The Snap

    Hello again my readers, subscribers, and audience. It is I again, Scoliatic with a new addition to my blog of blogs. Today I shall continue the saga of my spine and venture through more of my amazing adventures, the replacing of my rod, the snap, and the new MAGEC Growing Rods, (MAGnetic Expansion Control). Copy the link for more information on the MAGEC Rods: https://www.ortho.wustl.edu/content/Patient-Care/3696/Services/Pediatric-and-Adolescent-Orthopedic-Surgery/Overview/Pediatric-Spine-Patient-Education-Overview/MAGEC-Grow-Rod-Procedure.aspx Sorry if it was not clear but all of these events happened previously in my life and are not unfolding as this is being uploaded. They all happened a few years ago some longer than others. With this, my last, and my next posts I am getting you my readers up to speed with my titanium trials and once I am done with that I will change format. More on that when it happens but for now, enjoy.

    As you may remember from the last post, I had an infection from a surgery gone wrong. That event made me much more wary of surgeries and brought up a new option for me, The MAGEC Rods. It was the newest model of internal spine braces. They didn't require surgery to expand and after swapping them with my current rods no more surgery's would be required except for replacing them if I outgrew them and the final fusion. They were expanded with a special device that used the power of magnets and to turn magnets that were on the rods that would then cause it to expand, no surgery required! I was a little hesitant to say yes to them because the surgery to replace them would be long and complex but, I would have to replace my rods for longer ones eventually anyways so I agreed to the installment. After surgery I couldn't tell anything was different except that I had a new magic trick. If I took a magnet or a light piece of metal I could stick it to my back. I was feeling great about my new rod with only slight fear of somehow attracting a very strong magnet to my back and having It get stuck there.

    Ballet, a famous type of dance that involves elaborate and flowing hand and leg movements. I take lessons for it at my local dance school and enjoy it immensely. It is something that I can do that helps make me stronger and I do it even with my limited movement. There are somethings in it that I cant do, stretches involving the spine, anything involving laying on my back or rolling, these hurt my back hump. Other random movements can also hurt but aren't consistent, it depends on if my back is in a good mood or not. Me and my teachers have found ways for me to get around these roadblocks and have me do altered moves or work on something else. I was usually very careful and tried to stay safe as much as possible except for that one dreaded day when I went past my limits.

    I was fed up with not being able to bend my spine and decided to bend forward as far as the other kids in my ballet class. I didn't want to be the disabled boy who couldn't, but the disabled boy who could. I took a breath and bent forward, I Reached the point where I usually stopped but kept going. Slowly, I went farther than usual and with the thought of I can do it I bent over until it hurt and then I heard a snap. I didn't really hear it as much as I felt it; something went pop and my back made an odd jerk. The pain didn't set in immediately but gave me time to excuse myself and walk towards a bench and lie down.

    Pain was all I felt after that. I was crying and curled up in an odd misshapen lump trying to find a position that didn't make all of my nerves scream in agony. My teachers called my dad came rushing over. While I waited I was given a shirt from one of the shows I had been in and had forgot to pick up. That was able to help somehow by mentally easing my brain. When my dad got there he took me to the E.R. and had them take a look at me. A few X-rays later they found out that my rod had snapped and that I would definitely need surgery. However, my doctor was out of town so I had to wait half a week to get fixed. I would lie on the couch only getting up for the bathroom and when I had to get up I would use a stick to support me. I looked like Yoda.

    When my surgery finally came, I went to the hospital, got set up, then was put unconscious and operated on. The operation went smoothly, they fixed the broken rod and gave me another one for more support. I had to recover in the hospital for a while before I could safely go home and was fitted for a brace. Once my brace was ready and I was somewhat recovered, I was sent home where I lay on my couch all day playing Pokemon, Sonic one, two, and three, and super Mario Maker (one not two, we didn't have a switch yet this was all on my handy dandy 3DS).

    I had to wear my brace for three to four months and couldn't do dance over that period. I was able to do chess though, which I had recently gotten into, and went to a few local tournaments. At these tournaments I showed my brace to my friends, which was easy because they already knew about my complicated spine. We joked about how it was my "armor" and I was now invincible. While the brace wasn't to obvious, it did cause me to smell a bit. To stop it from being to uncomfortable, I wore a shirt underneath it and a shirt over. That meant that I had a lot more layers than I was used to. This caused me to sweat a lot, and on top of that I had to be careful about showers when I took of my brace so that I didn't hurt myself. I took of my top shirt at home but was still a very stinky boy.

    After my release from my brace, I continued my dance but was much more careful. I had my rod expansion not much later and was in for some more pain. I wasn't too worried about the expansion before hand, I had already had one and while it felt very strange to have a metal rod elongate inside of me while awake, it wasn't to bad. When I laid on the gurney I tensed up a bit and some more when they put the ultrasound jell on my back, but relaxed after a few breathes. Then it started. The machine started turning both of my rods at once and everything was fine at first but then at a rapid rate, pain and me became one again. I'm still not sure what cause the pain, the doctors thought that it could have some small pieces of rod left over from the rod breaking or it could have gotten stuck on something, but for whatever reasons, it hurt like crazy. I asked for a break and after the pain subsided they had to keep going. We had to do this two or three more times to get the needed length out of my rod. Ever since I have hated the expansions; I don't have PTSD, but I always tense up and worry whenever I learn its time for another one. Now, I always take some pain medicine and that helps but they still are not very enjoyable.

    Thanks for reading my second post! Sorry it took a little longer than I said It would it's just that this story is better told in full so I kept adding onto it. If you liked it and want to receive an Email telling you when a new post has arrived, put your Email in the comments and I will make a group Email. Have any requests on posts or questions? Post them in the comments. Grammatical corrections? Tell me in Chat, (and yes I know that that that was not a full sentence, it's for dramatic effect). If you want to contact me directly, Email scoliatic@gmail.com and I will hopefully see it and it wont just rot in my unread. Share, subscribe, comment. The only way I can gain more readers until I have enough views for google to acknowledge me is word of text, email, or even letter. Tata for now, Scoliatic.