Hello Family and Friends (ABWA, MOPS, Church, Clients, Work, etc),
As most of you know I am scheduled to have back surgery on December 27th. A lot has gone on in the last few days and the good news is that I am going to postpone my surgery. I just decided this for sure today. Rather than explain to everyone individually, I thought an email would be the easiest way to let you all know. If I told you I would not be at the office, ABWA Meetings, MOPS Meetings, Church Council, or anything else until Mid-February, I should be there :)
The reason I was planning to have back surgery was to remove a fragment of disc that broke off and was pushing against my nerve causing this horrible shooting pain down my left leg. This issue happened back in August and I'm not even sure what I did to cause it. As soon as I started having this pain, I knew I would be having surgery again because it was the same feeling I had back in 2005 before my first surgery. The Mayo Clinic and every other doctor I talked to said surgery was the only way to fix this. The amazing part is that just recently, the pain shooting down my leg went away. I couldn't believe it and stopped taking some medications to see if it would come back and it hasn't. I haven't wanted to say anything to anyone because I kept thinking it would return prior to my surgery date, yet it hasn't.
I have been contemplating what to do and trying to figure out the best option at this point. Just a couple of days ago I called the surgeon to explain what is going on. He thought that if the leg pain is gone, I should not have surgery at this time. He told me to wait until the very last second before canceling just to be on the safe side. I still have lower back pain, which is a serious issue I have to deal with, but my doctor wasn't certain that the surgery would fix the back pain anyway. My surgeon doesn't really know what changed and the only logical thing I can think of is that the fragment of disc moved just enough to relieve the pressure off that nerve. I know so many people have been saying prayers for me and I can't thank you enough because this seems like a miracle that at crunch time the leg pain has disappeared. Even if it buys me a few months (or years), it will be easier to deal with as Jack gets older and is not so dependent on me to hold him all the time. If I were to have surgery I could not bend, lift, twist, etc. for six weeks which would have been so hard with such young children. I don't think I'm out of the woods completely because that fragment is there and at some point it may start bothering me again. For now I'll just do my best not to irritate things. I suppose the worst case scenario is that I cancel surgery, the pain comes back in a few weeks, and I have to reschedule the operation. However, I'm willing to take my chances at this point.
I know this is a long email with lots of detail, so I apologize for that. I am SO excited to be able to postpone surgery (indefinitely). I truly appreciate your warm thoughts, prayers, all the offers I've had for help with kids, to bring meals, etc. I hope they will still be on the table should I have to have surgery in the future :) I was dreading this surgery--not only the physical pain and recovery, but also the stress for Nick to have to do EVERYTHING for the kids for such a long period of time. This was the best Christmas gift!!
Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
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