Catching up....quickly. Very quickly.

What the heck? You have a blog? Actually, yes I do. We started it to keep friends and family updated about what was going on with the kids.  It was light and full of pictures. Then we reached a point in life in which we had more than one kid and it was too hard to keep up.  A large part down deep is insecurity. I rarely get embarrassed and can laugh most things off, but writing is different.  I don't really see myself as a write or a story teller.  I am not good at it.  My grammar sucks.  English was not a subject I liked.

Over the past year, many friends have encouraged me to write due to my outrageous kids stories, but I pushed it off because I don't even have time to do important things in life, like pee by myself or sit down to eat. Then I was thinking of firing the ol' blog up because of fun life adventures, but those adventures were halted by life in general.  So now I write on our blog out of convenience (and therapy). It is the easiest way to tell a story to people than on Facebook.  WARNING: I may swear a little.  Not a lot.  But in truth, I swear. If I try to childproof it by saying "Oh Shipwreck" instead of "Shit", it just doesn't have the same effect.  Sorry. And in return for my awesome vocabulary, my oldest kid also swears.  (It is utterly amazing that my middle hasn't picked it up yet since he does so many other wacko things)

So our big new is really my back. Many people have asked about it, which I appreciate, but it gets tiring telling the same story over and over. One Saturday, when R. was working, my lower back started hurting. I didn't think anything of it.  On Monday, I started to get sciatica.  Once again, no big deal really.  That night after putting the kids in bed, I sat down and I had nerve pain shoot down my left leg to my foot. I thought laying down would help, but it didn't. The pain only increased and, all drama aside, I would have cut my leg off just to make the pain stop. Actually, I did ask R. to cut it off and at one point asked if I was dying. I have recovered from 3 c-sections, but the pain was nothing compared to the nerve pain I had that night.

Thankfully, we have a friend (Dr. C) who is a spine and pain specialist in town.  A great friend to have when a situation like this comes up. He squeezed us in the next day and quickly confirmed that aside from nerve pain, I also have foot drop. We thankfully got an MRI that evening, thinking that all this must be due to a bulging disk.  Instead we found out that I have a congenital back defect called  spondylolysis. At 34, I found out that I am missing a small piece of my vertebrae. It may have broken off at one point, or was never there.  My thought is that because of the gap the size of the Mississippi river on my MRI, I am guessing that sucker was never there.

Thankfully because Dr. C is anti-surgery, we have been doing a full court press. I have had 2 steroid injections into my spine, Dr. C's personal inversion table delivered to our house to use, and I have been going to PT twice a week for a month.  I am happy to say that the pain is better.  But pain alone isn't a marker of success and my foot drop remains.  I still have difficulty raising my foot and toes.  Sometimes I lose my balance when standing.  If walking too fast, I feel as if I may trip.  Walking in grass makes me nervous because it is so uneven.  Due to all this, Dr. C thinks that I should have surgery and we have an appointment with a neurosurgeon on Wednesday of this week.  The surgery I would be getting is a spinal fusion.

So needless to say, shit is about to get real in a few days. A spinal fusion has a pretty good recovery. For one, I get an awesome brace. Secretly, with metal to enforce my body and awesome armor, I may be turning into the next bad-ass super hero.  My kids better watch out! Mom 2.0 is coming.  Next, I am told there will be no lifting, twisting or bending for a while. This is either incredibly hard for a stay at home mom whose JOB it is to do all those things and get stuff done, or it could be the best news ever.  I actually have permission to sit and not do a thing.  Lastly, I will be in the hospital for a few days. Sadly I found my previous c-sections to be like a vacation since there was a T.V.  I am equally looking forward to getting my fill of crap T.V. All kidding aside, it is going to be hard and we can think we know what to expect, but we won't until we are in the thick of it.

Many have asked how they can help.  I am in the process of making mental lists.  Oh, how I love a good list, even a mental one.  Some of you know what I am talking about. Anyways, I am assessing our needs and will let you know.  I really appreciate the out pouring of help over the past 2 months.  This has been so unexpected and has effected the 5 of us in different ways, but we are blessed to have such great friends and family and humbled by the support.  Please know that all of you that gave rides to our kids, made us a meal, cleaned for us or did laundry...it was appreciated and we thank you.

I will be posting often to keep you updated, and process what is going on me.  I may even throw in a crazy kid story or two.