Friday, March 23, 2007

My Mom: The Pain In The Neck


No, I'm not calling my mother names. Mom suffered a neck injury while at work nearly a decade ago. This changed her life as she has had multiple surgeries to alleviate migraine headaches and more recently shooting pains and numbness in her left arm. Well, it seems that after all this time that they have figured out that that the bit of bone (they took from her hip) that they used to fuse 2 of her neck vertebrae (which was reinforced with a metal plate) broke loose and has been pinching her spinal cord. According to the two doctors she has been going to recently (as well as her insurance) a surgery is required to pull that bone out.

The photo you see above was taken of my parents in the early 70's. I was recently told by my mother that it actually was some photo manipulation as they had people between them in the photo. Mom likes the photo quite a bit so I decided to snap a quick shot of it from on top of our piano. Anyhow, this morning she went into surgery to have that bone removed. I called and talked to her last night while I was at lunch. I'm optimistic and I'm hoping that Mom remains the fighting spirit that she has always been. There is a strong chance (50%) of paralysis in this surgery but then again she was also told that she would progress towards that if the bone weren't removed. Essentially, having the bone pressing against it for so long is going to require so much longer for it to regain its shape.

After typing the first two paragraphs, I decided to call around a little. Since I get off work around 1am and she was due to head to the hospital at 7:30am, I opted to go to sleep as I have to work today and woke up just before typing this. After calling my sister, I tried the hospital (as grandma doesn't have a cell phone that I know of) and was having a nurse check on her status. Then my cell phone started ringing. I looked down and it said "Mom." Those were the last words I expected on the Caller-ID and the first out of my mouth as I answered. There was a long pause but it turned out that grandma got ahold of Mom's cell. According to her, the doctor said the surgery went better and quicker than expected. I'll be heading over there after the podcast tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I said a prayer for your mom cause I can't type with my fingers crossed.

I see where you got your good looks! great photo!

LoraLoo said...

You definitely come from quite a gene pool. :)

I'm hoping Mom is feeling great when you see her tomorrow. She's been through a lot, I hope this finally brings her relief.

Ken said...

Wow. My thoughts and prayers are with your Mom. Given what Amy and I have been through, I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Hope all is well.