#leaning tower of pisa

Straight To Chopping

July 20, 2018

If you don’t understand the title, click on the video camera

Hello there everyone!!! Today has been quite a day and I thank Spinraza for my newly discovered data. As you can see in the photo above, I actually took a selfie photo of myself in the mirror of my bathroom. I was actually a normal (ew) teenage girl for a few seconds! This isn’t something that happens very often, folks, so mark it on your calandars! I’m kidding about marking your calandars, or am I?

Anyway, the reason why I am so excited about this, and other things, is that if you look closely at the photo of me there, you may notice something different about me.

Is it my hair?

No.

Although I do believe an older man called me, “young man” yesterday…. May need to keep my hair a bit longer in future???

That’s off track.

Is it my shirt?

No.

But it is the shirt I wore for my last injection. So that’s kind of significant.

Is it my makeup?

Just kidding, I don’t wear that. Much.

If you guessed before reading about all these little random thoughts, brownie points for you. If not, then you definitely aren’t Sherlock.

I am sitting up much straighter than I am normally able to tolerate.

Why is this a big deal? Well this means that my upper body is beginning to have a bite of the good stuff. Meaning Spinraza is actually sharing the love and allowing me to sit a bit more normallyregularly straight. I used to sit up straight and tall, but that was directly after I had spinal surgery and then I got a new chair that was technically a loaner and it screwed up my posture which lead me to this moment in time.

Don’t get loaner chairs, kids. It’s a trap.

But something that really surprised me was the fact that my physical therapist…

I know you’re reading this so here’s a hello from across the Internet to you! Have a Reid wave you Criminal Minds mutual lover you ❤️

I’m sorry but that had to be done…

Anyway, my physical therapist emailed my grandmother about the photo I edited with all four injection photos side by side:

That one ☝

She noticed that my posture changes with each photo. Keep in mind, as she said, that I could have been seated differently, or maybe I wasn’t as tired one day compared to another… But let me give a little recap of each injection and how stressful each one was in comparison to another.

Thefirst injection photo was taken after a relatively easy procedure. I had severe anxiety that day before hand, but after it was all over, I’ve never felt so relaxed… This was taken at around 11-11:30am for a 10:30am appointment.

Thesecond injection photo was taken after the doc decided to use a shorter needle, so that was a bit uncomfortable compared to the first one. The headaches after that procedure was absolutely hellish, but other than that it was alright. This was taken at around 9:30-10am for an 8:30am appointment.

Thethird injection photo was taken after the doc couldn’t get a clear enough image of the entrance to my spinal fluid and accidentally hit a nerve (literally and metaphorically). That one was not fun. This was taken at around 11-11:30am for a 10am appointment.

Thefourth and final injection photo was taken after the worst pain experienced in my entire life, and that’s saying something since I was a reckless child and have had my chair topple onto me numerous times. For some reason my back went into complete spasm. Luckily this occurred when the needle was taken out, not being put into my spine. I never screamed so loud and for so long. Okay, maybe when they’d put more medication into my foot IV after my spinal surgery, but I whimpered more than screamed.

Anyway, I underwent a lot of pain after three of the injections, and a lot of stress. But my posture noticeably is different in each picture. Oh, and no, my dad most likely had nothing to do with the fact I look fairly straighter in my chair as he also sees everything that happens to me during the procedure as I ask for him to be in the OR in case something happens and I need him. Which I did this last injection so it was the right move on my part. So he is as stressed out as I am, and tired.

My other deduction about my seating is the fact that it got ruined after I was put into a loaner chair for about a year and my excellent, newly fixed posture went in the toilet since the company I used couldn’t completely accommodate the way I sat until my actual chair was ordered. They tried to fix it once I got my chair that I would really use and I absolutely could not tolerate sitting any straighter than the Leaning Tower of Deziree.

My terrible 5 minuet edit depicting a long dead joke. But it was worth the effort.

The next bit of news I have for you all is that I tried something that my previously mentioned physical therapist suggested. I made a video of me doing said activity, but Tumblr is a pain and wouldn’t let me add a title or photos along with the video so I posted it just before this post. The link to it is here for those of you who want to see it immediately this second instead of at the very end. Either way, you will see it. The commentary is comedy, so enjoy.

Lastly, I finally completely finished semester 1vof my senior year!!!

Now all I have to do is finish two classes to be completely finished with high school. Beyond excited to actually be able to do what I want to do for six months and just read because I will have nothing else to do. Actually, I should really start doing that now as I have more time… Hmmm…

Julie in Italy