Happy Anniversary!

Ten years ago today was a big day! Ten years ago I had an 8 hour operation that changed my life. I have a medical condition called Scoliosis which means my spine isn't straight. When I was in 7th grade they did the test in PE where they call you in to the locker room and the school Nurse asks you to take your shirt off and bend over so they can see your spine. When it was my turn, I did just that and was pretty suprised when she said I had Scoliosis and wrote a note for me to give to my doctor. I didn't think anything of it, but when I went to my regular doctor she said it looked pretty bad and that I needed to see a specialist in Oakland.
My mom and I drove to meet Dr. Shively and I took the first of many, I mean MANY, X-rays. We came to find out that the curve in my spine was so severe that it required surgery. Here's basically what my spine looked like before:

The operation took 8 hours and these are the technical terms for what they did:
Anterior fusion: This surgical approach is through an incision (cut) at the side of the chest wall;

Posterior fusion: This surgical approach is through an incision on the back and involves the use of metal instrumentation to correct the curve

The Anterior fusion required that they puncture my right lung, and the Posterior fusion resulted in my getting 2 Titanium rods screwed to my spine to keep it from returning back to its original shape. Somewhere along the line they also removed at least 1 of my ribs that I know of, and fused it into my spine to compensate for the extra length being added. Crazy stuff, I know! 
Here's a pic of the end result:

You can't see my spine really well, but the rods are pretty obvious. You can see a little bit of my spine at the bottom of the picture, and its clearly still not straight as can be. So I'm destined to be a shorty, and thats fine. =) People always ask me if I set off metal detectors and the answer is NO! (duh!)

There are a few funny side affects from the operation though:
-My left hand sweats (like A LOT), and the right one doesn't. (A family friend who's a doctor said that this is probably the result of a nerve being cut)
-The skin in between my shoulder blades is numb. (Like when you go to the dentist and they numb up your face and you touch it, and it feels not all the way there, thats what I feel.)
-My feet sweat PROFUSELY. (I know, t.m.i. right? lol. Its not a stinky sweat, just a lot of moisture. Just ask my family: I've slipped in the kitchen a few times.)
-And of course I had to get over 100 stitches, and now I've got 2 impressive scars: the one down my back starts at the base of my neck and goes all the way down to a few inches above my rear end, and the one on my right side is about 6 inches long and curves around my ribs.

Pretty crazy. This was a whole lot for me to handle as a 13 year old girl. Especially since I had to wear a back brace to school for a little over a month afterwards that looked kind of like this:

 Mine was a little bit longer and strapped on the sides instead of the front.

This was such a growing experience for me physically and spiritually.
Physically: I grew about 2 inches taller as a result, and was able to stop being in constant pain.
Spiritually:   I was able to witness the power of the Priesthood as I healed quicker than anyone thought possible. Before my surgery I was not hanging out with the best of friends, and not acting as I should. Who knew something that put me to sleep for 8 hours would be such an eye opening experience? I know I was probably being a bit overdramatic, but I realized that if I died, I would have a lot of explaining to do to Heavenlt Father. So I made some changes, and grew a lot stronger in the Gospel.

I also became very aware of how many people loved me, especially my family. While drugged up on Morphine I even told Suzanne she should go donate a kidney while she was there visiting me. lol  Good times. =) They were very great during this whole ordeal, especially my mom. She drove me to every doctors appointment in Oakland, and was with me every step of the way. I had aunts stop in the take care of me when Mom went back to work, and my Beehive class came to visit me in the hospital.
I came to learn at a young age that even though I felt like crap but I was a pretty lucky girl. =)