Workin' woman!

I noticed I am averaging about one post a month now! I need to get on the ball!

I have been a little busy bee lately. For starters, I work at a church at their Mothers Day Out as a teacher on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Then, recently, I began babysitting a WONDERFUL little boy on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays! He goes to Mothers Day Out, and I am helping his parents out, and so he also goes to work with me on the days I go to work. Then I took on this job at the church nursery, which is approximately 10 hours a week...so for sure Sundays, and Wednesday nights, and then on Mondays when they have Ladies Bible study. And whenever else they need me, I guess. So I just realized that Saturday will be my only day to stay at home!

But I am sooooo happy that I am getting to do all this, and be involved with other people and actually feel like I am doing something, rather than sitting at home with a bad back and in pain all the time.

Since I have stopped taking all medication, I have finally gotten to the point where I fall asleep at night because I am actually tired and not because I had to take some pill to get me all loopy! This feels great!! And no wonder I am tired! :0)

Anyways, just wanted to share what was going on in my little neck of the woods ;)

Awesome day!

I was supposed to go to my pain management doctor today for another check-up and to see about getting my meds and all that, but guess what?? I feel GREAT and don't even need to go to him! Let me tell you, I am so sick of taking pills and am doing so great that I don't need any medicine other than the occasional Ibuprofen or something. And coming from 16 years of hurting, that is a huge deal to me.

In my last post I had talked about my upper neck/shoulder area hurting..especially after working. Well...Lanie got moved into the 3 year olds room, and so I don't have her in my class, umm, bugging the crap out of me! While she was in my class, she didn't understand that I was the teacher...to her I was her MOMMY! She could have/do/say whatever she wanted. She wanted juice, I should give it to her, just like I do at home...anyways, so it was kinda hard. And she wouldn't listen to the other teacher, because her MOMMY was in there! And we know how kids act when their parents are around lol. At lunch, she'd be asking for bites of my lunch, then the other kids would want bites of my lunch..it was like being surrounded by little baby seagulls and I was a piece of bread lol. So anyways, she moves to the other room, and I get through the whole day without hurting AT ALL...Just an occasional ache here and there, but not the burning sensation I was having. My side doesn't even hurt anymore...I am soooooo happy about all this.

Again, I have to say that I am so glad that there are people who are reading this blog! I met an awesome woman who is about to have the big surgery in November. Her daughter had found my blog and we started emailing back and forth. I met her the other evening to just talk about the surgery and the recovery and all of that. I showed her the Medieval looking brace, showed her how to wear it...I imagine people were driving by wondering what we were doing lol. We had a very good talk and I showed her pictures and tried to answer any questions she had, we laughed, we even cried a little. I remember what its like to be so close to having this surgery, the emotions you feel and stuff, and my heart just goes out to her. She is not scared, she is ready, which is AWESOME! Thats how I was too towards the end. I wish her the absolute best!!

Well, I need to get off here and get some housework done...adios!!

Something cool I found out!

Two things I found out, but one of them I can't speak of until she decides to tell the rest of the world. Meg. Hahahaha...I'll write about her little revelation later on :]

But the other is that my mother took a new job at this place called Maximus, apparently they handle Medicaid and other state programs...anyways, she said there was a guy at work with her that had a scar all the way up into the back of his head, down his neck, and pretty sure down into his back too. Well, curiosity got the best of her, and she asked him about it. (So nosey! lol)

He went on to tell her that he had what most people call a "humpback/hunchback"...which is technically called Kyphosis...and she told him about how I had scoliosis surgery, that I had it really bad, and that they totally fixed it...then started talking about how my surgeon had passed away back in August :[ And he said something like, "Dr. Shelokov??" (I wasn't there for this convo lol) and she said "Yes!"...he said that was HIS surgeon also!! He had the operation back in 1999-2001(?) Isn't that awesome? Dr. S's patients are just scattered all over the place. But he is the 4th in this area that I have heard about...I am sure there are more, but I haven't learned about them! Anyways, I just think its totally cool, and she told him about my blog, but since my Mom is kinda technically challenged (love you mom!!) she told him my blog was lifeiscrooked.com. Hahaha. Well, she came pretty close, so maybe he will find it if he looks for it. Adam, if you are reading this, then HELLO! And I would love to meet you!!

I am still doing totally awesome as far as pain...it just seems to get a little less every single day. As long as I don't act like SuperWoman and try and get 1,845,924 things done in one day. The annoying pain in my side is easing up too! Its so encouraging to me! The only issue I really deal with now is that pain on top of my fusion, feels like tension, not sure what it is, but its like a bad burning and tight sensation and it just SUCKS! And like I said before, my back where the actual fusion took place is not hurting at all, just tender from the surgery...and I was wondering the other night..."What if it doesn't hurt because uhhhhh its still NUMB??"...if my back 'wakes up' and stuff, and hurts, then what? But I am thinking it would have started hurting before now. And a lot of it before was pain AND the feeling like I was totally scrunched up. I don't know...I am just rambling now. [What the blogs for, right?? :)] So anyways, now I am all excited about the pain being gone, the side pain being gone, but now have this upper shoulder region pain. I have an appointment with my pain doctor in October, so I shall ask him about that.

I was already gonna tell him that I really only need pain meds on the days that I work because of all the bending over and stuff, the end of the 6 hours, I am hurting pretty bad. I am off the muscle relaxers and the Ambien...so maybe he can work out yet another regimen with me as far as medicating me! :]

Oh and I am also happy that I am almost done with my Bone Growth Stimulator...December 15th will be my very last day to wear that thing! One month prior to my one year anniversary!

Also, the weather changing and stuff, is taking me to this time last year. As I was getting closer to the surgery, and doing all the pre-op procedures to get ready for this, I don't know...it just kinda makes me sad and I don't know why. The people who know my whole story might understand what I am talking about...I was in a very bad marriage, on top of dealing with getting ready for this surgery, I went through HELL to get to January 15, 2009 and its like I am reliving it all in my mind. I have been having nightmares of having to have the surgery again, or weird stuff like that. My mom got my hospital pictures developed and when I looked at them, although I am happy I had the surgery, looking at the pictures makes me feel...I don't know the right word for it...melancholy?

I am coming close to the anniversary of when I had my first pre-op procedure done (in November)...a discogram, which was not fun, it was scary and I hated every minute of it. Just things like that. Am I weird for feeling like this?

Well...I gots to go...will write again soon!

8 months ago today...

I was lying in my hospital bed, barely 12 hours outta surgery...my hand faithfully clutching my Morphine pump...hahaha. I really, really can't believe its already been 8 months. I remember my friend Meg coming to my hotel room the night before my surgery, and I was thinking how awesome she looked and she was 9 months out from having her scoliosis surgery. And here I am, where she was, nearly!

I am happy to report that I am totally off of all the muscle relaxers and Ambien, and the only time I take prescription pain killers are the 2 days a week that I work. Other than that, I just take OTC Ibuprofen. Actually, today I worked and I took the Ibuprofen throughout the day, and I did ok. So its kinda a big deal to me to be off all the medicine. For so long, I was either in pain with no remedy, or taking pills with no relief. So to say now that I can get through a day with just 2 Ibuprofen is a very big deal to me.

The days that I work are just hard on me because of the constant bending over, and handling the kids. And really its the top of my back, like where my neckbone is that hurts, and its like the muscles are so tight and stressed and thats what hurts. My spinal area doesn't hurt nearly at all. Its either pain above or below the fusion, which I knew would take place. But the difference in this pain and the pain before, is that I can actually control this pain with medicine and maybe a heating pad and just a little rest. Before, NOTHING I did would take the hurting away. I could take 5 pain pills, lay on my heating pad alllllll day and still hurt like the dickens. (Wow, my grandma is the one who says 'hurts like the dickens', I must be getting old!)

My granddad, who is like totally the most important man to me, my Dad is more like it...he is in the hospital right now having had a knee replacement yesterday morning. I went to see him yesterday and tonight, and its so hard to see him like that. For all of my life, even up until the day before he went in to have this surgery, he has been an ACTIVE part of my life. Always doing something...and to see him laid up, and in pain, and can't move...it's really hard. He looks so frail and helpess, which doesn't fit his name, we call him Bigdad (not BigDaddy, he's not a pimp lol) He has had a rough time the last several years with his foot issues, his shoulder and his knees, and I just pray that this surgery will bring him some relief. I am thankful though that all the stuff wrong with him are mild to severe AILMENTS and not anything life threatening.

Well, I am off to bed...I am beat!! Adios.

Diapers are for babies!

I am soooo happy to report that my baby is now potty-trained! And practically overnight!

I kept trying to get her to potty, bought her some panties, got a potty chair, and a potty seat, and nothing would work! She'd watch "Potty With Elmo" over and over and nothing was sinking in. When I was gonna start working at Mothers Day Out, the director told me that she would move Lanie into the 3's (so she wouldn't be in my class) but she had to be potty-trained. Asked how I was coming along with that. And I just told her we were working on it. She told me that maybe once she see's the other kids using the restroom, she would be inspired! Well, some of the other kiddo's in my class were trotting to the potty a few times a day, and Lanie I guess saw them going on the itty-bitty toilet and she kept wanting to try. Lo and behold, she peed one day, and I jumped up and down, acting like an idiot, praising her...she was looking at me like I was a nutcase lol.

Its like as soon as she pottied and realized what she had done, with the help of her goofy mother, a light bulb went off over her head and she just GOT IT! Like, "Ohhh, so THAT'S what Mama's been talking about?!" Hahahaha. Every since then, she has told me when she needs to potty, even waking in the middle of the night to come and tell me, and she stays dry all the time! I just can't believe it. I gave the rest of my diapers to my cousin, and just bought some Pull-Ups for nighttime, and the rest of the time, she sports her little Elmo panties!

I am so glad not to have to buy diapers anymore, but then also, this means that all Lanie's babyness is gone. No more bottles, diapers, nothing. Of course, she'll always be my baby, but yeah...

Ok, well its 3:30 AM...I am going back to bed!

School Days!

Well school started here yesterday and it was Kaci's first day in second grade at a new school. She'd been going to private school but we decided to put her in public school, and we will see how it turns out! This school is the same one that I went to first grade in and it hasn't changed much since I went there, its weird...that it was uhhh 21 years ago that I was there! I am getting so old! Ughhh but I do have to complain about their system of picking up your kid! Of course, the first couple of weeks I was gonna walk her in, and walk her out and all that because its a new school. Well, apparently they want to keep as many parents out of the school as possible. They gave us a placard at registration with a number on it, that is specially assigned to your child. After school, all the kids gather in the gym...then you pull into their little circle drive, and the teachers are standing there with walkie-talkies and when they see your number they radio it into the teachers in the gym and then your kid is called and dismissed. Well of course, there are 1,847 cars in the circle drive so if you want to walk up to get your kid, you have to stand outside the front doors and hold your placard up so they can see, and wait for them to radio your kid out, like you are at an auction for cattle! And then (after seeing me parked in the handicap spot) they tell me that it would be blocked off from now on to control traffic. UGH! They assure me that its this crazy only because its the first week of school and people are getting used to their surroundings. We shall see...

Other than that, she is doing good and I think she got a good teacher...and of course, I think she is the cutest and best dressed in her class! Haha!

Then today, Lanie started Mothers Day Out...annnnnnnd I am the teacher in her class! Yes...Lanie is one of my little kids in my class...and she is supposed to be the other teachers responsibility, but Lanie doesn't get that. She wants to sit at my table, in my lap, she doesn't like the other kids hogging my attention that is so rightfully hers...lol. And I was all trying to get her to call me Ms. Staci..and that didn't work either, so she calls me Mama and some of the kids thought that was my actual name and they were calling me Mama too! Kinda funny! But Lanie did pretty good otherwise and I had a kind of a hard time with my back...there is A LOT of bending over when it comes to twelve two year olds! But I am hoping to get in the swing of things! Anyways, I am gonna sign off now...g'night!

Yay!! Summer's nearly done!!

I have to say yesterday was a good day. The reason it was a good day is because I got up to go to the doctor, went and took my two heathens to get allllll their 1,548,214 school supplies and allllll their school clothes, came home unloaded alllll that stuff, cleaned house, and helped Gary out in the yard...all PAIN FREE!!! That would have been out of the question a year ago...I would have ordered most Kaci's stuff online, and I was only cleaning house in 30-45 minute increments...so it was a total shock and relief when I did all that I did, and didn't bat an eye about the pain.

This morning, we did more yard work (or Gary did, should I say :] ) and I did all our laundry. We got the girls' pool blown back up and we watched them swim for a little bit. We called a fence company to come out and give us an estimate, and they are coming out Tuesday. I hope the money the insurance gave us is enough, because we are broke and can't pay anything extra! But I came up with an idea (and Gary loved it) about a different way to do the fence, rather than having it put up the same way it was..so I hope it works out.

I feel really stupid about griping a few days ago about what a bad day I was having, and then the very next morning getting the news of Dr. Shelokov's death. Life is full of ups and downs, but the loss of life is painful and unforgettable. A year from now, I won't remember my tire getting slashed and me being depressed and all that, but I will always remember the death of Dr. S. I am also very, VERY fortunate that Gary has kept his job in the oilfield when soooo many others were laid off. And people around the country, losing their jobs left and right, trying to hang on to everything they've got. I am so blessed, and my heart goes out to all the families struggling with job loss or major health issues.

I have to say too, that I get at least one email a day from someone who reads my blog and is suffering from scoliosis..or someone leaves comments for me, and it totally makes my day because people are reading it! I am also looking for a way to raise awareness in the public schools, with the scoliosis testing. They do the testing anyways, but I want to urge the parents of kids with possibly bad scoliosis to seek GOOD treatment to save them from the pain and anguish that I went through! My cousin Amanda (who got her Bachelors Degree and is now gonna be a teacher -- I am sooo proud of her) is going to see what I need to do, once she gets a job at a school.

Well, gonna sign off now...

Therefore, I take great pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, I AM STRONG.
-II Corinthians 12:10

Dr. Shelokov passes away

I am just beyond saddened by this news.

I received an email today from another patient of his, and she told me that he had passed away and then sent me a news article that reported the tragic news. Dr. Shelokov was my surgeon and he totally transformed my life and many others as well. He was a caring man, witty, and made you feel as if you were his only patient. I think about all the people he could have helped and it just makes me so sad, because he truly was one of the best out there. I think of all the people he has helped and what an impact he has made on their lives. Including mine.

He died of a heart attack. He was only 55. He leaves behind a wife and two young children.

I was originally supposed to have my surgery in September of this year. Next month. But I was in such bad shape that we moved the surgery up to January, and I thank God that Dr. S was the man with the hands that corrected my horrible curves. I think about Dr. Shelokov everyday, and now he will forever remain in my heart, as the man who took great care of me and gave me my life back.

I pray for his wife, children and family, his wonderful co-workers (Eric and Shaun) and for all the patients who were blessed enough to call him their doctor. I feel like I just lost a real close friend.

Dr. Shelokov will truly be missed.



MAN ON THE MOUNTAIN
Mountain biker dies of heart attack


By REILLY CAPPS
Writer
Published: Wednesday, August 5, 2009 5:19 AM CDT

A doctor who worked to set crooked spines straight died of an apparent heart attack while riding his mountain bike on Prospect Trail Monday afternoon.

Alexis Shelokov, 55, lived in Plano, Texas, most of the year, but had a house in Bachman Village. He was an orthopedic surgeon and the medical director of the Baylor Scoliosis Center in Plano.

Shelokov leaves behind his wife, Georgiana, who is a radiologist, and two children: a boy aged 13 and a girl aged 11, reported San Miguel County coroner Bob Dempsey.

Shelokov had already been to Telluride three times this summer, said his friend Ed Roufa, mostly to mountain bike, which he loved.

“It was a horrible accident,” said Roufa, “but he was doing what he loved to do.”

Ed Roufa was with Shelokov when he died. They had ridden the Prospect Trail almost to the bottom, and Shelokov was ecstatic.

“I can’t tell you the exclamations we were using as we were doing the downhill,” Roufa said. Then Shelokov suffered his attack.

EMTs arrived within minutes, Roufa said, but were unable to revive Shelokov.

Valley Lawn Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.

This is the third death on a bike in the area in less than a month. A visitor from Washington state died after a solo crash on Telluride Trail July 12, and local “Captain” Jack Carey died July 17 while road biking on Lizard Head Pass.

Shelokov grew up in Glenwood Springs, Roufa said, an avid skier and ice climber. He got his medical degree from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in 1982. He had owned a home in Telluride for at least 12 years, Roufa said.

Shelokov straightened out the spines of adults and children with scoliosis, the malady of a crooked, S-shaped spinal column, and he received some raves from former patients on scoliosis.org and vitals.com, where doctors are rated.

“I love him,” wrote one woman.

Wrote another patient: “I have never met anyone so attentive, caring, compassionate and very professional and honest at the same time.”

In an interview on Ivanhoe.com, Shelokov talked about how patients with scoliosis would confide to him that they felt different, they felt deformed.

“There are times that I describe my practice as one of being a psychiatrist with a knife,” Shelokov said. “It’s an odd way to put it, but any time you’re doing a procedure that changes the way a person looks physically and the way they feel physically, you can’t do that effectively without dealing with the patient emotionally, dealing with them as a person rather than just a collection of bones.”

He said he was working to correct the misperception that there’s nothing to be done for adults with scoliosis. He told them: “You can be made straight.” A man who loved to ride his bike, Shelokov even helped a woman get on one. An online story from Baylor tells about a woman whose scoliosis got progressively worse as she grew older. Then, at age 31, she met with Shelokov, who told her there was help. After surgeons at Baylor fused five vertebrae in her lower back, she went out and bought a mountain bike. “And now that I’ve tried it,” she said, “I’ve fallen in love with the sport.”

It seems fitting that Shelokov would find a way to help other people get into the sport he loved.

"I've had better days..."

"In airports with rain delays,
Flat tires in traffic jams,
And anytime I've been damned,
I've had better days,
When the pain wouldn't go away,
And tears watering down my pride, yeah I've had better"

Thats the song that I listened to over and over today when I got off work. Ok so it wasn't the more horrible of days, but I am just down in the dumps anyways, so it seemed worse to me. I know other peoples problems pale in comparison to mine, but still...

I usually work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursdays from about 8-5:30ish. Well, school registration fell on August 4th and 5th (today and tomorrow) and I had to go. I asked my boss if I could possibly get off a little early so I could register Kaci for school. Instead my boss had me go register Kaci this morning, and then go ahead and come to her house no later than 9:30. I was grateful that she was able to work her schedule around so I could do this. Anyways, so I get up and go register her and I am done by 8:40. I get out to my car, and my back tire is flat...completely. Of course, Gary is at work...my dads phone went straight to voicemail...I had no one else to call other than my granddad. I didn't want to have to call him, he is 72 and is facing a knee replacement surgery and I didn't want him to have to get down there and mess with it. But I had no choice. He shows up, and he lets me take his car to work so that I wouldn't be late, and he finished up on mine and took the tire to be fixed while I was at work. After work, I was to go get my car from him and give his back.

Anyways, so the flat tire just dampened the whole day. Then I get off work and I am going to get my car. I tell my grandma that I can't stay long because I gotta go get my girls. Well she tells me to come in, that she has to tell me something and they didn't tell me sooner because they didn't want to upset me at work. So I am thinking, "OMG someone died" I sit down and she tells me that my tire wasn't just flat, but it was SLASHED. Had two knife punctures in it. I just started bawling...its bad enough that Gary is gone all the time and I am by myself and I get lonely and all that...but then I find out my car is vandalized! Now I am not sure where it happened, because when I left the house, the tire was fine. We live about a mile from the school, when I got out at the school, the tire was fine. It was after I registered Kaci that it was flat. If it had been done at home, wouldn't it have gone flat by the time I had gotten to the school? So some random person walking in the school parking lot decided my tire needed a hole in it? UGH!!!

To top it off, we had a recent storm and it blew my back fence down completely...and my backyard is totally exposed and we live on a corner lot, so everyone can see my backyard. And I sleep alone at night and then my backyard is all out in the open now and then my tire gets slashed. It didn't help that I didn't get a good nights sleep last night, because I heard every noise and I probably got about 4 hours of broken sleep total. So I was already worn out when I woke up this morning. I could go on and on, but I will just shut up already.

I am gonna go take some pain meds and lay on my heating pad and rest and read and go to sleep!! I am wiped out. I hope tomorrow is a better day.

I can't find my ears!

Haha...these are the words of Lanie in the doctors office today. I had to take the girls for a well check-up and to get their shots current for school. During Lanie's examination, the doctor asked Lanie if she could look into her ears. Lanie says, "But I can't find my ears!" :] It was pretty cute. Thankfully, both my girls are healthy. Kaci is 48 inches tall and weighs 62 pounds, Lanie is 38 inches tall and weighs 30 pounds (little stringbean!) Then the nurse came in to do the shots, and they did Lanie first. Kaci witnessed this, and started crying along with Lanie. Then I told Kaci she had to get up on the table for hers, and she screamed and held on to the side of the table with all her might and I had to literally drag her out of the corner! I finally got her onto the table, and they had to call another nurse in to help me hold her down. Kaci is like thrashing around on the table, and the nurse straddles her legs and I am holding her arms, and goodness, Kaci is STRONG!! In fact, she was thrashing about so much, that she didn't even realize when the nurse poked her with the needle! She was still kicking and screaming when I told her the shot was over! LoL. But still, I just absolutely hate when its time to do shots. Thats the ONLY time my kids go to the doctor is when they need their shots, they are rarely sick, so they associate the doctor with pain! And I don't know what is worse. Kaci knew as soon as we pulled into the parking lot what we were there for. And she was scared. Lanie on the other hand, was innocently talking to me, asking "Where are we?" and I tell her the doctor, and she says "Medicine for rash?"...the last time Lanie was in the doctor was because of a diaper rash I couldn't get rid of. And as I laid her on the table, Lanie was still jovially talking and cutting up, and then the needle stuck her, and you could just see it in her eyes, the second the needle went in! UGH!! I hate it, and I get teary eyed every single time!

So after that two hour fiasco, I was drained! I paid the receptionist and then I had to go home and lay on my heating pad. I think that stress makes my back hurt more, or quicker or something, because I really didn't do anything else today other than the doctor visit. And it wasn't my back that hurt, it was my side again. Anyways so we are back home now...I took the girls to Target and got them a little something for having to get a shot, and Kaci suckered me out of getting a whole outfit! I swear, that child will bankrupt us!

Tomorrow it is back to work for me. I have 11 days left of work, and then school will start and I will start my new job at Mother's Day Out. I am gonna head to bed now...g'night!

Did wayyy too much today...

And now I am paying for it.

I did ALL the laundry, then took the shop-vac out of the garage and used it in Lanie's room...I swear, she lives like a hamster, and had crumbs everywhere that my regular vacuum wouldn't pick up. Then I cleaned the house, and did some stuff online and now I am officially wiped out. My back feels fine, its my side that hurts...I wish that would hurry and go away. Under my right rib cage, on the side, it hurts really bad when I do too much stuff in one day. My doc says its muscular and will go away in time. I sure hope so. Anyways, so I am off to bed, hopefully will get a good nights sleep..church is in the morning :] Goodnight!

My Surgery in a nutshell.

So I have been reading my past posts, and I am sooooo glad that I wrote all that I did leading up to the surgery. God I was such a baby about the little procedures before the surgery. Crying about a few needles and stuff...haha. The surgery itself is something I thought I would NEVER, EVER do, and here I am almost 7 months out of having it done. It is still so SURREAL. And I just posted the pictures of my back before and after the surgery and YUCK! The before ones are gross...sorry but they are lol. And another note...my waistline is not that small anymore (the one of my back one month post-op)...as you can imagine, you do lose weight during an ordeal like this. I lost weight before the surgery because of nerves, I couldn't eat. Then during the hospital stay, uhh, eating is not like the biggest thing on your agenda. Or it wasn't mine. When I got home, I didn't have much of an appetite, and that was because of the pain meds. Well the pain meds (the heavy, GOOD ones anyways lol) stopped, and I slowly put on weight. I am still smaller than I was a year ago, so thats good I guess. I wish my waistline were still that small though haha.

So here is a little synopsis of my surgery.

I will try and keep this as brief as I can lol.

I went in on January 15, at 5:30 AM, given the sedation stuff and then I woke up and the surgery was done...I was in surgery for 8 hours, and I woke up in ICU screaming from the pain. The anesthesiologist woke me from my sedation and was explaining to me about the pain pump that I could use. I can't explain the pain, as you can imagine, it was horrific. I was cussing at the nurses and they finally got the meds going and I was somewhat ok. On a sidenote, I believe that I was screaming because I was mainly scared to death. The last thing I remembered was lying in the little room talking to my family and the anesthesiolgist, and BOOM! There I was in a different room, stiff, groggy, in pain, with what seemed like thousands of nurses swarming around me, prepping me for my stay in ICU, I couldn't feel my legs it seemed, I mean, it was just horrifying to wake up in that state, you know? So yes, I was hurting immensely, but I think it had a lot to do with the atmosphere too...it was not fun at all.

The next day, they had me up and walking! I had been walking with my body off balance and crooked for 16 years, and then all of a sudden I need to walk with a straight spine and all my organs put back into place lol. It was very weird. I felt top heavy, like you feel heavy because of all the instrumentation inside. Or at least I did.

So I spent 7 days in the hospital, walking up and down the halls and being bugged every hour with nurses bringing me meds, or checking my BP or the respiratory therapists making me do the breathing thing. I didn't get a full nights sleep at all, not that I could anyways, I was in so much pain that I had to wake up every 3 hours to take pain medication.

On the 7th day, I was packed up and ready to go home, but a dreaded chest x-ray showed that I had fluid in my lungs and I had to go have a chest tube inserted. THAT was VERY painful. And added another 4 glorious days to my visit.

So I was in the hospital for a total of 11 days. I flew home, which was awful since I was in so much pain...I recovered at my grandma's house. She took care of my girls, got them to school, did homework, cooked, bath times, the whole nine...all while taking care of me too. Of course my granddad was there to help too. My husband was working 7 on and 7 off, so he helped when he could.

I didn't get a lot of visitors, I guess people got busy, forgot, whatever...I don't know. It was VERY hard laying in bed, having someone do everything else for me and my kids. I always did everything for everyone and sacrificing that was hard, and I cried a lot. My kids were afraid to touch me, scared they'd hurt me, and I was desperate to just hold and hug them. Kaci's class made me Get Well cards and that spruced my attitude up a little I got up and walked everyday and tried to get more independent each day.

I had to wear a brace any time that I was up and walking around. I started to drive about 4 weeks after the surgery, and that was weird because I couldn't move my neck to look around like I used to could. I'd take a shower and would be exhausted, I had a lot of days of thinking, "When am I gonna get better??" It was very very hard. But each day brought on a little more recovery.

I was able to actually go home to my house in March, my husband did EVERYTHING, which was big time because he never did anything before...we had major marital discord in the months leading up to the surgery and then the actual surgery like opened his eyes, and it changed my husband and I couldn't be happier.

Now...I am able to clean, cook, buy groceries, drive, walk, ANYTHING, without PAIN. But if I push myself too far, I will experience pain, but its nothing like it was before. I sleep better, I look better, my clothes look better because I don't have the rib hump anymore. I breathe better, except that during the surgery, they cut 4 inches off of 4 of my ribs to resection them (to remove the rib hump) and so if you've ever had a broken rib, you'll know what I am talking about. When I sneeze, inhale deeply, cough, it hurts in my ribs where they are still healing. Other than that...I am doing GREAT

I even took on a Nanny position for the summer, watching a total of 6 kids including mine, 3 days a week...I guess I was glutton for punishment haha. Nahh its really not that bad. Starting in August, when my Nanny job is over, I will start working at Crescent Parks Mothers Day Out. So there is my story...there is a lot more to it, and I tried to make it short and sweet, but I couldn't lol...sorry its so long!

Anyways, I will be trying to write more now that I am in the real world again, having the internet again haha :]

G,night...

Finally got the BEFORE and AFTER pics up!!

Well folks...here they are...me in all my glory. :]

This is my bare back, the night before surgery.


The ugly rib hump, night before surgery (thats my rig cage protruding because of the spine rotation)


This is AFTER, while in the hospital still...Look at how it looks like I lost like a ton of back fat when really it just got straightened and smoothed out like normal.


This is about one month post-op:


Here is a BEFORE x-ray:



Here is the AFTER x-ray....AMAZING!!!


And here is a SIDE view of all the instrumentation. Gory huh?? :]

About to head to bed...

It has been an uneventful day.

I want to get caught up on my blog, but I just don't feel like typing and typing and typing at the moment. My back kinda hurts from sitting in this computer chair, and I have loads of stuff to do tomorrow and thats all on my mind, and well, maybe I will get to it tomorrow...hahaha...procrastination nation people! :]

The demonic movie I watched last night with my brother turned out to be a doozie..."Haunting in Connecticut"...it was alright. Then we were gonna watch "The Unborn"...uhhhhhh no. Just the DVD menu scared the crap outta me and I told my brother, sorry, no can do...I do have to spend some nights alone you know? And movies that are like that, they get to me baddd. I will think about the images I see later on when I am lying in bed at night. Then I will wake up and think I see something in my closet...no. He watched it alone and HE said it was scary! Now if he thought that, then it must have been scary, because he never gets scared.

Lord, my kids are dancing to the "Mini-Buffalo Ranch Chicken Sandwich" commercial from Jack-in-the-Box. Weirdos. Hahahaha. Well, I guess I will go to bed. Nighty-night!

I am FINALLY connected!!!

Yay!! After 7 months of having NO internet access other than borrowing other peoples computers, I finally got my internet connection back and I hope to be updating this blog A LOT more!

On August 15th, I will be 7 months out of surgery...I cannot believe its been THAT long!

Anyways, I gotta go watch some demonic, scary movies with my brother and I will be back later!

I am SOOO Sorry!! I am OK!!

I was faithfully keeping up with my scoliosis blog, and I was scheduled to have my surgery on January 15th, and then BAM!!!! No one hears from me! I just want to apologize about that. I was laying in bed the other night thinking that if anyone was researching scoliosis surgery and came across my blog talking about the surgery, they might've think that I died during surgery or something! Since there were no updates or anything on my situation. I don't have internet access at my house anymore due to the economy busting, and my husbands job is in the oil field and the bottom fell through, and well, the internet was one of the first things to go. So anyways, I am here to tell you that I am alive and well. :D

I did have my surgery on January 15th at the Baylor Medical Center in Plano, Texas...the surgery was done by Alexis Shelokov and the results were GREAT. I have before and after pictures of my x-rays but I don't have them online yet. I had double major curves of 65 and 63 degrees, and I am so proud to say that NOW my spine is STRAIGHT. Well not 100% straight, but STRAIGHT to me lol. It amazes me still to look at the before x-rays compared to the after ones. And my rib hump that I hated so much? Its GONE!! Yay!!! My hips are aligned, my clothes fit better, my tank tops look normal, I can breathe better, sleep better, everything! I am almost 3 months out, but still, if I had it to do over, I would.



I am still in my brace, I wear it when I drive, and when I go places, and when I do light chores at the house...it does attract attention and nearly everytime I go somewhere, without fail, someone asks me "What happened?", "Did you break your back?", "Were you in a car accident?"...I tell my story and go on...I will be so glad when the brace comes off though. I am also doing a bone growth stimulator treatment every night at 10 PM. That will be for nine months and I am only 21 days into the whole deal. I kinda forgot about it once I got home and was recovering and only barely started it in mid-March. I also am doing physical therapy three times a week and that is going good.

I still have pain, but its mostly at the end of the day after I have done too much. But its a different pain, as soon as I had the surgery, I could tell that the scoliosis pain was gone! I didn't feel as scrunched up. I am off of the Dilaudid and just take Lortab in the mornings and at bedtime. I still have a lot of people helping me with the kids and stuff, and my grandmother comes over and helps me with laundry and cleaning up. I stayed with my grandparents for a month and a half after the surgery, they totally took care of everything, me included, and then once I felt I was able, I went home. My husband is a huge help and everything is going well. I've started going back to church and gotten my faith back on track.

I hope to have the internet back at my house soon, so therefore I can't check for comments or email until then, but if you want to email me, my email is mobley925@gmail.com I can't guaruntee when I can answer back, but I will eventually. Thanks so much for reading and I am so sorry I didn't update sooner!

Been awhile...

I have not been keeping up with this blog like I had orginially planned, the last time I wrote was when I had that discogram. Well, since then I have been doing other pre-op stuff to get ready for this adventrure.

I LEAVE ONE WEEK FROM TODAY PEOPLE!!!!

So, Dr. S sends me an email with all the stuff I need to do in a nicely color-coded calendar for easy reading..thank God for that, makes it a lot easier. I also received The Binder. The Binder has everything I need in it that concerns my surgery, the pre-op stuff, the post-op stuff, calendars, business cards for everyone involved in all this, a notepad and even a ruler and hole-punch...Oh yeah, its pretty spiffy. I was told to carry The Binder with me to all appointments and keep anything I receive in The Binder.

So far, I have met all the financial crap for the surgery...the $500 deductible and I have already paid my $4000 maximum out-of-pocket...so that in itself is a relief. I know that I will be 1,492 more bills and stuff, but just since I have all that met, I know everything will work out on its own.

On December 29th I had to go and have a Myelogram done. Let me just say that this is not something that is fun or exciting or easy or anything. IT SUCKED. I am still trying to decide what was worse, the discogram or this Myelogram. They both sucked, but I don't know which one takes the cake. Seriously though, I need to suck it up since they are about to filet my back open and insert all this hardware and all that Hahahaha.

Anyways, they tell me up front all about this Myelogram, what its for, what they will do and what I will feel. Thats all fine and dandy but it still doesn't compare to actually going through with it. They have you lie on your stomach on this table. They inject a needle in your lower back with Lidocaine...burns just like a bee-sting and all that...but then they inject the spinal needle and they have to move it all around to find the right spot and all that good stuff. Now, it wasn't like it was EXCRUCIATING, but it was not pleasant. I could feel pressure from the needle moving around, and brushing up against nerves and stuff. Sometimes, I would feel a sudden, sharp pain go through my leg. Anyways, then they have to inject the contrast dye. I figured it might feel like an epidural - which in that case, you feel an ice cold fluid being injected into your spinal column. Well, it wasn't ice cold, and really all I felt was pressure. Like I could feel it moving itself around my spine. Then, in order to get a good picture of the ENTIRE spine, they tilt that table DOWN and you are tilted almost at a 45 degree angle, head-down. This is to let all that dye flow into the cervical region of your spine and all that. Right when it hits your brain, they tilt you back down to laying level. BUT, you can feel that stuff in your neck and it HURTS, and then when it hits your brain, it REALLY hurts. I can't really explain how bad it hurts. Saying it feels like a bad headache is really underestimating it. As soon as they lay you back level, you kinda don't feel that headache anymore. Umm, I guess it was the whole not ever having this thing done before, and the nerves of how close the surgery is and all that, but I took it rougher than normal. Thats what the guy who did it told my mom anyways. I was crying and I was shaking and it was just not fun. The staff was awesome and caring and stuff, but I might as well had been 5 years old having something like that done. It was just scary.

After that, they wheeled me down to have a CT Scan...that part was easy...

Then the fun part is that you get to lay on your back for 24 hours following when the needle was pulled out of your back. In my case, the needle came out at 9:30AM, so until 9:30AM the next morning, I was to lay flat on my back. I could roll from side to side, but was told to mainly stay on my back. They told me that if I get up and move around, then that dye will flush back into my spine and cause that headache to come back. They really know what they are talking about, let me tell you. I DID follow directions, BUT, I did have to get up to use the bathroom and stuff, and when I did, as soon as I sat up, I felt like my head would explode. I can only describe it as one of those thermometers in the cartoons where the mercury is rising and rising and then hits the top and the top explodes with all that cartoon drama...yeah, thats what it feels like. So I stayed down, and let my mom take care of me, she cut my food up for me, helped me to the bathroom, got me my drinks, AWWWWW, yeah she took really good care of me. It was FRUSTRATING not getting to get up and move around though.

I still had the horrid headaches, no matter how much fluid I drank or whatever. I couldn't get up without hurting, like REALLY bad. I ended up having to take caffeine pills to relieve the pressure on the pulsating blood vessels. Well, those did NOT help my nerves at all. I felt like I was about to crawl out of my skin and my stomach was just in knots. I laid in bed last night with a trashcan hugged to my chest because I just knew I was gonna lose my cookies because of my stomach. Nothing ever happened, and luckily when the Xanax hit, I was smooth-sailing and didn't feel so bad. It was just bad because I have been taking muscle relaxers and stuff to help with the pain, and then Xanax to help with the nerves, and then to take the caffeine pills, it was like they were fighting each other. UGH!!! So this has NOT been a fun week at all. Thank goodness for my grandparents and my mom, they took care of the kids while all this was taking place.

So all the really crappy tests are finished and all thats left is doing all the blood and lab work and then the actual surgery.

We are leaving on January 10th...my best friend [Amber] is gonna be the one sitting in the hospital with me and we have to take her son to her Mom's and drop him off. So we will stay the night at her Mom's on the 10th and then wake up and drive into Dallas on the 11th. January 12th and 13th, I have appointments off and on all throughout the day...surgical discussions, more lab stuff, registering at the hospital, a tour of the hospital, all that good stuff. I guess on the 14th, I am a free woman to sit at the hotel and think about what will take place in less than 24 hours [haha]...then on the 15th, I must be at the hospital at 5:45AM and the surgery begins at 7:30AM. They will sedate me before they take me back into the O.R. which is good, because I do NOT want to see anything that has to do with this surgery. I do NOT want to be coherent when they lay me on that table and strap my arms down and all that like I am about to be executed [haha] Well, I assume they will strap my arms down...they did for my c-section...who knows?

So I am trying to get laundry done...and I have to go to the store to get groceries for all of us while I am at my grandma's recuperating and all that stuff. I have A LOT to do before I leave, and I hope I keep my sanity throughout all of it. I couldn't do this, or handle all this without my AWESOME husband, friends and family...God, what a difference a great group of people make in your life.

I am READY to get this over with!! I am ready to stand tall and have 2009 be the start of a whole new awesome life!! Bring it!!