A reason to give thanks...

I created a chart to show to those who've prayed for me before and after my surgery as well as anyone who may not believe in miracles. By a loose definition, a miracle is something that God has mercifully done in a person's life that defies all science and medical textbooks ever written.

May the Glory go to God alone for this miracle.




(I was just corrected- the squeezed width was about the size of 2 pin-heads... too late to fix the chart as it's gone out, but I figured one pin-head, two... it's still unbelievably small !)

Incredible!  Just looking at the pics is making me hurt.

I would say it's pretty darn miraculous, just looking at that "before" image it looks like your spinal chord might already have been severed!

Funny enough, I'm learning about the nervous system - including the spine - in biology right now. One of the things we covered was the reminder that nerve cells are unreplacable - they don't grow back if they're cut (the nerve fibre can be up to a metre long!). So that really is a close call!

The nervous system is incredibly complex. No telling what could've gone wrong if the nerve cells had broken.

Yes - it hurt BAD Xid. But less than a week after the surgery, I'm feeling great ! Praise God !

And as far as that sucker being pinched like a kinked hose, let's just say I'm glad I didn't have to experience anything worse than pain. Again, this IS a miracle - just like the highly educated rich surgeon said to us. 
This surgeon rocks btw ! He did an incredible job. I go back to see him Monday and I'm sure he'll clear me for work - I'm doing THAT well.   
(The man that stuck a knife in my back -LOL http://www.keckmedicine.org/doctor/mark-j-spoonamore/ )

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

Yes - it hurt BAD Xid. But less than a week after the surgery, I'm feeling great ! Praise God !

That is absolutely awesome!

So you're getting better now.

I'm amazed at how resilient the human body can be.
For the 3rd time in the same area they cut my back open, including the muscle ! They removed a disc, filled the empty area with bone chips in a special pouch thing, drilled 4 screws into the vertebras with brackets to hold the whole mess in place, then sewed all that back up.

A week later, I'm ready to go back to work. My pain level is only about a 2. I'm back to most normal activities - all except what they call BLT. Any activities that include bending, lifting or twisting.

So where do they get the bone chips from?

Staybrite wrote:

So where do they get the bone chips from?

My first fusion of L5/S1 they used bone shavings from surrounding areas of the spine.

This one they used cadaver bone chips. It's kind of a trip, this is the same hospital we used to take my daughter back when she'd have surgeries on her arm (had a bone cyst from birth) and they'd use cadaver bone chips to fill in her arm where the cyst kept growing.

So we kind of have a common bond with dead people.  

Borg always feel good.  

  I am part human, part of another human, and part metal.

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

  I am part human, part of another human, and part metal.

That's so cool!

Wait... another human is still a human. You could have said that you're part yourself, part another human, and part metal.

I am Iron Man!

I set off airport security. Really. Every time. I usually begin explaining to them as I'm headed towards the thing - then they have to do a manual check with those batons. Sometimes they lift up my shirt or feel around back there. It gets kinda old after the 1st couple times.

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

I set off airport security. Really. Every time. I usually begin explaining to them as I'm headed towards the thing - then they have to do a manual check with those batons. Sometimes they lift up my shirt or feel around back there. It gets kinda old after the 1st couple times.

You're that metal, huh…

Guilty/Forgiven wrote:

  I am part human, part of another human, and part metal.

That makes you part cyborg and schizophrenic, right?


I am also a 'borg, brother!  I just manage to see a chiropractor to keep my worn out disc where it is supposed to be.  It herniates from time to time, but my holistic medicine practicing chiropractor is able to manipulate that back into place without having to really pop and crack my back.  I am staying on maintenance visits once a month just to keep my back healthy.  I feel so much better after those adjustments.  I understand that your condition with your back is much worse than mine.  I have ONE degenerative disc that herniates and most of that from years of popping my back myself.

Wow, that's actually very cool that he can do that for you. Yeh, unfortunately for me I got the worse genes in the family and have multiple disc bulges and herniations. Que Serah ! It is what it is. I've learned not to complain but rather to find things to bring God glory.
In this case, the Surgeon telling me they removed the disc and waited - staring at my pinched spinal cord to see if it would go back to it's original shape... after some time, it expanded back to completely normal ! He said they were quite frankly worried that I would for sure have permanent damage for living with it pinched that long.
TO GOD THE ATTENTION for the cool things He is doing !