Mother will be having back surgery tomorrow here at the University of Virginia Medical Center. I was puzzled that it was postponed from Thursday till Saturday because she wanted to think about it. That's not quite right. There are many things that have to be checked out - such as the medical team who decides if her heart is strong enough.

If she gets no treatment, she'll just get worse and worse and worse and the lower back vertebrae could all collapse.

The surgeon met with Ed and me to show us the MRIs and explain what they're going to do. He also called Phil and Phil talked to Mother several minutes because she had said earlier she didn't want the surgery. She's very afraid of the pain after surgery and they've reassured her that they'll be using all sorts of things to fight the pain. Her RN today is a bit older and has been really wonderful with reassuring her.

I was impressed with Mother's smart question: "Will I be able to bend to pick up things from the floor?" They said she would. Finally, she agreed.

In layman's terms: There is a small fracture that shows a little piece of bone that's sort of hanging in the spinal canal. One of the disks has burst and that "jello" type liquid is also leaking into the spinal canal. They will be clearing out the "debris" and putting in screws with 2 rods that will hold the vertabrae in place. They won't know how many vertebrae will be included until they get in there.

The doctor explained to Ed and me that this is no small surgery. The surgery itself will last about 5 hours. She might be in neo-intensive care for a day or so if needed. And she might be here about a week.

They have 4 main goals:
1. To decompress the spinal canal.
2. Push the fracture back or remove it.
3. Fuse as many vertabrae as needed with 2 rods
4. Preserve the function.

Mother's scared and I'm not looking forward to it either - I just hope they deal with the pain as well as they did after Ed's heart surgery. I feel reassured about being here at U.Va. Medical Center with all their resources. Her surgeon is Dr. Mohamad Khled and her nurse said he's the best. I thought he would look foreign but he doesn't. I've googled but haven't found much: http://www.healthsystem.virginia.edu/internet/searchweb/home.cfm?s=+Mohamad+Khaled&st=people&Submit=Search+People

Please send a few extra prayers for her!

p.s. There was not an infection in the spinal canal.