Life After Spinal Surgeries

September 17, 2025

As I sit here at 1:08a.m. To be exact, I wonder what my life would be like if I didn’t have these back problems, if I never ever needed these surgeries in the first place. Everyone thinks that, “ Oh you’re just in pain, it’s no big deal, get over it.” What they don’t see is the struggle as to if they can get out of bed today and be productive without causing yourself more pain. Wondering if they might be able to do something with their family for once, instead of constantly letting them down, laughing and joking with family and friends to hide the tears. The fear of disappointing your family and friends, never being able to make plans because you don’t know how your body is going to react today. 

I wish more people understood instead of judged, I wish more people had a bit more compassion towards people like me, who suffer daily and just want to be normal. It’s a chore just to do the laundry!! It’s a chore to go to the grocery store!! And no I don’t have thoughts of self-harm or anything like that, it is just depressing not being able to do the things that you want to do. I have been struggling with this back pain for 12 years now, I have had four spinal surgeries, three just this year alone, and I am tired. I am pretty sure I am going to have to have more surgeries down the road, or I will end up unable to walk and be bed ridden. 

I have been needing two-X-rays and a CT Scan done for months, but it cost $445 to get those tests done. Thankfully our pastor at church reached out to someone and they’re going to help me pay for these tests, so my surgeon can see exactly what is going on with my spine. It does feel like my hardware is messed up because sometimes when I move I can feel it and it’ll hurt to breath. I have no clue why I am up so late tonight, I usually take a sleeping pill, but when I take it I wake up way later than what I planned too. 

I guess I better try to get some sleep, my pastor is coming by in the morning, and I have to get some things done before he comes and I at least need 5 hours of sleep. 

September 9th, 2025 

The Picture is what my back looked like after my first spine surgery. I thought it was infected, thankfully it was not. The staples ended up healing into my skin, so they had to really rip them suckers out. I know the picture doesn’t look that great, but I like to share my whole journey with you all, the good-and-the bad… Always remember that no two people are the same, what didn’t work for me, just might work for you. The next image of my stomach, where they opened my back up, put in the hardware and screws, then flipped me over to do the second surgery, which they had to do from my stomach. They take everything out, push stuff aside and reach the spine that way. As you can see it is cut higher than C-section, I can’t feel the bottom of my stomach at all when I touch it.  All they did was put glue on it and went on about their day. I woke up in so much pain and they couldn’t get it under control. I ended up staying just one night there, showed them that I was able to walk and went home. I told them I would rather be at home where I can be comfortable, the doctor did tell us that I would still have pain because a screw broke off in my spine.

 Fast forward to May 29th, 2025 an I need yet another surgery on my SI joint, he needed to go in through my hip and put three screws into my SI joint to anchor it into place. This last image is of them going into my hip to reach that SI joint, when I got out of this surgery I as able to go home the same day, they put me on muscle relaxers and my same pain meds. The muscle relaxers they gave me, I had an allergic reaction to, I broke out in hives all over my body, my incision site was flamed and red and so itchy. When I went to pain management they gave me a new muscle relaxer and guess what happened? I broke out in hives again. 

Today: 9/9/2025 UPDATE: I am in severe pain, worse than it was before all these surgeries. I see so many that had great results from these surgeries, they get their life back and can do everything they want. I am so happy for them, because I wouldn’t wish this pain on my worst enemy. My pain management doctor added a pain patch to my regular pain meds, I tried them for two months, even upped the dose, and still no relief. So now I have to take a pain for film and add it to my cheek every 12 hrs to help manage my pain. And since 2 days after my last surgery in May, they cancelled my insurance so I cannot get any help and have to pay out of pocket for the meds. I am just at a loss and wish that I could get some relief, I knew the surgeries might not work, but I am feeling helpless. I have never shown these images from surgery to anyone because I don’t like show anything on my body. I will update you more as things go on. One last thing, I have to have X-rays and a CT Scan done to see where all this extra pain is coming from. And those tests are $445 without insurance.