Spine Surgery (10/25 & 29/08)

Like I said in my previous post, my back pains were not going away and just getting worse. My doctor took x-rays and blood tests and noticed they were a little abnormal. He sent my results to a specialist in the Vallejo Kaiser, who then sent them to a spine specialist in the Oakland Kaiser. On October 23, 2008, my doctor called and told me to go to the emergency room. I was so upset! I was enjoying being a new mom and didn't want to leave my son. Once at the emergency room, I went through more testing. They told me that I would be staying over night and have more tests tomorrow. Since I was in the emergency room, Owen and Sean were not allowed to stay, so I spent the night alone. The next day I had CT scans, more x-rays, and an MRI. After all the tests were completed, I was visited by an infectious disease doctor who informed me about what was going on. Apparently there was a staff infection in my psoas muscles and my spinal canal. He said I would be transferred to the Oakland Kaiser that night to speak with the spine specialist who would be helping me. Once arriving in Oakland, Sean and Owen and I were waiting for the doctor to come in. It was pretty late but he finally came in. He explained that the infection was rather large and life threatening. It was rapidly moving up my spinal canal and if we would have waited longer to come in, I could have been paralyzed or worse! The infection was also in my psoas muscles, those are the muscles in the back and legs. They are the muscles that allow you to life your legs, bend over, stand straight, and all that good stuff. So as you probably guessed, I was still having trouble walking. Anyway, that night Dr. Slucky (my spine surgeon) told me that I would have spine surgery the following day. HOLY COW! Spine surgery!?! I was so scared, I didn't know what to do. He said he needed to act quickly since the infection was so large and he didn't want it to get worse. Apparently I had it for years and I body would fight it off, but when I got pregnant, my immune system shut down to protect the baby so there was nothing to fight this thing. So it just grew and grew. Oh and to top off the already scary and bad news, he said that I would not be allowed to see my son until I was able to go home. :( That was the hardest part for me to hear. That night, I said my goodbye to my baby and just prayed that I wouldn't be in the hospital long. Sean took Owen home and prepared himself for the next day. My surgery was scheduled for the evening on October 25, 2008. My doctor wanted to do mine last since I had an infection. When the nurses came in to take me down the the operating room, all I can remember is how terrified I was. The waiting room was so cold and crowded (crowded with my family and friends who came to support me through all this). A nurse came in and had me fill out some paper work and then gave me some drugs to calm me down...thank goodness! Once I was wheeled away and put into the operating room, I just remember crying as they were preparing me for the surgery. Dr. Slucky came over and sat by my side until I was knocked out. During surgery, Dr. Slucky opened me up and cleaned out the muscles that were infection and then drilled into my spine to drain the infection from it. Six hours later, I was in ICU and my family and friends were there waiting for me. The weirdest thing about waking up was not being able to move! I knew what I wanted my body to do, but I couldn't do it. After days in the ICU and more testing, we were informed that I would need a 2nd surgery! The doctor said that there was a small pocket of infection still left on my right side and a tiny bit of puss (in know, gross) in my spinal canal. So on Ocotober 29, 2008, I went through a second surgery. The next day I met with my physical therapist who was helping me learn to walk again. I had a walker and everything! A few days later, I was told I would need a PICC line in my arm. That is a long term IV that is in you 24/7 so you can have medication pumped into you all the time. Once the PICC line was in and the doctors figured out what antibiotics I would be needing, they told me the greatest news!!! I was allowed to go home!!!! My doctors didn't see the point in having me sit in a hospital bed to recover when I would be much more comfortable at home with my husband and son. So on November 3, 2008, I left the hospital and went home to see my baby for the first time in 10 days. I was so wonderful. I was home, even though I still couldn't walk very well and I wasn't allowed to pick up things yet, I was home and able to hold my baby and not be interrupted by nurses. Over the next 6-7 weeks, I was still attached to my IV and had many blood tests that were monitoring my recovery. On December 16th (my anniversary) my infectious disease doctor, Dr. Schapiro, told me that my tests looked great and that my nurse could remove my PICC line. Yahoo!!! This was so great to hear. The PICC line was so annoying to have. I had to carry a bag around with an IV cord that ran from my arm to the bag, and that cord would get caught on everything...plus I hated carrying the bag all the time. I even had to sleep with my anitibotic bag! After the PICC line was removed I was put on oral antibiotics for two weeks. After those two weeks my blood was taken again and everything was still normal. Dr. Schapiro took me off everything and said that he was going to monitor me for a few more weeks. On January 19, 2009, my blood tests came back normal and I was told that the infection looks to be gone! He said that I don't need antibiotics and that my body is taking care of the rest of this thing. I will have one more blood test in a few months to make sure that the infection is not returning, but for now, I'm normal again. On January 26, 2008, I had an appointment with Dr. Slucky, my spine surgeon, to make sure my spine was healing correctly from the surgeries. After the x-rays, he was very happy to tell me that I was looking great. He even said, "Go home and live your life Andrea". I am allowed to do everything!! He just said to listen to my body and not over do it, since I'm still weak and I need time to build my strength again. So now I am better. :)

After all this happened, I was trying to look at the positive side of things. Because of my surgeries I was able to stay home with Owen for a lot longer than I would have been able to. I have to return to work on Monday, February 2nd, and I am not really looking forward to that. I am going to miss being with Owen. Now that I am finally OK, I won't get to be a stay home mom like I've always wanted. But I guess there's a reason for all of this. Sean was actually in the Tempe AZ Academy when I started getting sick, and he came home to help me. If I hadn't gotten sick, he would have been a police officer by now, living his dream job and I would be a stay home mom. Sean sacrificed so much to take care of Owen and me. He took six weeks off of work after my surgeries to help me and not once did he complain. He did all the night feedings with the baby, since I wasn't able to get up. I also wasn't able to breastfeed anymore since I was on so many medications. He changed my bandages everyday and made me meals and just spent time with me, helping me not to feel depressed. Sean really showed me how much he loves me and that he's willing to do anything for me and our family. I just hope that one day he'll have another chance to fullfill his dream of being a police officer. I am so thankful for him and all that he's done, he is such a wonderful person.

Anyway, there you have it, that's my surgery story. Thanks to the support of my wonderful husband, my family, and my friends, I was able to get through this with a smile on my face. Now I just have a few scars to remember this by and hope and pray that this won't happen again. If it does...we're adopting!