Ive been having a lot of people asking me the same questions lately...
'When will you be able to bend over and touch your toes again?' and 'when will you be able to bend?'
Well lets just say during my 11hour operation 2 titanium rods where attached to my spine by 26 screws after my spine was put into its new position a bone graft was placed over it over the next year or so that bone graft will become solid inflexible bone. The Rods will stop me from bending and the bone graft makes bending my spine near enough impossible. Even if I was to have the Rods taken out in a few years I still will be unable to bend my spine because the bone graft would have set.
So the Answer the question- I will never be able to bend and touch my toes again, infact i wont be able to bend at all really, All my bending will come from my hips and the un-fused vertebrae i have (L3,L4,L5) My Physio has said that the vertebrae i have left are very little use to me bending wise but we will see!
Many people have said that they wouldn't be able to cope with a life-time without bending and it is exactly what i thought at 16 when the operation was mentioned properly, it was mentioned very briefly in my first appointment in 2011 when I was 15. Since then I always had it at the back of my mind ' how the hell do you cope with being not able to bend?' but in all honestly it isn't all that bad as time (weeks and months) go by you learn to adjust to it and now i bend my knees or sit down when ever i drop anything or need to pick something off the floor. I now am getting to the point where i don't really think about it before it i just do it like you just bend your back.
Of course i get frustrated because i find things difficult but as more time goes on the more everything will become easier. For example putting my shoes and socks on i have learnt to put my foot on my knee/thigh so no bending involved!
Yes there is times where I just want to bend my back and not have to spend a little bit longer getting something off the floor like any un-fused person would, I'd love to have the straight back I have now and have kept the flexibility I had but it couldn't of happened, i had to think about my future really, if I didn't have the operation my curves could have continued to get worse and I'd have worse lung capacity.
For now and the next few months i guess ill still get used to thinge the way they are.
I don't remember what it feels like to have someone touch my back and feel it, I don't remember what it feels like to not have to worry if someone brushes past me by accident . I don't even remember what it feels like to run. I guess these are some of the things that go through your head and I'm writing it to not scare anyone out of the op I'm writing this so people are aware that they may feel like it too.
But There are many more things, positive things that have came out of it though. the fact that my Spine is stabilised and corrected is amazing and i don't have to now even try to sit up/stand up straight it just a great thing that comes with the fusion, Also the fact i am taking nearly no pain killers is the best thing ever, i never thought i would ever come off the tablets, EVER! :)
Kirsty xx
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