I couldn’t have asked for better results from my visit with the specialist. And it’s such a blessing that the Lord led me to this lady. She had been highly recommended by a family physician in my Greenville church and by my chiropractor. The latter said that she is one of the best in the field. The specialist said that she gained tons of experience with back trauma during her residency. She also had the advantage in my situation of having an MRI to examine my back.
She noted that I have a burst fracture, not a compression fracture. The T12 vertebrae was squeezed like a marshmallow such that the height is lessened and the sides are bulging. But she said that since I am young, there is no reason to do the balloon kyphoplasty. My vertebrae will harden if I will just give it time and wear the back brace. Though it will not return to its normal size, I shouldn’t have posture problems. In fact, I can stand straight up right now with no problem; it’s the bending over that causes pain.
She also noticed a herniated disk in the lower part of my back. She said that it will never heal back to 100%, but it should return to 95%. She did not see any ligament damage, so there’s no need to worry about posture issues or lifting restrictions in the future. She does want to monitor my back to make sure that everything heals as it should. She will get an x-ray in 4 weeks and then see me again in 6 weeks after that. So, I need to wear this back brace for a total of 3 months—i.e., until around the beginning of May. Praise the Lord that I had this injury in the cool months!
She said that this type of injury is not incapacitating, so there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to ease back into my normal routine. I just need to avoid lifting things that weigh over 10 lbs and bending over. So my plan is to take it easy for these next two weeks in Greenville, return to Grand Rapids at the end of next week, and then pick up again with my normal deputation schedule. Praise the Lord that I had to cancel only 1 deputation meeting!
Thank you so much for your prayers. It appears that things have turned out much better than the original diagnoses. It’s such a blessing to see the Lord’s hand throughout this whole ordeal!
