worth it!

I’ve been consistent for over 3 weeks with clean eating and exercise. I’ve been taking my vitamins and supplements every day and doing everything I can to fuel my body well. And I’ve been giving myself grace to just live a little too. I have found the balance that has been lacking for a while in my life.

Oh yeah…and it was recently my baptiversary – so I treated myself to a new bible and bible cover. With my focus on women’s ministry I have been doing a lot of bible study on women in general, and leading our local Ladies Night In ministry – so I wanted a bible that would help me do that. One of my favorite blogs put out a devotional bible recently, and so I treated myself to one. It’s visually a beautiful bible, but it’s also chocked full of reading plans, devotionals, and highlights over 50 women of courage. I’ve really enjoyed skimming through it and prayerfully considering which reading plan I wanted to start with. As usual, God had a plan and led me right where He wanted me to be.

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Thankful for Healing

On this Thanksgiving Day, I’m thankful for the healing in my body this year.  The year isn’t over, nor is the healing, but it’s still something to be thankful for!

I’m at a touch over 3 months post spinal fusion.  My spine is held together by 6 screws and 3 rods, plus cages in the disk space between vertebrae L4-L5, and L5-S1.  Oh, and bone matter.  The goal is that everything will be held together by solid bone, and the titanium of course.  I will see my surgeon again next week, and expect a good report from him.

I’ve been in physical therapy for 6 weeks now.  Danielle is finally back, and she has been working me hard!  We have a couple areas of focus:  my hips and pelvis, and my upper back.  She wants increased movement and flexibility in my upper spine so I’m doing a lot of stretching and rotation work in my shoulders and upper rib cage, rotating from the bottom of my rib cage to look over my shoulders, and reach across my chest.   My hips and glutes are working as well to give me stability in my pelvis to support my sacrum and low back.  During my PT sessions, Danielle has me working on the Pilates reformer – doing a lot of squats in various positions to work specific muscles both in my hips and glutes, but also in my lower abs.  We are working on the flexibility of my low back (those muscles got VERY tight after surgery) while keeping my spine itself in a neutral position, but also stretching my hamstrings and hips.  Everything has been very tight because of years of chronic pain and moving in “defensive and protective” mode.  So I’m doing lots of stretches each day, as well as muscle building activities.  Danielle has also been working on helping the nerves to heal by loosening their paths as well as stretching them.  I have a series of “neural flossing” stretches and movements that are working like a charm.  Nerves heal so slowly, but I am noticing changes in my symptoms, so I know what I’m doing is helping!  Also, Danielle has been great about helping me modify and get comfortable in different yoga poses to help me get back into regular routines.  Best of all, she’s given me confidence to start really pushing my healing forward.

I’ve kind of turned the corner from being in a very protective healing mode and being extremely careful, almost fearful, about doing something to put my surgery in jeopardy – to pushing hard and moving much more.  My stamina is increasing, both muscular and cardio.  I can walk comfortably for a lot longer – it’s not just one slow gentle walk to the driveway, but 3 trips back and forth at a quick pace.  I’m noticing more muscle strength in the muscle groups we’ve been working on, but still need to focus on really engaging the RIGHT muscles to do the exercises, not what my body has been compensating with for years.  I laughed when Danielle said I have some really bossy muscles that need to take a back seat to the ones who are supposed to be working.  I won’t see her next week, but I will continue with my home exercises and yoga practices for hip and sacrum stability.  I have scheduled once a week check ins with her through the end of the year.  I’m doing much better – but I’m not “back to normal” yet, so therapy with guided exercises will help me get there.  Re-training muscles is hard work, in case you were wondering!

I’ve got a lot to be thankful for this year, but I really am thankful for the body God gave me and how resilient it is.  I pray you each have blessings abounding that you are also giving thanks for.

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