WOW...

  The past two days, Monday and Tuesday have consisted of 4 total doctors appointments and 2 x-ray sessions. Today we went to the Southeastern Neurosurgical Spine Institute where Scilla met for the first time that she remembers, Dr. Hodge. Dr. Hodge is the surgeon who performed the surgery on her spine. Before seeing Dr. Hodge he ordered x-rays and the radiologist, poor thing did not know what to do with my sister, luckily Greg and I were there! Greg and I had to put her on the x-ray table, flat on her back and that was VERY PAINFUL, poor thing was in tears (which we have seen a lot of lately!). After lying flat on her back, Greg and I turned her onto her left side, which again was painful. The x-ray lady was really apologetic. After slowly lowering her back on to her back, Greg and I sat her up and started the transfer into her chair.

    Once back in the room, Dr. Hodge viewed the x-rays and allowed us to see them also. He said everything looks good and stable. We were able to see where the metal rod and screws were placed, she has a fusion T6 -T10; the actual fracture occured at T8 for those who know a little about medicine. He did see some compression at T11, but that was there before surgery, so for now he is satisfied with how everything looks. As long as her spine is stable, he is satisfied. He also showed us the before x-ray and we saw her spine, lying in two pieces with shattered pieces all around it, it was really bad!

    Of course Prissy had some questions. She wanted to know why she wouldn't be able to walk again if her spine was fused or put back together. He explained that her SPINAL CORD was completely severed and that is where the nerves and such that send messages to the brain from her lower torso are located and because of the severance, there is no communication between the two. While her SPINE is the boney structure that supports the body and the purpose of putting her spine back together was so that she would be able to sit up  and support her body.

   Because she is having a lot of pain, Dr. Hodge is sending her to pain management at Upstate Rehabilitation to see if she can get some relief from the pain.

"Walking in faith..."