After a few days at home, my physical therapist came to my home. Luckily for me, he was the same person who was helping me last year after my total knee replacement surgery. I immediately felt better taken care of than when I was in the 2 hospitals. I made great progress, and within a week I was able to walk up and down my stairs, and also was able to walk to the corner of my block with a cane and my physical therapist as my companion. Getting in and out of my bed was the most painful experience in the 24 hour cycle of healing. I began to get "moon face," a condition caused by the steroids in my system. My face puffed up, even though the rest of me was wasting away from inactivity. I lost all of my muscle strength. I called my new condition, "flat-ass-itis," to try and inject humor into my lack of exercise.
At day 12 of home healing, my physical therapist thought it was time to learn how to sit in a chair. Up until this point I had been flat on my back or walking upright a few minutes here and there. I was successful at sitting 2 minutes at the kitchen table without pain. It made me realize that humans are not meant to be sitting at desk jobs all day long. This is why lots of lower back aches are caused by sitting, driving, etc. We are meant to be moving upright, all day long!
I was so thrilled not to be eating flat on my back. Later that day I ate dinner at the kitchen table while speaking to a friend on FaceTime. I lost track of time. Maybe it was about 20 minutes of seated activity? It was definitely too long to be seated in a chair. A few hours later, my right buttock and leg began to hurt incredibly, and by morning the level 9 to 10 pain with electrocution was back. The crying ensued. I called my Kaiser surgery team and they doubled my prednisone and told me to stop sitting up altogether. After a few days I felt some relief. By the time 3 weeks had rolled around, I still was not comfortable. We drove back to San Jose and had my stitches taken out. It was still hard to move comfortably, especially in and out of bed. I still was either flat on my back or standing tall. After another MRI, it was shown that my disc had reherniated. The plan was to have a more invasive surgery, a spinal fusion. The only issue was with the pre-operative appointments by phone. My surgeon wasn't available for more than 3 weeks, just to talk! I immediately let the staff know that I wasn't prepared to suffer this deeply for another month. They somehow had to make it work.
Miracles showed up, and there was a cancellation for a phone appointment just a few days later. When I asked about if I could just skip the chat and have the surgery instead, the phone scheduler laughed. Then she got more serious and said, actually, there was a free spot for surgery two days after my phone appointment. Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Talk about manifestation!
My spinal fusion surgery was scheduled for September 8, less than 4 weeks after my initial surgery. I knew relief was in sight. Spinal fusion is when they take the disc out completely, substitute a rubber disc, and stuff pieces of bones and ground up bones in between. Then they create a metal cage around the lumbar 5 and sacrum 1 bones, add screws, and sew the back up again. The bones will grow into the screw threads and there is no more disc to leak. There will be no more movement between the L5 and S1 bones. They also planned on fixing the broken L5 vertebra. More stability and less electrocution was in my future!
Please share this with loved ones and your social media. It is important to speak up for your own health.
Blessings,
KJ Landis
SupeiorSelf channel on YouTube
At day 12 of home healing, my physical therapist thought it was time to learn how to sit in a chair. Up until this point I had been flat on my back or walking upright a few minutes here and there. I was successful at sitting 2 minutes at the kitchen table without pain. It made me realize that humans are not meant to be sitting at desk jobs all day long. This is why lots of lower back aches are caused by sitting, driving, etc. We are meant to be moving upright, all day long!
I was so thrilled not to be eating flat on my back. Later that day I ate dinner at the kitchen table while speaking to a friend on FaceTime. I lost track of time. Maybe it was about 20 minutes of seated activity? It was definitely too long to be seated in a chair. A few hours later, my right buttock and leg began to hurt incredibly, and by morning the level 9 to 10 pain with electrocution was back. The crying ensued. I called my Kaiser surgery team and they doubled my prednisone and told me to stop sitting up altogether. After a few days I felt some relief. By the time 3 weeks had rolled around, I still was not comfortable. We drove back to San Jose and had my stitches taken out. It was still hard to move comfortably, especially in and out of bed. I still was either flat on my back or standing tall. After another MRI, it was shown that my disc had reherniated. The plan was to have a more invasive surgery, a spinal fusion. The only issue was with the pre-operative appointments by phone. My surgeon wasn't available for more than 3 weeks, just to talk! I immediately let the staff know that I wasn't prepared to suffer this deeply for another month. They somehow had to make it work.
Miracles showed up, and there was a cancellation for a phone appointment just a few days later. When I asked about if I could just skip the chat and have the surgery instead, the phone scheduler laughed. Then she got more serious and said, actually, there was a free spot for surgery two days after my phone appointment. Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Talk about manifestation!
My spinal fusion surgery was scheduled for September 8, less than 4 weeks after my initial surgery. I knew relief was in sight. Spinal fusion is when they take the disc out completely, substitute a rubber disc, and stuff pieces of bones and ground up bones in between. Then they create a metal cage around the lumbar 5 and sacrum 1 bones, add screws, and sew the back up again. The bones will grow into the screw threads and there is no more disc to leak. There will be no more movement between the L5 and S1 bones. They also planned on fixing the broken L5 vertebra. More stability and less electrocution was in my future!
Please share this with loved ones and your social media. It is important to speak up for your own health.
Blessings,
KJ Landis
SupeiorSelf channel on YouTube
RSS Feed