I myself am also having scoliosis and I just wanted to say good luck for the operation and do remember that you’re always beautiful no matter what :D <3

Clearly I am going to look disgusting in them, but I feel like I should share them with you! x

Well, I guess I’ll just write about how it all went as an update!

When I went in on the 13th June, I was meant to be the first surgery of the day, so I was expected to be put to sleep around 9-9:30 as I was told to arrive at 7:30. I was told I’d be the first surgery due to them only doing one serious spinal operation a day and that was me, so they normally start with that one. Anaesthetics people were the ones who told me they swapped it around and as she put it “we are gonna use the smaller surgery first as starter and have you as mains” so I think I ended up being put under around 12:15 ish in the end, but I don’t really remember!

During my wait, I had more blood taken, got asked the same questions over and over and had my usual general health checked over. The hospital weren’t sure if they were going to put me in children’s or adults as I was 15 when told I needed surgery, but had it done now I’m 16… Luckily they had enough room in the children’s HDU for when I came out, so luckily I got put in there, I don’t think I could deal with being surrounded by mainly the elderly.

When I got put off to sleep all I really spoke about was Scotland because they asked me “if you had a million pounds, where would you go on holiday?” and i responded with scotland as I have this huge love of the scots and Scotland itself… Everyone I spoke to about being put to sleep said that it feels tingly or like you’re drunk… I don’t remember anything like that, I remember talking about Scotland and that being that!

In surgery, I had no complications although once I was out I had a blood mark around my neck and bruised feet and I also had nail marks on my feet because they said when I was under they realised my curves were too large to work on (I hadn’t been X-rayed since December) so they had to try and pull me straight and get them small enough to operate on, which took people pulling around my neck, on my feet and even pushing me in on my sides! I was never told the degree my curves got up to, but I will ask on my next appointment!

In recovery, I apparently would not stop talking and I was talking extremely loud, once again Scotland was a main subject, but so was my little sister! It upsets me that I found out that my little sister cried when she seen me in recovery and then went on to have a panic attack as its not what she expected! After that, She did not leave my bedside once!

Down in HDU I had lots of visitors, mainly family and I don’t remember much of this at all, but apparently the extremely loud non stop talking continued! By the time those silly drugs wore off the pain did hit me hard and I won’t sugar coat it for anyone who is going to have it done, it does hurt, a lot! But it’s all worth it in the end. I was hooked up to so many machines, I couldn’t believe it. My body didn’t react well to the morphine and I had to have a different man made kind of morphine, I cannot remember the name of it for the life of me though. Also, it became apparent that my breathing wasn’t doing all too well, so I had to have a chest X-ray done, which really hurt me because I had to be sat up really early on in recovery and then lie back onto a hard sheet of metal for the X-ray… Turns out my left lung didn’t re-inflate properly and it had lots of fluid and mucus type stuff in the bottom of it, I became oxygen dependant and this soon turned into a chest infection. The girl who I shared a room with in HDU also had the same problem as me, she was only a few months older than me and I’ll get back to get later on! A few other complications that I faced was having my epidural some how fall out, my drains leaked and some of my IVs were leaking too so I had to move onto oral medication sooner which was painful to deal with!

Sitting up for the first time was so so painful and uncomfortable that my face made my auntie cry, but as soon as I was in the chair, I was so worn out I fell to sleep in it for 2 hours.

My chest and breathing meant me staying in HDU for 3days rather than the expected 1 day which most people get told is standard. At this point, the girl who I had shared HDU with had moved onto a ward but one of the nurses told me that she requested for me to be on her ward in a bed near her which I thought was lovely!

The next few days were okay, painful of course, but my nighttimes were the worst, there was a little girl on the ward that we liked to call “screamer” who screamed every night over silly things like her blood pressure being taken, etc. The night time staff were so so lovely though, I did favour them over the day time staff which sucks because I didn’t see them nearly as much.

I’m not really sure what day I got my catheter out, I think it was day 3? I know it was in HDU, but I remember really needing a wee but physio hadn’t got me out of bed to walk yet, I knew how to get out of bed from getting into the chair, so me and mum used that to help me put of bed and she walked me to the toilet and then we walked around the children’s unit which knocked me out completely so that whilst I was asleep and physio came around to do it, my mum was able explain, I already have done it!

On my 5th day, my friend from HDU (on her day 6) was told she could go home, so we swapped mobile numbers as unfortunately we didn’t get to speak much due to being bed bound for most of our stay or one of us being asleep!

Nearer the end of my hospital stay, the effort and concern of care I got from the day nurses lessened even when I pushed my nurse button their attempts to care for me were poor which upset me and annoyed my family and friends… So on day 6 of my stay, I told every hospital staff that I wanted to go home because everything they we’re doing for me my mum could do at home… So they arranged for X-rays, physio stair checks, doctor checks, wound checks and the nurses opinion. Everyone except the nurses said I was good to go home because they said I wasn’t dealing with pain well, but that was because whenever I asked for pain meds, they would take about half an hour to get me them and then they’d take however long to kick in! But in the end, they agreed and sent me off home.

I still have to go back for physio soon due to some of my back muscles being “dead” so I am still not holding myself 100% straight because although my spine is straight, my back muscles don’t know how to hold it.

I have been talking non-stop to my friend from hospital, not just about scoliosis and how each other are getting on, but also normal day to day stuff… I think I’ve gained a friend for life here!

Thank you to everyone who sent me lovely messages on here and to my other tumblr (ecraga). Also to my family and friends for all your support!

I’ll post some pictures soon and feel free to ask questions!

Before my pre-op my surgeons were not sure whether to fuse my lumbar curve only through anterior approach and risk having to do a possible second surgery on my thoracic curve through posterior approach or whether to just do both curves in one go through posterior approach - I personally wanted them to do the second option as I knew I wouldn’t want to risk going through the surgery twice…

GOOD NEWS,
I got what I wanted! They’re gonna fuse both my curves through posterior approach :-)

I did all my other pre op things, although I did not get no further X-rays, so I only know my thoracic curve from its August measurement and my lumbar curve from its December measurement and well I think they’ve gotten worse. I hope I get X-rays on my surgery date so that I can know the comparison!

Anyway, hope you guys are well and if you want to ask me any questions, please feel free!