Faith is my Strength

This post is to inform my family and friends of what is occurring in my life at this time and what will be happening within the next few weeks.

Let me explain my problem.

In 1990 my son Billy and I were involved in a major car accident in which a large GMC truck crashed into us.  My station wagon was hit on the passenger side and once it hit us my son Billy was thrown towards me and I was crushed in between him and my driver door. The force of me being crushed in the middle pushed my shoulder into my clavicle and then pushing the clavicle into my 4th & 5th vertebrate. As this this crash occurred I also broke my side car window and the front window with my forehead.

 We were both taken to the hospital by ambulance and after intensive xrays they told me I had a light hairline fracture on the 4th & 5th vertebrate. Billy was not hurt and he was released right away and since they couldn't do anything for me at the time, I was released also. After I came home I felt a bit bruised but I resumed my daily work and activities as usual. About a years later I began to suffer some horrible pains on my neck, lower back and my left shoulder. The pain radiated down my legs caused by a damaged sciatic nerve, I also began to loose my balance from time to time, my vision began to get worse and the pain on my clavicle, neck & shoulder was tremendous. Working as a hairdresser I cried every time I blew dried some one's hair or did a permanent wave on them. That lifting of the shoulders to do this type of work made my pain worse.

 Looking for a Doctor to find out why I was in so pain took me 21 years.

I came across a Pain Management doctor and she discovered that I had 4 pinched nerves on my spine...2 pinched nerves on my neck (4 & 5th vertebrate) and the other 2 were on my lower back (L4 & L5). She then sent me to see my surgeon so he could relieve the pain I was suffering through surgery.

I went to see Dr. Sertich and after a good examination he felt that the pain on my shoulder had nothing to do with my neck and that it had to be something else. So he sent me to the Orthopedic surgeon to find why my shoulder was in pain.  Through xrays the Orthopedic surgeon discovered that my pain was being caused by a torn rotator cuff and from the crash the shoulder had been crushed into my clavicle crushing it into my neck.  This ripple effect has been there since the day of my car accident 22 years ago. He immediately scheduled my shoulder surgery and within 4 days I was under the knife to have it fixed. The Orthopedic surgeon pull out the clavicle from the neck, he then fixed my torn rotator cuff and pinning the shoulder to the clavicle with a titanium pin to hold it all together.  My shoulder and clavicle pain immediately disappeared.

Then once my shoulder got better my Surgeon took me into surgery to fix my lower back.  He put in (2) 4 inch titanium rods with 4 screws to hold my spine in place. My L4 & L5 vertebrate were collapsing off  my spine, pinching the 2 nerves as they were falling off. After that surgery I was pain free.

Since then my neck pain has blossomed to be unbearable, so two weeks ago Dr. Sertich (my surgeon) performed a Mylogram test of my neck and spine. This test did not display good news. The pictures showed that the 2nd to the 5th vertebrate are all bent over towards the left side..like Scoliosis. The 4 & 5 vertebrate are the worse pinching the 2 nerves in between them causing me tremendous pain. Those vertebrates are also clustered with arthritis spores. He now needs to clean all that arthritis out and he needs to install cadaver bones in between those vertebrates uniting them together with titanium plates just like he did on lower back. The seriousness of it all is that he has to do the surgery through the front of my throat.  So I will have a large scar on my neck. I will be recuperating for a long time (months) and I will have to use a neck brace or a halo steel brace around my head for about 6 to 8 weeks.

Sadly, he also found a cyst on the no. 4 vertebrate. He does not know what it is at this time but he said it is a cyst and until he exposes the vertebrate he cannot diagnose the problem. Hopefully its nothing malignant. He may also fix vertebrate no. 3...depending on how bad it is once he sees the vertebrates  closer and what ever else he may find there. Once he can see the spine face to face more clearer , then he will decide what else he may need to do throughout this surgery.
I have an extreme amount of faith and I know God will see me through one more time.

My surgery is scheduled for July 6 at Mercy Medical Center in Lorain.