First month brace free!!!

Hello again,


The first month w/o my brace was actually somewhat challenging b/c I realized that my brace was inhibiting my muscles in my back from getting stronger. So I had to deal with strengthening those muscles a bit. It was also so strange not wearing that brace and having that support that kept me straight. But I have to say an absolutely great part was being able to wear normal clothes again and not have to wear what would fit under or over my brace!!! It was actually hard to choose what to wear! I no longer needed to wear pajama pants all day! The downside was that I felt cold b/c I had adapted to the brace in the sense that it seemed to add 10 degrees to the temperature in the room. I remembered how when I first started wearing the brace I would get so hot and sweat like crazy and eventually I was quite comfortable with it on and no longer felt hot and sometimes even wore a sweater over the brace. Then when I finally took it off, I felt the need to pretty much wear two sweaters! It seemed so cold everywhere I went. But within a couple weeks I started to adapt and things seemed to return to normal. Plus it helped that spring was beggining to arive and it was getting warmer outside as well!

Third Follow up Appointment and 6 months since surgery

Hello again,



I guess I should first start off with there being a mix up or something at the specialists office and somehow there was no record of my appointment with my specialist in January so technically to him, this may have been my second appointment. No problems though-things happen.



My appointment was on April 15, which was also 6 months since my surgery. An anniversary of sorts I suppose. Unfortunately my specialist ran late with a surgery or something and we had to wait for a couple of hrs but I would rather him do a good job in what he is doing and not rush anything and risk making a mistake just to make it on time to other appointments. He is great at what he does and spends how ever much time with us that we need and doesn't rush us which may account for why he runs late. So I don't mind waiting so much b/c I know he is giving every patient the time they need. I just felt the need to share that. I had an idea that there would be good and bad news with this appointment which there was. The good news was that I could totally toss the brace and be rid of the thing which was soooo amazing!!! I of course had been told I could start weening off of the brace about a month or so earlier but now I could just completely toss it! That was great news. I did have to mention to him about the issue of the added pain from the loose rod when I was not wearing the brace. Again, I need to say that I can't remember exactly how the appointment went b/c I was quite nervous about the probibility of needing more surgery. So I am not sure exactly what order things happened but soon after I told him about the rod, he took us to the screen that showed my xray of my back (which was really fascinating!) and explained some stuff and what would be done with surgery if I went through with it. I could not stand for very long so I had to go back to the bed I had been laying on and my mom took over asking questions and stuff which was great. Supposedly, my mom said he highly reccomended that I have the surgery which helped me make a decision on whether I would go through with it or not.

I spent the ride home debating whether I should or should not have the surgery and I believe that I spent at least the next few days deciding for sure if I would go through with it.

Between Second and Third Follow up

Hello again,

Between January 29 and April 15, not alot happened I think. The one event that does stand out big time is my 25th birthday in March. It was hard for me because another year has gone by and I am still not back on my feet so to speak. I did manage to get out of the house with my mom and dad and go to Tony Romas for a bday meal which was made possible b/c of the booths that I could rest my head back against something that helped keep the pain at bay for longer. It was quite exciting because of the fact that I only manage to get out of the house maybe once a month due to pain and then being stuck in bed for at least a day afterwards. My goodness it was fun though! I wasn't able to manage to stay long enough for dessert but I was able to make it through long enough to eat most of my meal. The one thing that I disliked was having to wear the brace and the waitress asking about it and she felt bad for me. I don't like when people feel sorry for me.

As far as progress physically, I was told I could take off the brace for longer periods of time but I experienced a fair bit more pain along the loose rod which had me wondering if that was a good thing or not. I also noticed that my back muscles were incredibly weak which I had feared would happen with wearing a brace. But the other option of not wearing the brace and having further complications would have been worse. Also about the beginning of April my arm muscles were finally getting strong enough to hold up a book long enough to read about a chapter at a time which for some odd reason I had not been able to do up until this point. I also was able to lift a heavier weight and not just the puny little 1 pound weights. So I now had reading to keep myself occupied for the most part. I also managed to go into the greenhouse for about 10 minutes at a time to plant some seeds before the pain got too severe. My family found it amusing watching me go back and forth between resting and being in the greenhouse so much. If nothing else I got excercise walking back and forth. I usually managed about three trips to the greenhouse in an hour! The walk back to the house was always very painful though. At least I felt as if I was accomplishing something which was something I had not felt since before the surgery. But I quickly learned my limits realizing that there was alot of lifting that I needed help with and sometimes it really got to me that I had to ask for help to lift something as small as a pot of dirt. It would feel like my hands were tied behind my back that I could not lift anything. But my family was great in being willing to help me out in any way possible. I love growing flowers and I wasn't going to miss out on it. Little did I realize at this point how theraputic it would be to be growing plants in the greenhouse during all of this stuff I've been dealing with.