Back to School and Back to Back, Back Surgeries 😩

Needless to say the start of the 2024-2025 school year has been incredibly stressful and difficult for me personally.

Trigger warning ⚠️ this post contains very personal and graphic details of the last 8 weeks of my life. It may be disturbing to those that do not do well with medical content or surgery related coverage.

Chapter 1:

I started off the school year strong with lots of newness in my job. I was moving up with my students from the year before and teaching 10th grade for the first time, I moved classrooms, I was made department head for our reading department, and I was taking a coaching class that I was very much looking forward to completing this year so I could help my fellow teachers. I was so busy and overwhelmed that I forgot to take care of myself and let my health take a backseat for the first 6 weeks of the year.

I was so exhausted and knew I was over doing it. I started having severe back pain and would power through it everyday. When I would get home I would take a epsom salt bath and then go to bed by 8:30pm and sleep until I felt better. However on September 5th I went to the chiropractor to get some help with the pain and everything spiraled out of control from there. I have always depended on chiropractic care and it has always helped me, however this time it was the decision that I regretted making the most. By the next night I was having severe back spasms and by that Saturday morning (September 7th) I couldn’t move my legs or stand without passing out. I was rushed to the hospital by ambulance later that morning and the adventure began in my new health journey.

Chapter 2:

I was admitted to the ER and they did some X-rays and it showed that everything was fine and dandy, however, I was clearly in excruciating pain and distress. They gave me a ton of pain medicine and it gave me zero relief so they decided to admit me to observation and get me an MRI to see what was going on. I was also having severe neurological issues and was unable to use the restroom on my own and it took 13 hours for them to realize that I needed additional help with this through single use catheters. It was incredibly painful and dehumanizing. When I finally got wheeled down to the MRI machine and was lifted onto the cold slab table with tears in my eyes, I got answers. Before I was even out of the MRI machine the sweet tech that was helping me comes over and asks me “have you ever had an MRI of your back before?” I stated “no” and she looked at me and grabbed my hand and goes “I shouldn’t be saying this because I am not the radiologist but we know what’s wrong with you and we will make sure you are taken care of. You will most likely have surgery asap.” When I arrived back to my room on the observation ward I had the most excruciating night of my life dealing with the complications of the nerves being pinched in my back wreaking havoc on all parts of my lower body. I developed neuropathy from my left knee down to my foot and was unable to move or wiggle my toes or lift my leg independently. I was still dealing with being unable to urinate on my own and had another single use catheter that took 45 minutes to insert by 2 professional nurses (this ended up causing severe infections for me in my bladder on top of everything). By the next morning 9 hours later I was begging for a Foley catheter that could stay with me until I got to the bottom of what was going on. On the morning of September 8th I was transported to a specialist at a downtown Orlando hospital for a neurosurgical consultation. Through this consultation we decided to go through with a Lamenotomy and Diskectomy to solve the problem that was occurring with my back and nerves on September 9th. This surgery was life altering! I woke up pain free (other than my incision and lingering neuropathy). I was not allowed to be discharged until I was able to get rid of my infection and was able to use the bathroom independently without assistance from a catheter. This finally happened on September 11th and I gladly went home to rest and begin the next part of the journey.

Chapter 3:

I went home and began the next chapter of my journey through home health care and physical therapy. I had the absolute best team coming to check on me 3x a week and helping me grow stronger everyday. I worked with them for about 6 weeks before getting cleared and ready for my 8 week check up with my neurosurgeon and my approval to get back to work. 3 days before this appointment however, my surgery failed out of nowhere and my back was in excruciating pain yet again.

Chapter 4:

On November 1st I was looking forward to a day of early voting and lunch out with my husband. Unfortunately, when we got to the restaurant and I sat down at a chair I knew immediately that something was wrong. I had intense burning pain down my back, hips, and legs, and was starting to feel pain and pressure when standing. I contacted my Physical Therapist and he told me to rest and ice for the night and go from there. I got maybe 2 hours of sleep due to the pain I was experiencing and in the morning we made the plan to get back to the hospital. Unfortunately the pain was so bad that we had to have the ambulance come and get me again because I could not get myself into the car. Luckily I was able to stand and walk to get myself on the gurney. My blood pressure was very high due to the pain so we went lights on to the hospital (at one point it being 175/94…. Yikes). Once I was in the ER the team decided within minutes to get me to my own room and to get me medicine and an new MRI. Sure enough we found out that I had another large extrusion in the same spot as my previous surgery. They admitted me to the hospital for rest, steroids, and pain management until I could meet with my AMAZING SURGEON today Monday November 4th, 2024. He came in to my room at 7am and told me the news that I was really hoping to not hear. The next steps are surgery and a doozy at that. On November 5th I will be having a Fusion on my L4/L5 vertebrae. This will require the following to happen: 1. reopening my previous incision, 2. removing my disc and 3. replacing it with a spacer and securing it with screws and rods. This surgery will at least be a permanent fix and will not need to be done again (I hope). Tonight I am preparing for my next surgery and trying to keep all of the positive thoughts and feelings in and all of the negative ones out.

Acknowledgments:

I am incredibly grateful for my village of friends and family that are doing all they can to keep me sane during this time. The daily check ins and phone calls and even the funny videos make my day. The constant deliveries of food so we don’t have to worry about are so appreciated beyond measure. I love you all so much!

My husband has been my rock and safe place through this entire ordeal and I truly couldn’t love him more for all that he has done for me over the past 8 weeks. He has been through so much and has done more than what I could ever expect from him for one lifetime. He is truly the most special man! Today he went out and bought me a recliner with adjustable lumbar support to make this next 8 weeks more bearable for me. He deserves it all! Please send him some love and encouragement because taking care of your loved one post surgery is no easy feat. He has had to do literally EVERYTHING for me and for our household and is now having to do it all over again just when we thought we were getting back to normalcy.

Special shoutout to our moms who are coming to show support after this surgery to help with taking care of the cleaning and cooking so Rich can focus on helping me and working from home so we can still survive in this wild world.

Additional shout out to my dad who is on call for when I will need reinforcements when the moms need to leave and the willingness to do so without hesitation.

I am truly blessed.

Update Post Surgery:

Yesterday, November 5th, 2024 I had a Lumbar Fusion on my L4/L5. In this surgery they removed the disc between my 2 vertebrae and then placed a cage with rods and screws to secure my spine. When I woke up from surgery I was in excruciating pain but my post op team was absolutely incredible and made sure my pain was manageable before sending me back to my room. I was sooo sleepy and slept a ton when I got back to my room, but PT came and got me up and moving about 3 hours post surgery. Sitting up was the worst feeling I have ever felt, the pressure and feeling that I got from my new hardware was overwhelming. Once I was able to get to a standing position I felt much better and was able to get to the restroom without pain. Laying back down in bed was just as excruciating at getting up and can be very difficult to do when you are still sleeping off the anesthesia. My blood pressure was really low throughout the night (105/56 at one point) so we had to be careful when I got pain meds, so pain meds were strictly scheduled and I had to have my blood pressure taken first before I was able to take them. I had so many visitors throughout the night with all of these wonderful care teams that are working together to get me better so I still feel very sleepy. My neurosurgeon was here bright and early (7:30am) to check on me and talk to me about the surgery. I literally cannot brag enough about how incredible of a surgeon this man is! He makes you feel completely at ease and explains how everything works and what to expect along the way. After he left my breakfast was delivered and i decided to sit in my chair instead of my bed for the rest of the morning and that is where i am still located. PT just came and we made some adjustments to my chair and bed and talked about the things I have at home to help me. I am super grateful for all of the people here at Advent Health that clearly love their jobs and their patients! I couldn’t of asked for a better place to recover from these surgeries.