Removal

I put the phone down, and sat down. If I’d have had any brandy in the house, I would have necked one, despite me knowing that it would be bad to have booze breath on the school run.

The hospital had called with an operation date. The three month waiting list turned out to be a bit of an overestimation, and a cancellation has bumped my daughter up the queue.

The metal in her spine is being removed (I don’t know what titanium fetches at the scrap yard, but the NHS needs all the funds it can get). The titanium rods and bolts that were fused to her spine seven years ago, providing the scaffolding for the bendy bones to knit around and straighten up, are coming out. The nerve pain they’ve been causing should disappear along with them. And her posture shouldn’t be affected - the rods did their job a long time ago and are basically redundant. I feel like I should send them for re-training and give them help with writing their CV.

It’s December 11.  

I’m calm. I am.

I’m not.

Song is Patty Griffin - Hurt A Little While

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Straight

People who can make stuff have my utmost respect.  People who can create things. Who can fix things. Most impressive of all are people who can fix people.

The picture I’ve posted today is the best example I can think of.

Have a look at these screws and trust me when I say they are very, very, carefully positioned. These have not been Black & Deckered into some rawlplugs and then given a hefty thump with a hammer to make them flush.

No. These little babies have been meticulously placed, to within an ‘nth’ of the spinal cord. I use the term ‘nth’ as the exact measurement escapes me. It was a ‘somethingth’ of a millimetre. Close enough to make me feel faint.

These are what have hoiked my daughter’s spine back to an angle which can medically be described as ‘still a bit wonky but by God a hell of a lot straighter than it was’.

It was a spinal fusion operation. After these rods and bolts were fitted, bone was laid over the scaffolding and given the chance to fuse with her spine, so it has now 'set' forever, at this new, improved angle.

This is what is inside my daughter’s back. This is what has stopped her spine continuing a deadly curve that would eventually have harmed her internal organs and started to crush her lungs. 

This is a genuine, 24 carat gold (well titanium), unequivocal, it blows my mind every time I consider it, will you look at the size of those bolts, they’re sticking in her spine for God’s sake, how the hell do they have the balls to even do that, the air conditioning failed in the operating theatre you know, seven hours it took, I have never been so frightened about anything, MIRACLE.

Did I mention it was free on the NHS?

Video is The Stranglers - Straighten Out