Journal entry by Julie Battles —
Coming up in the next few weeks, I will be having a lumbar corpectomy to fix the back pain I have been enduring. This surgery is no joke; it will be 7-8 hours under the knife, followed by a week long stay in the hospital before being discharged to skilled nursing care for several weeks. I think my family will welcome the vacation from me, hehehe =)
The surgery will remove my smushed up L2 vertebra and the discs above and below, then insert a plastic cage and some bone to "replace" L2. They will expand the cage up and down several vertebra and screw it into the bones to affix it into place. They will also be filling my bones with cement where they insert screws, as the structure of my bones is worse than most osteoporosis bones. So, all in all, it's a pretty involved and crazy surgery!
Once the surgery and skilled nursing/rehab is complete, I will be able to come home and FOCUS on kicking this cancer's ASS! And let's face it - that's the goal!
If you are wanting to make a dinner for us or have the kids for a playdate, the easiest way to get a hold of us is to reach out to Julie or Kimber through text message or on Facebook.
I'll send out another update when we know more about the surgery date, to keep you all in the loop. For now, we are appreciating the play dates, love and dinners from y'all. <3 xoxox <3
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