Defying Doctors Declarations

Many of you know the challenges I’ve had medically. For those of you who don’t know my story, I’d like to share it with you. I hope it provides you encouragement to never give up and continually move forward toward your dreams.

In 2010, after six weeks of marital bliss with my new husband, I felt of pop in my back as I was working out with my husband. Throwing my back out, so to speak, is nothing new to me since my first back injury playing volleyball in high school. I figured it would be fine if I rested for a week or two. However, instead of getting better, the pain became increasingly intense, to the point I was breaking out in a sweat to get dressed.

One Saturday morning it became so painful, I walked into a weekend clinic to find out the source of my pain. Even though I requested an MRI, it wasn’t available until Monday unless I wanted to pay emergency fees. I was sent home with a referral to a spine specialist and made an appointment for the upcoming week. Before the orthopedic surgeon even saw me for my first appointment, I was placed in the narrow tube of the MRI machine. After an hour waiting for an interpretation, I saw my surgeon. I had ruptured my disk between my L5 and S1 vertebrae. The options were waiting to see if the rupture would dissolve on it’s own or head into the operating room.

Since I couldn’t stand the pain and narcotics weren’t doing a thing, my husband and I opted for the surgical route. After I woke up from surgery, my first thoughts were healing and getting back to my active lifestyle. It appeared I was on the road to recovery and had permission after months of physical therapy to get back to my normal life.

I felt good, but was always protective of my back and participated in activities which were not supposed to put undue pressure on my spine. Besides there was a less than five percent chance it would re-rupture.

On a Friday morning in 2013, I woke up in excruciating pain. The only thing I can compare it to was childbirth. On a scale of 1 to 10, I was at a 12. I could barely walk or stand. I called the office of my spine surgeon and they immediately fit me in because of a cancellation. I praise God for that cancellation.

I couldn’t even sit in the office or walk around the office while waiting to see the doctor because of my pain. The x ray technician found me on all fours crawling. It was not a pretty sight, I’m sure. After the x ray can back negative for a broken back, I was ushered into the MRI machine again and I couldn’t even get on the board without assistance.

When the results came back, I had once again ruptured the same disk. Only this time it was impacting my nerves and while in the doctor’s office, I lost feeling in my right leg. If I hadn’t been in so much pain, the look on the physician assistant’s face would have scared me silly. I didn’t have a choice, I was going in for surgery.

I was headed to the ER and was given the option of driving myself or taking an ambulance. My husband rushed me to the ER after pulling our kids out of school and daycare since we wouldn’t be available at the end of the day to pick them up.

Once again, this surgery appeared successful, but when I was getting ready to be released from the hospital, I still had no feeling in my right leg. The doctor assured me it might take time for the feeling to come back. After a year of physical therapy, while I never regained feeling in my right leg from the knee down, I was able to walk somewhat normally.

I was desperate to once again participate with my active family. I began to slowly increase my physical activity as my doctor ordered. My goal was to eventually run a 5K with my daughter who was part of the Girls on the Run program. The week before her race, she and I were running the track at the local high school together. During the first mile, I felt a large pop in my back, but there was no pain associated with it like in the past, so I made the assumption it was my joint popping.

As the day went on, I felt a slight twinge, then the pain began to build as we were out running errands. When we arrived home, I immediately when through my back stretches I learned in years of physical therapy and all the tricks I knew to make my back feel better.

The pain only increased by leaps and bounds. Back to the doctor I went. Since there is less than one percent chance I could have ruptured my disk again and the MRI wasn’t definitive, we went with a cortisone shot to the base of my spinal cord, rather than surgery again.

While the shot worked temporary to relieve the pain, the pain returned in full force between Thanksgiving and Christmas of 2013. Back to the doctor I went.

I was told the only fix was spinal fusion of my L5 and S1 joints. I figured anything was better than the daily pain I was living with and I signed my consent on the bottom line.

Surgery was ordered on December 23rd. My family spent Christmas in the hospital with me, where Santa delivered a few toys Christmas morning while I relearned to walk, get dressed and take care of daily necessities on my own. To say my recovery was a long, painful haul would be an understatement. I couldn’t walk stairs for three months, my years of firefighting were over and getting through the day took herculean effort. I’m not one to quit, however.

After another year of physical therapy, I was moving normally but in pain most of the time because of nerve damage I sustained in the second and now third surgery. The doctor told me there wasn’t anything else that could be done.

I walked with a slight limp on bad days and I was told my formerly active lifestyle wasn’t an option anymore. This declaration was a bigger blow to me than all my surgeries. Running was how I dealt with stress and worked out difficult problems while talking to God.

I accepted my doctor’s declaration for about a year and a half, but I realized the toll of being sedentary was slowly eating away at my mental health and the scale was creeping upward. I sought out alternative medicine and after six months was off all my daily nerve and pain medicine.

At my two year checkup for my spinal fusion, I was given a clean bill of spinal health and could slowly work my way back into more intense physical activity. When it came to running, I received a frown and the declaration of, “I’d prefer you don’t do it.”

As my parents will attest to, I’m not one to take no for an answer, especially if it comes in the form of you can’t do that. I took the process of getting active again very slowly. It began with walking short distances, then added to that distance a little bit each week. Soon I was able to walk three miles without thinking twice. I decided to see how my back would respond to a slow, short jog one morning. I only ran half the length of the track. I waited to see if the world came to an end in my back, but I felt good. Gradually, my runs increased in length and if I hurt, instead of pushing through the pain, I stopped for a few days. My lesson had become one of moderation, patience and trusting God. In July of 2015, I ran my first 5K since my first surgery in 2010. When I crossed the finish line, I broke down in tears from the joy of seeing all the effort pay off. The Bible verse, from Mark 10:27 came to mind, “But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.’” NKJV

God can work miracles and bring healing. If we believe God is asking us to do something and we are surrounded by doubters, know God will bring us through to the end if we trust Him and do our part too. Is there something God is asking of you? Share it in the comments below so we can pray for you and encourage you on your journey.