Recovery: Doctor's Orders

Wow! Your emails and phone calls of encouragement this morning and all throughout the day were amazing - YOU are all amazing! I cannot thank you enough for all of your support!
Everyone keeps asking, "How did it go?" Well... it went...
The best thing that I could have done was asked my mom to attend. She was quite the advocate! (And so was my wonderful husband!)

Here are the facts:
- Structurally, the swelling around the incision is down and according to x-rays there has not been any harmful movement, so the pain is not coming directly from the Spinal Fusion Surgery itself.
- We won't know if the surgery "worked" until the 1-year mark... so we have some work to do in the mean time to get me better and some patience to work on (LOL!).
- The theory is that the pain is coming from severe muscle tension. While my PT and The Surgeon still have not come to an agreement on the fact of whether or not my muscles were strained during the first few months and set me back in recovery (she says "Yes!" he says "No!"), they did agree that my muscles currently are in over-drive and are the cause of my atypical pain...

Next Steps: Time, reduced stress - and the biggest step of all: Pain Management Strategies (they are going to find and set me up with a Pain Management Specialist who works specifically with people who have pain caused by muscle tension). For now, I need to keep my work schedule at the 3 days/week, I need to stay positive and I need to keep focused on my healing.

One interesting thing that was noted is that stress amplifies the muscle tension (duh, right?!?!) but who'd-a-thought that it could play this big of a part in my healing... Physical Stress and Emotional Stress are both working against me right now - so Gage and I are committing to focus our prayers on these two areas (please join us in agreement)!

Everyone knows that the first year of marriage is stressful. Everyone knows that being a Special Education Teacher is no piece of cake. Everyone knows that trying to sell a house in a dying market is beyond a burden to anyone, let alone a couple who is working with a reduced income. What I learned today is that the body, literally, at times has "a mind of it's own." With their (my Medical Team's) theory, they think that because my body has dealt with muscle tension and back pain for SO many (about 10) years, my body does not know how to reduce the tension once something triggers it. This is all connected to nerves and neurons and bruised muscle tissue... a lot of things that are out of my control, but some that are also controllable. I'm fascinated and terrified at the same time by this information! The hope is that the Pain Management Specialist can re-train my body to respond to pain and the things that cause pain so that my healing may come. I am believing for this - please believe with me!

Again, I thank you ALL for your love, encouragement and support! Thank you for praying for me!

Doctor's Orders

Hi Prayer Warriors!

God sure is moving since we started this Prayer Chain! After talking to my head nurse last week The Surgeon called an "emergency appointment" for me for tomorrow at 7:30 am. He doesn't know why I am still experiencing such severe pain and symptoms and doesn't want to wait until my November appointment to see me. My wonderful husband and my mother are coming with me to be my advocates. I am hoping that we leave there with MANY solutions to whatever "challenges" are causing me to have such extreme back pain and to experience such a slow and "abnormal" recovery.

If you are able, please send prayers that all goes well tomorrow. I know that, because of you, I was able to get this faster appointment!

The Power of Prayer

It’s been a little while since I’ve sent an update on my recovery. While I will give you a glimpse of what recovery life has looked like for me, the purpose of this email is to promote healing!
A wise woman reminded me yesterday of the power of prayer. Another wise woman, over a year ago, lent me a book called “God’s Prescription for Divine Health.” I have decided to combine the wisdom of both of these fabulous ladies and call forth a prayer chain.
The people that I have chosen to send this email to are either believers or people who believe in the power of prayer and/or healing thoughts – and you are all people who want the best for me and for me to recover as soon as possible.
I believe that I will be healed. I also believe that you could possibly help me in that healing process. Gage and I decided that at 4:00 pm everyday we are going to stop and say a prayer for my healing. I am asking each of you to do this, too!

I recognize that not everyone on this email list may know how to pray… I want to assure you that there is no right or wrong way to pray! One example could be for you to simply stop what you are doing at 4:00 pm and meditate on my healing. Another example would be to say, “God, I thank you for the healing that you are doing in my friend, Stephanie. Please complete the healing work you have started in her.”

For those of you who have asked me for specifics on where I am in my recovery so you may pray specifically, here they are:
- The challenges that I face daily are severe back pain and lack of physical endurance; this also, at times, leads to feelings of sadness or stress because I can’t live the life of a “normal” 30-year-old.
- At first, my surgeon told me that the initial recovery process would take only 8 weeks; however, recently, my medical team told me that because of the obstacles I faced over the past 3 months (I had the wrong sized walker, I went back to work 3 weeks too early, I used harmful postural techniques, I “over did it” at work day after day, my initial OT failed to teach me the correct way to go up and down stairs…) the initial phase of my recovery could now take 5 months to 1 year – and the secondary stage of my recovery could take 1-to-2 years.
- Right now, I am only released to work 3 days each week. This adds a financial and professional burden to my life.
Instead of focusing on the pain, I have decided to focus on my healing. In the book, “God’s Prescription for Divine Health” the author said, “Your eyes are the gateway to your body. If your eye (or attention) is on darkness, or the sickness that is in your body, there will be no light to expel it. If, however, the eyes of your heart are trained strictly on the Word, your whole body will eventually be filled with light, and healing will be the result,” (p. 15-16).
Every day, I am looking to God for healing. I am asking you too, friends and family, if you would be willing dedicate 30 seconds/day to my recovery.
From the bottom of my heart, I thank you.