Thank you to the many of you who have asked about this day! So, here it is....
As of one hour ago (9:00am EST, when this e-mail was released), I went into surgery. It's supposed to last from 4-8 hours, and the full recovery time is 6 months. What they're doing is complex, but the surgery is by no means uncommon. It's still miraculous to me that doctors have the skill to do this!
Carrie and I have been reading in Exodus, and in chapter 31 God tells Moses that He had given special skills to two men, Bezalel and Oholiab, so that they could direct all of the building operations necessary for the tabernacle. Personally, we believe that God gives special gifts, interests, and abilities to people today to accomplish many things. This would include skills in surgery.
So, What are they doing? They are removing the area circled in red on four of the vertebrae in my lower back. They will then take the bone that they remove, grind it up, and repurpose it somehow so that it grows and strengthens the area. There will apparently be screws and rods all through this portion (I'll set of the alarms at TSA security points, for
sure!)
These are obviosly a layman's description of the operation as we understood it. For those of you with the knowledge to understand it, here is the brief medical description of what they're doing...
"FUSION SPINE LUMBAR POSTERIOR (3+) LEVELS: L2-3, L3-4, L4-5 decompressive laminectomies with bilateral foraminotomies, with possible left L2-3 diskectomy, L2-5 posterolateral/transverse process fusion with bone graft and pedicle screw/rod instrumentation."
Incidentally, these necessary medical items have been ordered to be stacked on me after surgery like this.
Apparently, it helps speed up recovery!
