Going under the knife.....

It has been a while since I updated the blog, so I thought I'd bring everyone up to date. I was teasing Sean the other night that it was almost Mothers Day and I would get my Mother's Day missionary call....except for the fact that he is home, but I told him he could call me anyway so that I felt like I got the Mother's Day call, except  for the fact that he will be in the hospital on Mothers Day and will have just come out of surgery 2-days before hand....so instead, he will have his "mommy" right there with him tending to him....

After Sean arrived home we talked to a few people and had a great recommendation for a spinal doctor (thank you so much Brother Dr. Harvey). We found that a great deal of Sean's pain was due to the fact that his curvature of his spine had become worse. His curve had progressed to a 51% curvature, his ribs were rubbing against his hip bones - as well as causing pain in his legs, headaches, arm aches etc.... funny how all things somehow connect to parts of our spine.... yes, i know, duhhhh. Actually, I found a really cool website that shows which each area of your spines controls.... but didn't save the page so I can't link it here.

On May 11th, Sean will be going under the knife.... (insert scary music here.....) Not sure who is more nervous, Mom or Sean. They will be exploring T8-T12 to check his previous surgery area. He will have a fusion from T12 to his pelvis, as well as in the L5-S1 region, they will be replacing a disc that does not appear to exist any longer. From his Spine School Book, here is the info on "What is Lumbar Spinal Fusion? Lumbar spinal fusion is a surgery that joins together two or more lumbar vertebrae. The procedure can be performed using a variety of approaches -from the front (laterally). A general surgeon is needed for surgery performed anteriorly. Lumbar fusion is performed to stabilize the spine and reduce pain caused from spinal disorders such as spinalstenosis, spondylolisthesis, scoliosis,degenerative disc disease, fractures and tumors. Lumbar spinal fusion is accomplished with the use of bone grafts and/or spinal instrumentation. Bone grafts are materials that fill the gap between two bones and encourage the body to grow new bone which will fuse them together. Spinal instrumentation can include screw, rods, plates and interbody cages or spaces." (yeh, I think that last part sounds cool - interbody cages) So, my bionic son will get even more bionic - almost like Steve Austin, (no, not the wrestler) the original Steve Austin, the six million dollar man....Maybe I can be Oscar and send him on secret missions - or maybe just back to California to complete his mission..... or maybe only time and healing will be answer to the mystery questions of the universe - as in "what's next after this". As far as healing time is concerned, there is no clear answer - it is different for every person and every situation..... so, the answer to the question, what's next? is... only time will tell. (Hey, I think that's a song by Asia) Yes, I am getting distracted.... Now... what would my blog be without pictures... This time, they come in the form of xrays....

The circled area in the bottom of the pic above is where there is suppose to be a disc.... however,  there is not one, I guess... I can't read xrays, but this is what we are told.

Xray 1 - quite similar to Xray 2 below, but without numbers...

Xray 2 - You can see the hardware from his first surgery from 5th grade. This second surgery will take over the lower portion. We're taking bets on how many inches of height Sean will gain with straightening up the lower portion.

We are down to T-13 and counting. Yesterday was the 2-week to surgery day. I'm sure over the next two weeks the nervousness will pick up, but we are ready....