Lines That Will Last A Lifetime.

Off fashion and back to my injuries for a post!

 I've finally been able to take the dressings off my arm which obviously revealed a disgustingly long scar.

 Everyone deals with scars whether they're the tiny ones on the back of your heels from a truly treacherous night out or huge purple lines from surgery, we all know what they are and they affect everyone in different ways.

 Although I've had the two on my back and side for a while I've learnt to be ok with them as people don't see them. However, this is more than noticeable to the public and similar to when I was wearing my back brace, people do comment and that doesn't help massively with my self esteem. The amount of times I've repeated the story of what happened is too many to even count! But as my mother still chirps, 'you're lucky to be alive', so it's something I will live with!

As you can see from this huge unattractive purple/red line my arm operation was a serious one at that. After five months I had the surgery and now I am able to move it, which being the first time since February has been amazing. 

I'm not saying it's easy because it definitely isn't. 

Obviously as it's me, I've had more problems with numbness meaning I have no feeling in my fourth finger and little finger, which makes it very difficult to grip anything. I will hopefully be having nerve testing done in the next few weeks to find out what the problem is but at the moment me and my amazing physio are dealing with it the way we can. Swimming for the first time last week was a great way of getting movement back into my arm and shoulder and I love it.

  The scar runs from my shoulder to my elbow and there are a few little dips and marks caused by that. The surgery involved me having a metal plate ranging the entire length to hold the bone together; thirteen pins and one big plate altogether. 

Extremely weird when you think about having metal inside you, and it is rock solid when you squeeze, so fingers crossed nothings going to be breaking that!

This scar runs down the centre of my back and was from my first back operation. In that surgery a metal rod was attached to L3 in the spine to where to bone had broken and also crumbled into pieces. Although I couldn't move for three weeks after this it was bad but not as bad as the second.

This scar runs all down my side.

 This was my second back operation after the rod has collapsed. In this operation I had a cage fitted into my spine where L2, L3 and L4 had collapsed due the rod not supporting them enough. I honestly don't know how surgeons manage to do what they do, especially when its such a huge job.

Similar to the feeling lost in my arm I still have no feeling in my left leg which is extremely odd but after this long we very much doubt it's going to return which is unfortunate but liveable. 

I've had physio since I left hospital in March and I don't know where I'd be without it (or my drugs!). Seeing where I was back in hospital in February, I have come pretty far with learning to do most things all over again over again. I do the weirdest things in physio such as I have my arm in a big bag of iced water that compresses, electrodes into my legs and acupuncture in my back and legs, but I'm willing to give anything a go to get better.

 As they say no pain, no gain.

Yes I struggle everyday with little things, one of them being moving from one side of the bed to the other, which is really frustrating.  I still can't put socks on without sitting down. I can't put knickers or trousers on unless I'm leaning against a wall or lying down. But I'm getting there. 

A big step for me last week was being able to move back into my bedroom upstairs. After returning from hospital we had converted the downstairs office into a bedroom as it had a bathroom next to it and I couldn't' get up the stairs. 

So moving back up has been pretty huge for me. 

I know I ramble on but I do like to write about what's going on with me a few times, obviously about how I'm doing because I've had amazing comments from it and a lot of love from everyone. 

So hope you've enjoyed reading.

eci.x