Life Is Full of Surprises

Life is full of surprises....it's just that most of mine this year haven't been good. 

I started off last week with my first ever experience of being pulled over by a police officer.  It was still dark outside, about 7:45 am, Monday morning.  I was trying my best to get both kids to two different schools on time and myself to physical therapy.  I had just turned onto a road after stopping at the stoplight when the flashing red and blue lights blinded me in my rearview mirror.  Since the police car was directly behind me, I immediately pulled over, hoping in vain that he was just in a hurry to get somewhere else.  Alas, he was not.  Both kids got silent in the backseat and I rolled down my window to accept my shame and reproach with as much dignity as possible, all the while hoping that the officer would be merciful and fast because....well, we were going to be late to school!

It turns out that I wasn't pulled over for speeding.  I got pulled over for having an expired license plate registration.  In other words, I didn't have the right color sticker on my license plate.  And apparently I hadn't had the right color since it expired in May.  Oops!  Of course, I had a few other things going on this May (like the almost complete inability to move without searing pain), followed by spine surgery.  But that didn't matter.  I suppose the officer didn't really have much choice in the matter and he wrote me the $143 ticket and sent me on my way.  

We got to Emily's school 6 minutes late.  She had to sign in to explain why she was late.  I told her to tell the office that my alarm didn't go off (it didn't) rather than have her try to explain the whole expired registration thing.  Turns out, she went with the much more dramatic explanation on the sign in list that everyone sees.....Reason for being late  "Police". 

I spent the rest of the day attempting to correct my registration mistake (did you know that in my county, NONE....not one, of the license branches are open on Mondays?...Yeah, neither did I.)  I had to drive 40 minutes (each way) out of my way to get current and then drop off the registration for Andrew's car, since it too was expired, then go pick up Emily from school again.  It wasn't my finest day.

Tuesday wasn't much better, but nothing worth writing about, just boring annoyances that I didn't need. 

And then came Wednesday.  I had a follow-up appointment with my neurosurgeon.  He wanted to check on my continuing symptoms and see if anything else needed to be addressed before the end of the year (and our insurance deductible resets).  Back in November when we met for the same reason, he was pretty sure that everything was going to be fine.  So imagine my surprise when he walked in the room, shook my hand, looked at my cane (because my foot is still mostly not functioning) and said, "We need to talk about removing the screw and bone fragment on the left side."  I wasn't exactly expecting that. 

So to sum up a very long explanation, he gave me the option of going back into surgery (outpatient), opening up the left incision, removing the screws on that side and fishing out a bone fragment that he is suspicious of causing some (or all) of my continuing concerning symptoms.  He said we could do this before the end of the year, in 5 or 6 months (if things hadn't improved) or not at all.  But he gave me somewhat higher than 50% odds that this might improve my symptoms.  Of course, it might also be another surgery with absolutely no positive outcome and more recovery.  Or it might be that the nerve needs more time to heal and only time will accomplish that....or, the nerve might simply be too damaged to heal and this is my new reality.  I told him I was going to need to think about it before I could give him an answer.

After much thought and debate and prayer and discussion, I decided to go for the FOURTH spine surgery in a 6 month period.  Ridiculous, I know, but in the end I decided that I didn't really have a lot to lose by having the surgery (although it may somewhat weaken the healing fusion, but the surgeon seems to think it shouldn't), but I could potentially regain all or most of my foot function (and lose the old lady cane!).  I had to take the chance because I am not enjoying this whole "disabled" thing one.little.bit. 

And so, if you think of it and can spare a few moments over this Christmas/New Year's season, say a prayer for me on Monday, December 29th around 11am.  I should be back home the same day and the surgery should be a piece of cake compared to the last one, but the odds haven't really been in my favor lately, so I'll accept any prayers you can send my way!!  And in case I'm not around for a bit....Merry Christmas!