To begin with, my memory is a little bad. I can’t remember a lot of things but I can tell you what I do remember about one very important memory of mine. My Back surgery is one of the most important memories of my life.

It all started when I was five. My mom took me to my physician for my five year check up. The doctor asked my mom about my bathroom habits, she told her that I was constipated all the time and nothing helped. As the doctor did a full body exam she happened to see a fatty pocket at the base of my tailbone. This came to a concern for her and she told my mom that it might be a problem.

Therefor, my physician referred me to a neurosurgeon at Nemours A.I. Dupont Hospital.

On a Wednesday in 2006 my neurosurgeon did an MRI. When the results came back the Friday of that same week, my mom immediately got a call from Neurosurgery. The doctor found that I had a tethered cord and a small tumor on my spine and they needed to operate as soon as possible. The doctor told my mom that if they didn’t do the surgery soon and the tethered cord breaks, I could be paralyzed. They quickly scheduled my operation for that Tuesday.  

Six days after my MRI, I had my surgery. Everyone says I was brave that day but in reality I was so scared. Luckily, I had my mom, my dad, and my grandparents there with me to give me a lot of love and support. After the doctors took me into surgery, it took about five hours. When the surgeon came out to talk to my mom, he said that I actually had two tethered cords and one was indeed about to snap. He also said that he couldn’t get all of the tumor because is was in a difficult area of my spine.

Post operation, I spent one week in the hospital. Not to mention, for the first two days out of that week I wasn’t able to move. Although, eventually, I was able to get up out of that uncomfortable hospital bed to stretch my legs and it felt so great to be able to move again. As that long week ended, I was finally able to go home. Two weeks after being at home, I was doing fantastic. I was able to run again and I was even growing faster than I was before. Everything was healing the way it should be. Over the course of the next five years, I had to have routine check ups to be sure that nothing was growing back but everything always came out normal and i haven’t had a problem since.