It's been a while. We were using my phone without any external mics. Sorry for the audio. We ordered some lavalier mics.
Host: Hi. Hello, and welcome back to the show! It's been a long damn time. A long time. Uh, some things have transpired since the last time we talked to you, so bear with us. You may have noticed I am in a much different chair. This is my mobile throne, if you will. So what we were originally told were back spasms and muscle spasms that would go away in six weeks did not go away.
Co-Host: Turned out to be thoracic myelopathy, which just means that she had an infection in her spinal column that kinda destroyed T7 and T8. Well, it destroyed T8.
Host: It was working—almost...
Co-Host: It was working on T7... It was munching away on T7 and working its way, I don't know if it was up or down the thoracic spine. Either way, thanks to the quick thinking of Dr. Hansen Bo at UCI Orange, she got into surgery within, like, three hours of him getting her scans and her paperwork and everything. Did the surgery, a laminectomy on her spinal column, T5 through T10. Took care of that. Took out the infection, put in some rods and some screws. Please pardon the noise. We're outside because she finally has freedom!
Host: Freedom!
Co-Host: She's not in her brace anymore, so that's good.
Host: Yep, no more brace. We're happy about that. I'm not limited on how far my head can be up.
Co-Host: Hold on. And we're back.
Host: Okay, so I'm not limited on how high my head can be up when I'm laying down. I don't need to use my brace... Oh, I'm sorry, it stopped. I'll have to stitch this together later in post-production.
So today is the first day with no brace, which means I did physical therapy with no brace. I did occupational therapy with no brace. I am in my wheelchair with no brace, and it's okay. I was a little apprehensive, a little scared out of my mind, but, you know, I had that brace on for so long, it was kinda hard to say, "Okay, I'll stop wearing it," but I did.
Co-Host: Thanks to the amazing physical and occupational therapists here at the rehab facility she's at in sunny Southern California. The team here is nothing short of amazing. They make sure that they're not pushing her too quickly, not pushing her too far, so everything is controlled and measured. They know what they're doing here, so we have absolutely no complaints whatsoever about Jacob and Arnold. So thank you, guys, if you ever come across this podcast.
Like I said, we haven't done this podcast in a while because she's been on her back and in a hospital room, so I thought today would be a good day to catch us up.
Host: It was very hard. I spent six weeks in the hospital on my back. When I would have therapy, it was basically just sitting on the edge of the bed trying to understand where my center of gravity was, and being able not to have to depend on somebody to put me back right when I was falling backward or whatever.
I was told one of the future things I'm gonna do in physical therapy is they're gonna have me sit on the mat in the therapy room—
Co-Host: Ooh...
Host: —which means they would lift me out of the chair, put me onto the mat, and have me sit there, which is a little daunting. But the one thing I never wanna do is I never wanna say, "I can't do that," because I've always told my students there's no such word as can't. It's, "I can't do it yet."
Co-Host: Growth mindset!
Host: The second you say you can't do something, your brain switches off and says, "You know what? You can't do that." So am I apprehensive? Yes. Am I anxious? Yes. Am I nervous? Yes. But I've done things in therapy that I didn't think I could do. Like today, I was holding on to the bar, and I was in my wheelchair, and they wanted me to lift myself, like trunk lifts. So basically lifting my back off of this chair and going forward. At first I thought, There's no way I could do this, and once I got it going, it's like, You know what? I can do this. I've used heavier weights than I thought I could actually do, so it's just little, little gains every single day.
Co-Host: Very nice. She's kicking butt. She really is. I've never once heard her say, "I can't do that," or, "I'm not gonna do that," or, "I'm not even gonna try." So we here at the podcast are very proud of our warrior, 'cause she's kicking butt and taking names.
Host: Now, do I cry sometimes through what I have to do? Yes, and I told my occupational therapist, "Let me cry through it. If I start crying, don't stop me. Let me do it." There's absolutely nothing wrong with crying. Sometimes that's just your body saying, "This is too much crap. I need to unload it somehow." So you gotta get it out. Crying is perfectly fine. Just don't give up. Never, ever quit.
Co-Host: Nope. Never, never give up, never surrender.
Host: That's right. That was something that he wrote on his message board for me in the hospital, and I would wake up every morning looking at that and telling myself, "You know what? That's right. I'm not gonna give up. I'm not gonna surrender. I'm not gonna let this define who I am."
Co-Host: And no matter what her new normal is, we're gonna adapt to it... And the new normal could change by the week, by the month, it could change by the day. Someday her spine is gonna wake up and say, "Oh, I'm supposed to be working all this time." And then we'll work through that, and we'll get her legs working again, and she'll be up and running down the beach.
Host: The one thing that I especially love about Dr. Bo and his team is never once have they told me that there's no chance, never once have they told me there's no hope of recovery. So as long as nobody tells me there's no chance of improvement, then there's still hope.
And I just got attacked by an avocado leaf!
So that's what I cling onto. With everything I have done with regards to Relay For Life, I know how hard those people that have and are battling cancer work. I know that there are things that they probably have a tough time doing sometimes, and I see how strong they are, and I'm drawing my strength from their strength.
So what else? I think that covered all the major things. We didn't want you to forget about Coffee & Cuddos. We're still here. We're still kicking and screaming. Some days it's not worth fighting to get the straps off, but you gotta do what you gotta do. And we're gonna keep kicking butt.
So thanks for listening. Thanks for being our loyal fans. Your mileage may vary. We love you all, and God bless.
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