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My Back Surgery, Part Three

After standing up for the first time, I felt a bit more confident. Later that evening the physical therapists came to my room again and said I was going to try to walk. We went through the ordeal of getting me out of bed again, and I walked out into the hallway. Walking felt strange; I don’t know how to describe it. I felt very unstable, but was able to make it to the end of the hallway and back to my room where I sat in a wheelchair again. It makes sense to me that I felt unstable; my upper body was like a plank now. I imagined it like I was balancing a stick. The stories I had read from other people who had gone through the same surgery made it sound like walking was some extremely difficult ordeal. I didn’t experience it as super difficult. The instability slowly went away over the coming days, and by the time I was ready to be discharged I could even climb stairs. On Wednesday I walked some more, and that evening I was released from the intensive care unit back to the inpatient ...

My Back Surgery, Part Two

My dad and I drove up to Chicago on October 1st. Being Sunday, the hospital felt like a ghost town when we arrived. We arrived in the late afternoon and were greeted at the reception by a security guard who asked us if we knew where to go. We said we didn’t, and he directed us down the stairs to the inpatient ward. At the desk of the inpatient ward were a few nurses, one of which led us to a room where we put down our stuff. The nurse told us they were serving food in the cafeteria, so we went and got the only thing they had: pizza pockets. That was the last meal, if you can even call it that, I would have for a few days. There was one other nurse that came in to get some food, and a single other patient in the cafeteria with us. After we got back to the room, they had me shower and get into a gown. I had to use an antiseptic soap to scrub my back. The nurse put an IV into my hand to administer the anesthesia the next day. This was the thing I was most worried about on the first da...

My Back Surgery, Part One

On October 2nd I had Spinal Fusion Surgery, a surgery where they make an incision along your spine, open up your back, screw some bolts into your spine, use clamps to slowly move your spine over so it’s straight(er), and finally attach rods to the bolts to keep your spine from moving back. The reason I had this surgery is because I have scoliosis; my spine curves laterally in an ‘S’ shape. Most peoples’ spines curve front-to-back in a sort of ‘double-S’: Whereas my spine looks somewhat like this one on the left: Some more background on my scoliosis: it was first discovered about two and a half years ago when I had an x-ray taken of my lower back for an unrelated reason and my doctor noticed a slight curve. She thought it was scoliosis, and recommended I see a spine doctor. They had me get more x-rays of my entire back and diagnosed me with scoliosis. We weren’t too surprised; my mom has minor scoliosis. My scoliosis is called ‘idiopathic’, meaning unknown cause. Most docto...

Imagination

When I was younger I had a very active imagination, like most young children do. I would dream up grand worlds and scenarios; all I needed to have fun was inside my head. Walking around my backyard, I would be transported to different universes where anything I wanted could happen. As I grew older however this tendency waned. I started reading, and instead of dreaming up amazing circumstances myself I would instead imagine being in the world that the author had conjured up with words. I still sometimes would adventure in realms of my own creation, but my decline had started. I was absorbed by a few different book series. The first I can remember was Harry Potter. I remember finishing the entire series in a few months, but that can’t be right. Maybe I paid little attention to the other aspects of life so it felt faster. I would say I became addicted. I soon moved on to Fablehaven, which was significantly different but ...

Microtransactions and their Repercussions

Many videogames contain microtransactions: small, optional payments that players can make in order to receive items or perks in-game. They're a staple in the mobile market where games are often free, and to make money the developers would otherwise rely exclusively on ad revenue. Free to play computer games also often have microtransactions. One such example is Team Fortress 2 (abbreviated TF2), a team-based first person shooter. Players can choose between nine different classes, each with a set of default weapons and the ability to receive (by random drop) or purchase special weapons from other players via the Steam Market (an item trading marketplace run by Valve, the creators of Team Fortress 2). This model works well in TF2 because the special weapons aren't necessarily better than the defaults, but instead different in a way that modifies the class's play-style and introduces more variation into the game. There are also hats available in the game. With a wide range of...

My Experience with Videogames

I play a lot of video games. A borderline unhealthy amount. My obsession started when I was seven or eight. I would play Flash games on my mom's computer. Looking back, they weren't that great of games. But when you don't have anything better to compare them to, they’re pretty fun. As I grew older I shifted away from quick Flash games and started playing more developed games. The first was Team Fortress 2, a multiplayer class-based shooter where teams compete in games like capture the briefcase. This was also the first game I got my brother to play. Most of my discovery of videogaming had happened in Norway, where I lived for two years with my mom. When I moved back to the U.S. my dad bought my brother and I an Xbox 360 for Christmas. We quickly fell in love with it, spending most afternoons playing Call of Duty games Modern Warfare 3 and Black Ops II. It was a bonding experience, with us playing together almost every day. But it also strained our relationship, with us ...