We're in Naples, Florida

Can you believe it? 9 days after surgery and the doctor let me travel to Florida. WOW!

Along with Cody we brought my niece Kayle and nephew Josh down too to visit Grandma Rajski. We are all having a blast!

The weather is beautiful, I love being with my family, I'm so happy to hang out with my husband - LIFE IS GOOD!

Surgery was a HUGE success!

Well, it’s been 6 days since my surgery and things have gone beautifully. It was a huge success and I couldn’t ask for anything more!

When they got in to remove the herniated part of the disc it was actually broken off and plugging up my whole spinal column. The Dr. had to take an extra hour to remove it from being wrapped around the main nerve that controls a lot of important stuff in your body (just your legs, bowels and bladder – some of the stuff you like to use every day).

Technically, there should be some pretty extreme nerve damage from all of that (I walked around with it in there for a month), but through the grace of God, a great medical team and a ton of support from my friends and family I am healing and recuperating incredibly fast.

I’ve already started exercise walking (slowly) and my foot is coming back FAST. They said it would take 6 – 9 months for my spinal nerve to heal (if it was going to heal) but it is already way ahead of schedule! I haven’t even had an aspirin for pain.

I truly feel like I have my very own miracle and I am so grateful!

If you feel like having a laugh, check out the funny videos that Cody took of me when I was waking up from anesthesia. Talk about a teenager’s revenge on his Mom! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzGDdCyend4 AND http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pH6KGl7XlKM

Thank you for your encouragement, prayers, positive energy, love and friendship. I can definitely say that through all of this I have found what true connection and love is and I have never felt more loved or complete in my life.

My day at the hospital - Before surgery

You'd think for the price I'm paying to be here that I could have a gown that is a little more fashionable!

Nurse Cindy putting on my "anti blood clot" support hose. I'm thinking this will be a great look for Spring Break next week.

One of my favorite parts - the blood test. She was really good, but geez, she took about 25 tubes outta me! Good thing I've been taking my vitamins.

After Surgery

Mmmmmm . . . I really like the anesthesiologist - he was really nice . . . can he give me any more of that shot stuff?

My sweetie feeding me some orange jello so I can go home soon

Yummy - it tastes better when you squish it between your teeth like this.

It's 4:30 and we're outta here. I kind of feel like that jello that I just ate. I was completely out of it and barely remember the car ride home.

Recap Of Surgery Day

I am amazed at the way that God has taken care of me through all of this – I really couldn’t have asked for anything more for my surgery yesterday – it was flawless. Here’s how my day went:

Checked in at 7:45 a.m:

• Had a party in the room before my surgery – we laughed and joked a lot (Trent, Cody, Mom, Dad and my Uncle Bruce)
• Got to know the nurses and joked around with them
• Had a great nurse that got my IV in just one poke – yea!
• Felt like I was at the spa when the nurses put my compression hose and wrap on my legs for blood clots (clots run in my family)
• Dr. Smith came in and explained everything in complete detail – he even laughed and smiled when I told him to make sure he didn’t sneeze or anything
• I had Dr. Heinke (?) for my anesthesiologist and he was very wonderful. He was an older gentlemen and he just kept assuring me that he would watch every single heartbeat and he would not leave my side – he was very comforting.
• The scariest part for me was when they wheeled me into the OR – all the instruments were sitting around and I started to feel a little panicky, but Dr. Heinke hooked me up with the happy drug and I felt a lot better until they gave me the anesthesia, then I was out in 5 seconds. It was so cold, but they gave me a heated blanket right away which was really nice.
• Next thing I know I wake up in recovery and I just wanted to see Trent, but they wouldn’t bring him back – I had to wait a little bit.
• I wasn’t sick or in any pain, just tired. I guess I was in surgery a little longer than they planned - the disc had actually broken off and was traveling up my spinal cord and the nerve was running through it. Dr. Smith was very careful and did a great job.
• They took me back to my bay and I dozed pretty much all afternoon. They said I could go home when I could eat something and go to the bathroom. Trent was ready to go so he kept asking me if I had to pee and that was getting on my nerves. I finally told him he’d be the first one to know when I had to go :0)
• I got really irritated at Cody chewing ice - it was really loud!
• Cody got even with me and took video of me coming out of the anesthesia - they're pretty funny to watch!
• I did eat some jello and crackers, went to the bathroom got dressed and I think I got out of there around 4:30 or so.
• The only time I didn’t feel good was on the car ride home I thought I might throw up, but I didn’t. I got home and went right to bed.
• My friends and family are spoiling us with food – I have dinners being brought to us all week long – of course Cody is in heaven! Debbie and Chloe brought us dinner and my favorite chocolate cake - yummy! Ann made me lasagna and it was really good too.
• Cody and Trent did really good and they have taken really, really good care of me. They’re the best – I love them so much!

I am in virtually no pain as of yet and hope it will stay that way. My foot and leg are responding really well, it already has some improvement and I am confident it’s just going to keep going up from here! So, Florida, here I come!

Success!

It's been about 12 hours since my surgery and so far it is a huge success! I've been pretty much out of it all day sleeping from the anesthesia, but of course now that it's bedtime I feel wide awake.

Dr. Smith was awesome and he did a great job - my foot is already getting more movement and my bladder and bowels are working great. It looks like the nerve is going to survive! I knew God would take care of me and I am so in awe of His peace, provision and love right now.

The day was flawless - I had great support of family by my bedside, encouragement all day from friends and family, a successful surgery, no sickness from the anesthesia, didn't have to stay overnight in the hospital, and came home to a sparkling clean house with several choices for dinner waiting for us.

I couldn't ask for anything more and I am so grateful!

Make sure you check back on my blog tomorrow - Cody documented the day with film and video and it is hilarious.

Emergency Surgery Monday A.M.

• Sometimes the craziest things happen to me - even though it's not funny, I still have to chuckle a little bit.
• People have hurt backs all the time and they live with it for years. Me - I get a hurt back from a sports injury (and a genetic condition - thanks Mom and Grandma) and I have to get rushed into emergency surgery because my foot is paralyzed and soon my bowel and bladder might become paralyzed too. That is NOT good - I'd like my bowels and bladder to work on their own, thank you very much!

• Here's a picture of what's going on: Basically, I have a SEVERELY herniated disc (much bigger than this picture shows) that is pushing against my main nerve off my spinal cord. That nerve affects lots of stuff. Right now mine is severely sick and dying because it is squished between the disc and the bone of the vertebrae and has been for awhile now. The pressure has to be released off that nerve NOW for it to have any chance of recovering.

• The great thing is that it is so sick it is not able to send out any pain signals anymore, so I really am feeling ok and not in any kind of pain - that definitely is a blessing.

• Sooooo, tomorrow at 9:45 a.m. Dr. Smith is going to go in and clean all of the messy stuff up, free my nerve, hopefully give it a little pep talk and some medicine and it will get happy and heal properly.

• Best Case Scenario: I breeze through the operation in an hour, wake up and not get sick from the anesthetic, go home, and the nerve starts recovering and getting healthy again. That means I will be able to walk for exercise in about a week, fly to Florida for Spring Break and maybe be back on the tennis court in 4 - 6 months, without a brace on my foot.

• Medium Case Scenario: Same as above, but maybe my nerve is a little perturbed and decides it doesn't want to heal all the way. In that case, I will live with a numb, tingly and possibly semi-working foot and leg. The doctors can fit me with a brace to help me walk, but it will not look very good with some of my summer short outfits.

• Worst Case Scenario: This one's kind of scary - the nerve gets more damaged during the surgery and actually dies afterward. Not only will I probably live the rest of my life with a dead foot, semi-dead leg and a brace, I could lose the ability to control my bowels and bladder. Even in the worst case scenario though, I could still live a good life with some adjusting. I'm sure this is not what Trent was thinking about though when we said "for better or for worse", but whatever happens, we will deal with it.

• Here's what I know - God has a plan for me and He is not going to let anything happen to me that is not supposed to happen. I will praise Him and continue to do whatever it is He wants me to do while I'm here on this earth, whether that's in my normal body or an "altered" one. He has been faithful and I know that I can trust Him!

• I've got a lot of work to do and I'm ready to go, so I believe that this surgery is a blessing that will get me back to normal quickly so that I can get back to work and helping people.

• Please keep me, Trent and Cody in your prayers and I will keep you posted here on the blog. I've instructed Cody that he has to document my surgery day tomorrow for my blog, so get ready for some interesting pictures!