well friends, this blog is temporarily being hijacked for the next year as an outlet of sorts to help me process and deal with my scoliosis.
My first appointment is in 5 days. There's a lot of emotions going on right now - apprehension, anxiety, impatience, a little bit of excitement and a LOT of nervousness.
A little back story about my scoliosis: I was diagnosed with scoliosis when I was in 6th grade (you know during one of those awkward moments when everyone's mom comes and you have to bend over in the locker room)- it was an extremely mild curve which I told my parents about and we chose to ignore for the time being. I never experienced any pain until I was a senior in high school. It was very mild and very infrequent. My mom and I found out that my curve had progressed to 23 degrees. The doctor was not concerned at all and said that for most people it would correct itself on its own. By that point, I was too old and my bones had already started to set for a back brace to be of any help. The doctor said to come back in 5 years. Well, 5 years came and went, I didn't have much if any pain and didn't think about it at all until I moved to Texas. 2 years ago out of the blue I noticed I couldn't sleep on my left side anymore. It hurt too much. So I gradually had to adjust to sleeping on my stomach or my back. I also noticed I started leaning a LOT to the left at work and when I was standing or sitting. Initially a heating pad or ibuprofen helped and I could still function pretty normally. But gradually heating pads, ice, and any sort of over the counter pain medicine stopped working. I noticed walking becoming more painful requiring me to put my left hand on my hip to aleviate some of the pain while walking. In January of this year I woke up in the middle of the night with an intense burning sensation on my left side. It hurt so bad I was not able to sleep. I ended up going for a walk at 4:30 in the morning just for something to do to hopefully help clear my head. I finally set up a woman's exam the day before my birthday and started doing some research on scoliosis. The second my doctor walked in the room she asked me if my scoliosis caused me any pain. I didn't have to say a word about it. I explained the kind of pain I was having and she prescribed a muscle relaxer. I took it for a while, but it didn't really do anything to help with the intense burning sensation I experienced a couple times a month. I finally called and requested a referral to a spine specialist. My appointment was in April. I had to fill out at least 20 pages of paperwork detailing my pain, medical history and all that fun stuff. They took me back for x-rays and I peeked around the corner after the first one and my jaw nearly hit the floor when I saw it. My curve had progressed. My upper back looked like a 'c' with the curve of it being on my left side. They took one more and sent me back to my room. I got dressed and continued filling out the paperwork until the doctor came in. He showed me the x-rays and said my curve was over 50 degrees. I had done enough reading at that point to know anything over 50 would require surgery. No ifs, ands, or buts. He told me there was also rotation and that curve had rotated under my left shoulder blade pinching nerves causing the burning sensation. It was also pressing my ribcage outward. He said the curve would only get worse and that surgery was my only option of correcting this and getting rid of the pain. He told me he would refer me to Baylor for the surgery. I asked a few more questions and then left. Talk about an overload. Hearing that kind of news by yourself is enough to make any person freak out. I talked with my parents, told them the results. We spent the rest of the day praying and doing research. My parents called me later that night to pray over me. A week later, I got in touch with Baylor and scheduled the initial consultation. My parents wanted to be there for it, which meant waiting 6 weeks to see someone. I had to have the doctor call in a prescription for pain because it got so severe. I'm still having a lot of pain, even with taking the medicine.
It's 5 days away. I have visited with the folks at Baylor to see how quickly the surgery might be scheduled. Their answer: it depends. However, the doctor I'm seeing has a lot of openings. 5 days until I find out. 5 days until questions are answered. 5 days until I can set a date and begin counting down the days. 5 days....it seems like such a long time, especially with pain.
6 days until the boyfriend talks with the parentals about popping the question :) That too will happen this month along with my parents moving to Wisconsin.
Crazy busy month. Can use all the prayers I can get!!!
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