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On New Year’s Day 2023, I slipped and fell on a slippery floor when we were out-of-town for a hockey tourney. I hit my head and neck against a wall. Immediately I knew I had a concussion because the concussion symptoms were prominent. As the afternoon/evening progressed, the symptoms became worse and to the point I was extremely dizzy, throwing up, and had numbness in both arms.
The next day I went to the ER. They did a CT scan and cleared me from any brain bleeds or skull fractures, but did find I had cervical spinal stenosis. I then was referred to a spinal cord surgeon who I met with a week later. When meeting with this surgeon, he informed me my case was too severe and up too high for him to do the surgery and referred me on to a neurosurgeon.
I met with the surgeon he suggested and didn’t care for that surgeon. Just too many little red flags that I couldn’t get over so I asked a friend, former NICU nurse for the triplets, if she could talk with her husband (who is a neurosurgeon) to see who he thought I should go to after the not-so-great experience with the first guy. He said if it was his wife, he’d want Dr. Stephan Kim at the U of MN to do the surgery. Joel and I met with him this morning and we absolutely love and trust him! His demeanor, yet candor, amazing bedside manner, with patience of a Saint while answering any and all questions while explaining things in great detail, were exactly what I was looking for.
My official diagnosis is Ossification of the Posterior Longitudinal Ligament (OPLL), with my neck fused between C3-T1, and a contusion on my spinal cord. Once he makes these big repairs, he will realign my neck with my spine, repair my degenerative discs (all 6 of them) and put little titanium, angled lifts that will recreate that space that is no longer thanks to the severe arthritis I have. This surgery is going to be very painful, often unbearable in the first 4-6 weeks. With the exception of walking, it will restrict most of what I do in daily life activities. I will not be able to bend over, do anything over my head (Joel and the girls will have to do my hair), or lift anything over 5 lbs (gallon of milk is 8 lbs). I will also be in a neck brace for the entire 3 months. To lower the risk of infection, I will not be able to shower until after I’ve had my 2 week post operative surgery appointment.
What started off as an embarrassing fall has turned into this major surgery with a list of very scary diagnoses. I am choosing to find the silver lining in this as this fall as it sent me to the ER. As it turns out, the years of head/neck/shoulder pain that I assumed was from stress was actually not that! The back pain I had that I thought was from me sleeping with my arm over my head, my foot hanging off the side of my bed, or a crappy pillow was none of those! It was literally my body falling apart on the inside. I played basketball from 6th grade through my college career playing at the Division 1 level. I used & abused my body while enjoying the sport I loved. The wear-and-tear on my body from the constant pounding on the floor while running up and down the hard court/blacktop/cement/etc has caught up with me. All the times I knew better than my parents or doctors who told me over-and-over to always dress appropriately (AKA not running into the cold in my shorts during the MN winters) but I never listened.
If anything can be learned from my mistake it’s to listen to your body. All the aches and pains I’ve had and took OTC pain relievers for has literally came back to bite me in the butt.
So grateful and counting my blessings … My surgeon said he can now tell me how serious things were for me. I was the worse case he’s ever seen of OPLL and going into surgery, he was just hoping to salvage my spinal cord. He said the fusion is almost complete and my recovery is “remarkable”. He was shocked at how well things went and how well I’m doing. I will go back in 6 months or sooner if needed. Thank you so much for the prayers, encouragement, and various ways of love and support.
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