What a pain in the...back!

Sorry this is so long...

Tuesday morning I got out of bed and was getting ready for work...things were going great! I was up early...felt great...was looking forward to a great day at work! I should have known right then and there that something was up... I bent over to put on my socks when this pain shot straight through the middle of my shoulder blades. It felt just like someone had run me through with a sword from the back. I even felt a sharp pain in the middle of my chest! WHAT WAS THAT?!?!?!? It hurt to move...it hurt to breath...it hurt to do anything...

Here it is now, Wednesday night at 9:10 and I haven't made it to work yet. In fact after a short stint at the hospital for x-rays, a shot of Nubane (wow!) and lots of rest and relaxing, I'm finally starting to feel better. The pain has pretty much gone from a 23 on a scale of 1 to 10 down to about a 4 now. Most of you who are reading this will never ever feel such pain (Can't relate it to childbirth, but I bet it's close). It usually will linger for about 4 or 5 days after the initial instance, and it happens every few years.

When I was 13, I was diagnosed with Scoliosis. For those of you who don't know, scoliosis is a condition which causes your spine to twist and curve. Usually, there is one bend or curve - I was double-blessed - I have two. My spine was 'S' shaped. I was told at 13 that if I didn't take care of this immediately, that my spine would continue to twist and bend until my ribs eventually punctured my heart and lungs. They said I would be lucky to live to be 60. Usually at 13 years old, the age of 60 seems forever and a day away. That day, it was way too close. All through age 14 I wore this wonderful brace. (NO comments about the hair! - Yours looked like this in 1981 too!) It was supposed to keep my back straight so that maybe I wouldn't have to have surgery. I was supposed to wear it 22 hours a day - including to bed. Sorry Mom, if you are reading this, but it somehow ended up on my floor during the night most nights. Needless to say, it didn't do much for my back and I ended up having surgery. On June 23rd (two days after my 15th birthday) I came off of a very strong morphine drip after surgery to this:

This is pretty much where I stayed straight through until July 4th, 1982. Every couple of hours they would come in and flip me from my stomach to my back and then back again a couple of hours later. It was great fun. It's amazing how much your legs forget how to walk after that short period of time. Had to learn to do that again before they would let me go home... According to the Dr., I recovered faster than anyone else had ever been able to from this. He thought it was a miracle how fast I was able to get out of bed and walk. He didn't realize it was the fact that I didn't want to eat any more hospital food!

Once I was able to leave the hospital, I ended up wearing this cast for the next 6 months. Yes, 6 MONTHS. I'm not real sure which of all these processes were the worst...they all pretty much stunk! But the day the Dr. cut it off of me, he said that I could pretty much do anything I wanted except skydive. I really felt after all of that, that someday I might even prove him wrong on that count too!

Anywho... over the last 20 some years there have been some days with pain, but mostly I have felt great. Never really had any problems until about '97 (not exactly sure of the year) when I seemed to be having more and more pain. I went to the Dr. and they took x-rays again. There are literally three metal rods in my back attached to my spine. They are in the shape of an 'H', one on the left, one on the right and a little one across the middle to hold them together. The surgery is called Harrington Rod Surgery and they don't really do it anymore - which is a real comfort :)

When I went to the Dr. in '97 (?), the x-rays showed that the rod on the right was actually screwing its way out the top! This is NOT normal and so far, no one has been able to tell me how this has happened. Both of the rods on the sides are threaded rods like a bolt or screw. The clips are fused into my spine and have a threaded hole in them that the rod goes into. On the bottom of each rod is a little nut that is supposed to keep it attached. If you look really close at the bottom of the x-ray you can see the little nut floating down there. Since '97, nothing more has happened. The rod stopped moving and everything is pretty much sitting in the same place. Once in a while (Like last Tuesday) the top of that rod will catch on something inside and cause a great deal of pain. if you can picture those little spring doorstops that you see behind some doors and how if you flick it it just bounces around *BOIOIOING*.... I think that's kind of what this does when it catches on something. I'm really kind of concerned as to what damage this could be doing to me internally, but the Dr's. don't really seem to be too concerned about it.

My intention for this post was to be informative. There is sooo much more I could write in here about this, and I hope it didn't come across as a whine or pity-party post. Because it's not. I just want those who read it to understand what I am dealing with and to help you pray effectively for me. I believe that this was all God's plan for me from the beginning. I don't believe that He was the cause of the curvature, but I do believe that He made sure it was caught in enough time that I would be able to see all my kids get married and to be able to spend time with my grandkids as well. I also believe that He guided the hands of the surgeon who put this in and that by His grace and mercy I was able to walk afterwords. I also don't think that anyone could argue the fact that His hand was on me when that rod was moving its way up and did not puncture any vital organs. I guess when I look back on this whole thing, I see many attacks on my life, but more so, I see the intervention by my God.

Praise be to Him who sits on the throne for ever and ever! Amen!