#spinal fusion
It’s ok to be blue sometimes. It’s ok to be fearful of what lies ahead. It’s ok to shut down every now and then. Just don’t get stuck there. Take some time then get up, get dressed and kick some ass!
“Keep your face always towards the sunshine, and the shadows will fall behind you."—M. B. Whitman
cupcakes-butterflies-n-buddha:
Greetings my friends,
As some of you are aware I was diagnosed with scoliosis as a teen and underwent spinal instrumentation and fusion to correct it in my twenties. Twenty plus years later I am suffering the repercussions of that surgery. For the past few years I have been dealing with chronic pain caused by spondylolisthesis, degenerative disc disease, arthritis, deteriorating facet joints as well as SI joint problems. It has become difficult for me to perform simple daily tasks and has greatly affected the quality of my 44 year old life. I am unable to sit, stand, bend, twist or walk for more than a few minutes at a time. My only relief is lying down and even that has become painful.
My upcoming surgery (anterior/posterior Lumbar fusion) is going to create a huge burden on me financially as the deductible alone is $15,000. However, this surgery should greatly reduce my pain by 70% or more and bring me back to life! Please follow the link below and if at all possible, please donate. If you are unable to donate please share this link. Your time and effort will be appreciated beyond measure.
Sincerely,
Lena Slaughter
If you cannot donate please share! Someone somewhere might be able to.
Namaste & blessings,
Lena
Good news! I am scheduled for surgery February 23rd. I will be having anterior/posterior Lumbar fusion. This will greatly ease the pain that I have from the previous spinal instrumentation and fusion surgery that I had for my scoliosis 20+ years ago. It will be a lengthy recovery but I am ready to get my life back!!
I know this might not seem like a big deal, but I’m now just a little over 2 months post op and I walked 5 miles in one day for the first time and I am really proud of that
Scoliosis struggle #298
My back has become SO itchy this week. I guess it’s from healing after surgery but I can never seem to find where the itch is so it always itches
Scoliosis struggle #297
Since surgery, my nerves have started stinging at random times throughout the day… I dont know if that’s just a part of healing and it’ll go away or if its here to stay.
Scoliosis struggle #296
Does anyone have any suggestions of keeping busy and sane while recovering? I am losing my mind not being able to do anything. All i want is to fast forward time to when I don’t have physical restrictions.
Scoliosis struggle #295
I just choked on water for the first time since surgery and oh my gosh that hurt
Scoliosis struggle #294
I haven’t been able to sleep on a bed since surgery and I’m getting real tired of sleeping on the couch. I don’t understand why I can sleep on the couch, but not on a bed…
My hips have been somewhat numb since surgery and I don’t know how long that will last or if I can help it in any way♀️
These are my xrays compared to what my back was like pre fusion! He got it straighter than what I was expecting and I am so happy with it!
Tomorrow is my 3 month check up and I will finally get an xray!
My nerves around my shoulder blade have started stinging throughout the day and I’m really hoping that goes away soon
People called me a homeless man. They equate a home with a house, with microwave ovens and an attic and plumbing and television.
But I never felt more at home than I did.
Real home is the world, and the only way to own the world is to be free, and to be truly and fully in it.
I took my rent deposit and sold my things and fell off the map. I was terrified and alone and colder and wetter than I’d planned: I learned to throw out my plans.
I had less than a thousand dollars to my name that first year; I was very literally starving for most of it and still happier than I’d ever been. I spent the years since hitchhiking, climbing thousands of pitches of trad, bathing in mountain creeks, building fires and highlines and the most fantastical friendships with radiant people, as if discovering human beings for the first time.
If I wasn’t sleeping in the open, or under someone’s porch, or on a coiled rope with three hundred feet of air by my cheek, the only four walls I owned were made of nylon.
Everything changed.
I broke myself about as badly as you can without it being permanent. A shattered spine and wrist. A week in and out of consciousness, in and out of surgery, immobile, unable to eat or drink or sit up.
I have lived the majority of the months since flat on my back, and all of it indoors. I am very lucky: by the thickness of a dime I wasn’t paralyzed. Doctors say I’ll walk again.
But despite the ceiling I’ve stared at every day, despite the bed and food and television and all the luxuries at odds with how I’d been living, I have never felt more homeless.
I hope what’s behind me are the darkest times I’ll see. My family thinks I should give up, never climb again, find a respectable life and settle down. But even if it kills me I am getting back out there. That was my life, and I won’t give it up. I will get back up, even if my friends have to drag me there in a haulbag.
I am going to find a way back home.
