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 doctors think that idiopathic scoliosis is caused by a combination of genetics an environmental factors.
Mild scoliosis isn’t a big issue. It can cause some back pain, but for the most part it’s manageable without any special treatment. My scoliosis started out mild, with both curves in my spine measuring around 20 degrees, so the doctor suggested we just wait and observe it. The reason for observing is because as we grow the scoliosis can get worse, and usually does. The curves progressed over the course of 6 months, and when I next visited my doctor they were both around 30 degrees. He suggested bracing, where I am measured for a custom molded plastic brace that covers most of my torso. It has pads on the back placed at the peaks of the curves to try to push them in. This reduces their degree temporarily while I’m in the brace, but the main goal is to prevent or at least slow down their progression. I would have to wear the brace for 22-23 hours of the day. It wasn’t comfortable, but my doctor said that bracing prevents the need for surgery in 80% of patients which were good enough odds for me.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of the lucky 80%. When I returned a month and a half later wearing the brace, the curves had already increased by about 5 degrees. And that was with the brace on, which reduces the degree a bit itself. Another half year later the curves measured 41 and 54 degrees, in the range for surgery. After the curves get to around 50-60 degrees, they can progress even after you stop growing. So, to prevent the negative health effects that come with high degrees of curvature (lung function becomes impaired at around 70 degrees, heart function becomes impaired at around 90 degrees) it was clear I would need surgery to straighten out my spine.
This surgery recommendation was given in April of this year, and it was a big shock. The curve had been increasing before that, but not by much. I knew that surgery was a possibility, but it never seemed real until I was already at the tipping point. I was extremely nervous. My doctor told me about all the risks of surgery when he gave me the recommendation, so I could weigh the options. It’s a surgery on the spine, so the spinal cord is at risk. Paralysis was mentioned, which really freaked me out. I couldn’t imagine not being able to move anything below my arms. This was probably my biggest fear leading up to surgery.
I didn’t talk to any surgeons until the fall because I was traveling out of the country for summer break. After I got back in August we went to see two surgeons in Chicago. We went ahead and scheduled a surgery date with the first surgeon. Two days later we went to see the second surgeon, and I thought it would be better to have the surgery done by him because he saw exclusively children so he had a lot more experience with the exact type of surgery. He also just seemed nicer, which I’m not sure matters much but it made me feel better about surgery. He said he did hundreds of surgeries a year, which made me confident in his abilities and eased my nerves a bit.
We canceled the first surgery date and were put on the waiting list. They told us that the surgery would probably be sometime in December since they were booked until then. So, it was quite a surprise when my dad told me at the end of August that we had a surgery date of October 2nd. I’m not sure why or how they moved the date up by so much, and it did make me more anxious to know that it was only a month away when I was expecting to have at least three more months to wait. But I’m definitely glad it got moved up so that it’s over with now. If it was done in December I probably wouldn’t have been able to travel to visit family for the holidays, which would have been a bummer.
This was a really good description of your condition and all the emotions that you had come along with it! As somebody who's had surgery many times, I totally understand the fear that you had going into it - it never gets less scary in my opinion. I'd like to learn more about your specific surgery experience - do you plan on talking about that in a part 2?
ReplyDeleteYeah, Part 2 is going to be about the surgery and recovery. I originally meant for this to be a single blog post about the surgery, but I didn't realize how much there was to write about just my scoliosis and I thought it would be a bit unwieldy if I made it much longer.
DeleteI loved this deeply personal blog post. Compared to your other blog posts this was something completely different, much more personal and touching. I can not relate to your blog post at all but I found it very interesting to read and learn more about how scoliosis effects the body. The line "heart function becomes impaired at around 90 degrees" really scared me. I wish you best of luck in recovery and have been appreciating your cats on your snap story.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting post. As you know, my brother also had a back brace for a while. He never needed surgery, but he almost did. I never knew why some young people get back surgery so reading this post was cool in that regard. I have known about scoliosis, but i didn't know that people with the condition sometimes need operations or that it can impair breathing and the heart.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really well written blog post and a good eye-opener into your condition. My mother had Scoliosis when she was growing up and also needed surgery. She is very open about talking about and the procedure if you are ever curious. Thanks for telling this and wish you a nice recovery and good health
ReplyDeleteThis was a really descriptive and interesting post. You did a good job of describing the condition and your thoughts throughout the whole process. Thanks for sharing and I hope that you will have a great recovery.
ReplyDeleteI really like how this post manages to be super informative while staying personal. The personal aspect made it far more engaging than a simple description of scoliosis. I hope you have a good recovery.
ReplyDeleteThis post was really descriptive and personal. It really sucks (for lack of a better word) having to have surgery so young, but a lot of the time it's for the best. My sister also has scoliosis, but hers is very mild and I don't think the angle of her spine curve has increased since it was discovered, but I remember when she first found out she had it she was really nervous. I'm really looking forward to the second part of this post, in which I hope we'll hear about the surgery itself and how you've been doing recently.
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