Back Adventures

As most of you know I have been walking around like a troll since mid-March of this year. The troll walk attracted a lot of attention from onlookers. Bent over at the waist trying to lift my head up to see just in front of me I gimped around, dragging my right leg. Some just tried to stare at my feet and legs as if not to make eye contact with such a crippled person, others had eyes that just bled compassion, others just came right out and said"what is wrong with you?" The highlight of the troll adventure was riding around in motorized scooters throughout Costco, Target and Harmon's Grocery Stores. My shopping adventures have been limited to those 3 places since they are the only ones who offer scooters for the disadvantaged like me! I had a few misadventures like when I ran over Brooke's foot and she declared "mom drives like a maniac!" Or when I knocked over a whole shelf of juice boxes. The best reactions would come when I would stand up out of the scooter to pick the cereal off the shelf some looked at me as if if they had just witnessed a miracle!

I knew the adventures had to come to end some time. Physical therapy failed, decompression was the most miserable experience, 3 epidurals were just temporary band aids. Surgery seemed imminent. Last week I finally relented and dropped off my MRI report to the neurosurgeons office I had so diligently researched. I figured word of mouth from those not paralyzed spoke the best for the surgeon. So the Office of Dr's Reichmann and Gaufain were it. They said it would take a week to contact me about an appointment I heard the next day they were ready to see me. Hmm, I was noticing a trend amongst all the Dr's who had seen my scans. I heard reactions like: "champion herniation" "you only see ones like this once a year" "Wow that is BIG" If you notice in the picture above there should be a clear white nerve canal but right at the bottom is black glob pushing into the canal. That would be the herniation.

Unfortunately my back couldn't wait till my appointment. Late Sunday night I gave birth to the most excruciating herniation recorded by man. ha. Well, I haven't spoke to too many others who have encountered this but my analogy goes something like this" it felt like giving birth to an elephant through my nostril." With the pain shifting to the other leg and foot it became totally numb. I couldn't sit, stand , or crawl without screaming or crying. I think I ripped skin on Ben every time he tried to help me move. I writhed for hours. Finally the tears drained out and at 6:30 a.m. with the help of a percocet I managed to fall asleep leaning on a pile of pillows on top of a chair. During the night I had screamed to the Lord for mercy, promised to be a better everything if he would just offer some relief. I am not so sure he heard those pleas but I know percocet did! In the morning, with the advice of the Dr's to get to the ER immediately Ben and I headed off to our favorite haunt as of late, Utah Valley Hospital. As I left the MRI it was immediately reported to us that the radiologist had never seen a disc herniation bigger then mine. By the time I got back to ER room the neurosurgeon Dr Gaufain was there waiting. Ben swears he was salivating. He broke the news that surgery was needed immediately. Unfortunately I had eaten some oreoes with the pain meds they gave me so that delayed my surgery till the next day. I offered to go home and get ready but I was admitted immediately with the warning that paralysis was too much of a risk.
The next day the surgery went off with out a hitch. The Anesthesiologist even greeted me in recovery saying "that herniation was like pulling meat out of a king crab claw, one piece after another!" I was beginning to get the feeling that I had broken some sort of record here. Within an hour of being back in my room I was busy taking 2 laps around the floor. Pain free but still dragging a totally numb leg an foot. The textbooks predict that nerve damage doesn't heal but Dr Gaufain promises that 50% of his patients see some sort of relief. I am for sure pleading that I am in that 50% this time. I think I have taken 100% of my due this year. It is great to be home gimping around. They released me at 10 a.m. yesterday and it has been a pleasure to limp around in my own home again.
This is the end of the medical adventures for 2008 and we are on to some more exciting times soon enough! I am grateful this back adventure waited till after my parents 50th Anniversary extravaganza, Brooke's baptism and an awesome visit with my two sisters and their families. I guess there is always the bright side of just getting it over with rather then waiting around. Out of the advice I have gotten I wish I had dismissed 99% of it. This is what I have learned: listen to your gut. Everyone has an opinion, don't be bogged down with the guilt of disappointing others expectations or forgoing the promises of miracle treatments. Do what is best for you and what you are prompted to do, there is Truth in your internal compass listen to it!

Oh PS The procedure was a laminectomy discectomy