The Back Saga

A couple of my favorite Murray girls (hey Tiff and Michele!) asked what happened to my back after I posted my x-ray, so this post is more for them since a lot of you have already heard this story. So, here goes.....

We believe the original injury occurred one winters night while I was visiting my sisters house. She is known far and wide as having the most dangerous front steps in all of Springville, as I first found out. It was quite the fall. One of those cartoon falls where my whole body went up in the air and landed right on my BUTT!! Kami said the entire house shook when I fell. I'm not sure I should have admitted to that.....oh well. I knew that I broke my tailbone but didn't feel any other back pain until a few years later. When we were moving from New Jersey back to Utah my lower back just started hurting. Not from picking up any specific heavy box or anything, I just think the combination of moving things and herding kids and the stress and everything caused the disc to just bulge and break and put pressure on the nerve. It went on hurting for a few months before Andy finally made me go check it out at the doctors. After a bunch of doctors appointments I finally got an MRI that showed a huge herniated disc. I am no doctor and I even looked at it and knew something was wrong. I was referred to a great back specialist who told me that the disc was dead. Gone to heaven. No life left in it. Meaning, no liquid left in the disc. The only thing to fix it would be surgery. I don't know about you, but I've always heard the one surgery to avoid is back surgery, so I was a bit apprehensive about all of it. I knew the pain wouldn't get any better (even after I started physical therapy) and someday I would need the surgery, so I figured I'd get it over with while I was young and healthy.
So, a year after the pain started I went in to remove the disc (which the doctor said was so bad it was in pieces!), put in a spacer to fill in where the disc was, put a couple of screws and rods in to hold it in place and I was finished! I was back taking care of the kids full time 2 weeks later and only went to physical therapy a few times before she said I was all good!! There is still some pain, mostly from stress and the fact the kids keep me running all day, but if I lay down and get some rest it's managable. On my last appointment with the doctor the only question I had to ask was "Can I go water skiing this summer?". The doctor said yes. THAT, my friends, is a happy ending!!!