#Spinal fusion

[crippled-peeper]

I hate to make another post like this but it’s the 1st day of disability pride month and I could really use a bit of help so I can afford my meds, food, and electric and phone bill 🖤 heres some pictures that explain part of what is wrong with me:

I am also bipolar I and take lots of antipsychotics to function. absolutely no pressure to donate if you are struggling too, here are my URLs:

I have PayPal too but it has my birth name on it so I would prefer to DM it to people 🖤✨ thank you all so much

[incognitopolls]

Hardware refers to rods, screws, or cages.

Personally know someone: Someone you know and who knows you back, e.g. a family member, friend, coworker, etc.

Know OF someone: Celebrities, distant relatives you've never met, friend of a friend, etc.

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We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[renfieldrenrat]

Hello everyone!

I've made a Spinal Fusion flag to represent those struggling, recovering or simply living with a fused spine, like me!

I was diagnosed with a S curved scoliosis at the age of 5 and had surgery in summer of 2021, alongside multiple complications.

There seems to be not much representation to this specifically at all despite spinal surgery awareness! Sooo I thought I'll make something myself :]

Explaination:

(Ribbon featured is the scoliosis ribbon)

Not all wounds are visible 💜

[feelingthemode]

disability pride month userboxes part 3/5

posted these on insta throughout the month :3

[ryan-monster]

It's so funny to me that June is not only pride month BUT ALSO, Scoliosis Awareness Month. You really cannot be caught being straight this month.

[stillgotscars]

me messaging everyone i knew when i stood up for the first time after having my spine fused and realised that i’d grown 3 inches taller and was now 5’1:

[frightfully-doll]

I am SO fucking tired of the ER not listening to me.

I’ve been there twice. TWICE. They are refusing to see that there’s an issue, only because of my anxiety. They’ve treated me like complete shit. I don’t have anyone for support, I am all on my own. Being disabled, chronically ill, currently VERY sick with a bad infection that even the strongest pain killer won’t help and in the middle of a panic attack because your dentist completely screwed you over and gave you cellulitis is so fucking stressful.

Darlings, we have to come together and fight to be seen, heard, and taken care of. This is absolutely unacceptable. My insurance is taking CENTURIES to approval a 2nd CT scan. And again, the ER was a complete joke. I can’t afford this. I make $0.00 a year, because even though I have a spinal disability, a leaking heart valve, very weakened immune system, a deformed left hip that has greatly affected my ability to walk, POTS, & severe GI issues, I do not qualify for disability. I spend every single day bawling in pain with no sleep. The stress of being ill and contracting cellulitis , which is SEVERELY painful , has greatly taken a toll on my body. I’ve been on several different medications, nothing and I mean nothing is helping me. And the fun part - one of my meds gave me a stomach ulcer. So now my stomach, which already has extreme issues, is in severe pain too.

I am begging for this world to start recognizing young adult disabled people who are struggling to get treatment, and who are constantly manipulated by people who are supposed to help. I cannot stop crying. Please help us.

[orangejynx]

My spinal surgeon: How’s your pain being managed with what I sent you home with?

Me:

[a-is-for-arson]

I used to love rainy days, but now they make me feel like bitch 😭

[nomad-on-the-run]

Went to watch m3gan on opening night with a friend of mine while high on edibles for the first time and it was a magical experience

It's a fantastic movie to see while high bc the movie knows not to take itself seriously with its premise

The furby lookalike toys at the beginning of the movie evoked a visceral fear within my very soul

Not only did we never get context for why m3gan randomly breaks out into dance before committing acts of violence, but it turns out she breaks out into song too!!

At the beginning of the movie, Gemma mentioned m3gan's spine being made out of titanium, which only made her even more of an icon in my eyes bc I have a titanium spine too 😍 spinal fusion besties<3 my friend and I cackled over it bc we were high

M3gan's wig could've been an anime wig I cannot stress this enough. IT COULD'VE BEEN ANYTHING

You didn't have to be sober to realize that Gemma has the emotional intelligence of a microwave and that she kinda deserved m3gan's torment tbh

The entire theater started giggling when she got on all fours and started chasing a kid through the woods

By far the scariest part of the movie to me was whenever m3gan would mimic other people's voices to lure out animals/people to kill them. That was true uncanny valley shit right there

Speaking of uncanny valley, my friend and I both agreed that m3gan's usual design throughout the movie was far creepier than by the end of the movie when her exoskeleton was damaged. Her endoskeleton just wasn't that menacing tbh

Listening to her break out into song was like if someone randomly started blaring kidz bop at intermittent points in the theater

The funniest part of the movie was when she started singing David Guetta's Titanium to Katie at her bedside. Like it was out of nowhere 😭 caught my friend and I completely off guard and we were cry laughing. As if the spine joke wasn't funny enough on its own 😂

At different parts of the movie my friend and I both thought of plot twists that would've made for better writing than the actual plot twist

10/10 the titanium scene will forever be etched into our minds and this movie is camp as hell, I would not be surprised if m3gan amassed a cult following at some point in time

[just-a-little-bit-of-sugar]

Once again having weird feelings about the foreign objects permanently affixed to my skeleton

[crippled-peeper]

hi 👋 can anyone help me pay these copays…. I am drowning in debt currently and I won’t hear the ruling on my disability case until later this winter :( check my bio for more info about me if you don’t mind

thank you so much 🖤💖

[cozy-lake]

It’s June, which is pride month, but it’s also scoliosis awareness month! This means I get to celebrate multiple ways in which I am not straight this month.

I’m going to talk a little bit about what having scoliosis has been like for me under the cut, so feel free to read on if you’re interested!

Content warning for discussion of hospitals, medical issues, surgery, and anesthesia.

Firstly, what is scoliosis? Scoliosis is a “sideways curvature of the spine”, basically, when your spine is not straight. Scoliosis is more common in AFAB people and usually occurs immediately after the onset of puberty, or right before (depending when the growth spurt happens). For a lot of people, the curvature in their spine is minor and does not require any major medical intervention, but for others, a back brace or even surgery is needed.

What are some of the symptoms of scoliosis? Back pain is a very common symptom, but also physical deformity, including one shoulder being higher than the other or an uneven waist. If untreated, it can lead to severe complications later in life.

Now, I’ll get into my personal experience with scoliosis. Please know that these are only my experiences and not everyone will share my thoughts! I want to talk about it, again, since it’s scoliosis awareness month, but keep in mind that everyone’s journey is different.

Shortly after I turned eleven years old, I went for my yearly checkup, and my doctor discovered a small curve in my spine. He sent me for further testing and x-rays, and soon after I was fitted for a back brace. This was a hard plastic brace that wrapped around my torso, from right below my chest to my pelvis. It was incredibly tight, and compressed my spine to (hopefully) straighten out the curves. I had to wear this brace for 18-20 hours per day. For a young person, this was not easy, especially since this was also the first school year in which I had to get changed for gym class in front of classmates.

I was fitted for the brace in January. In May/June-ish of the same year, I had a checkup and was told I was doing well and should keep wearing the brace. That summer was rough- the brace was hot, and made it hard to do stuff I loved like swimming, biking, etc. I had another appointment in August, and it was actually the first time in 8 months that I didn’t wear the brace overnight. It was at that appointment that I was told the brace wasn’t working, and I needed to get surgery. I had three curves in my spine, and the largest of the three was 50°, too severe to be fixed with a brace.

I got the surgery in December of that year. The main type of surgery done for scoliosis is known as spinal fusion, which is incredibly invasive and has a years-long healing process. Luckily, my mom did her research, and found a newer type of surgery that was being offered for scoliosis, known as vetebral body tethering or VBT, and was less invasive. I won’t go into the details of the surgery, mainly because I was twelve years old at the time and didn’t fully understand it myself (but I’m happy to talk more if anyone wants me to). It was such a new technique at the time, though, that the closest doctor to where I live practiced in a city that was 646 miles/1039 km away. I’m incredibly lucky and privileged to have been able to travel there and get the surgery, and though it wasn’t a great experience, I am grateful that I was able to get it and that I wasn’t put on a years-long waiting list.

Anyway, the surgery lasted for about 8 hours, but I was out for 36 hours. The doctors had me up and walking within 2 hours of waking up, but I was in the hospital for about a week total. I was out of school for three months. I will always be thankful for my best friend at the time, who really helped me through that time of my life (I’m so thankful for them, in fact, that I’m planning to marry them). The doctors considered me “fully healed” after a year, but to this day, I still experience back pain and dizziness much easier than others. I have to get x-rays 1-2 times a year to make sure I’m still healing well (I am) and every couple of years, I travel back to the hospital to meet with my surgeon.

Scoliosis is a huge part of my life, and I’m always happy to talk about it. Please feel free to ask me questions here or on my instagram cozy_lake (I tend to be more active on there) as I plan to post this there as well. I’m so glad that there’s a month for scoliosis awareness, and I hope that this post helped you to learn more about it! :)

[industrialdreadhead]

I just had self indulgent thots

For Nicky and noah bear with me

1. So I've had spine surgery. And even though I'm out of recovery time it's still a little sensitive, and aches all that good stuff. Imagine going to a concert with Noah and being against the barricade for you so you have a good fun experience. And he's just standing behind you, defending your back with his arms on either side of you encasing you within his arms 🥹

2. Same with my wonderful surgery but this time Nicky, imagine wanting a tattoo right cause I do on my shoulder blades, and while they're still sensitive, imagine wanting a tattoo on the very sensitive skin, and getting that tattoo from your bf Nicky and just how gentle he would be afterwards softly caressing the skin while adding the lotion on it after, and he would help take care of it for you. But the process just being so sickly sweet, checking-in amd stuff giving you breaks when needed

[brunchbitch]

So I’ve had three PT sessions so far as sort of a tune up for my back issues. I’ve been surprised at how much weakness I have in certain muscles (especially around my hips). It feels like each time I go in, she has to make the exercises even more basic to try to limit pain. And it’s so frustrating - with my job, it’s come into even starker focus how young I am to be having these issues. I spoke to my PT about that and she was like “yes you are young, but you also have a lot going on in your back”.

Today she gave me this thick belt thing that I could wear daily to stabilize my sacroiliac joints (basically sits low on my hips). I was hoping it wasn’t what I needed bc it reminds me of back braces (though obviously much much smaller and less noticeable) but as soon as I put it on, the lower back pain on my right side disappeared. I won’t wear it to bed (whereas the back braces I would) so that’s nice, and it’s just a temporary thing while we’re focusing on strengthening the muscles around it, AND it’s amazing that something so small could help my lower back pain, but it’s still hard to come to terms with.

When I was 12 and approaching this massive life changing and life saving back surgery, the surgeon told me I would be able to do everything after the surgery that I did before, with the exception of something like gymnastics or very high impact sports like football. But I started running at age 16/17 and got a stress fracture in three vertebrae right below where the fusion ended, and since then it feels like I haven’t been without some sort of pain throughout my back/neck. I was reading back through some of my medical records and I didn’t realize that even after the fusion, my curves are still 24 and 35 degrees I think? Which would be significant curves for someone who hasn’t had surgery. My PT has told me definitively that I will need surgery to extend the fusion in my lumber/sacral joints; it’s just a matter of when. I hope to put it off for as long as possible, but it feels so defeating and scary to think of how much more my mobility will be affected. And my ED brain is definitely using this as a way to argue that I absolutely need to lose weight to support my skeletal/muscular system.

[rosehipandroots]

hey do the other fused spine peoples out there legit struggle to describe how it feels to have a bad back day to a normal non-quarter-metal person or is it just me