Kristin - Spondylolisthesis Story (Multiple Slips)
For as long as I can remember I've had back and neck pain. When I was little my mom worked at a rehabilitation center and from time to time during the summer I would go to work with her and help do filing, or run little errands so that she could get her major work finished. One day, one of the therapists came to me and massaged my shoulder for a little and commented that my shoulder was, "too tight for being so young." I was probably eight or so at the time. That was the first time I can really remember noticing it (the pain & symptoms associated with the Spondylolisthesis).
A couple of years later, when I was playing softball, I woke up with virtually no range of motion in my neck. Needless to say I went and played in my game that day. I loved softball, so nothing was going to keep me from playing.
In school I had been teased for the way I walked to the point where I went to the doctor. He told me I had flat feet, was going through a growth spurt, and told me to wear different shoes. In the meantime, I'm hearing it from my family about my poor posture. I kept telling them it hurt too much to stand up straight. Naturally that fell upon deaf ears. It was "growing pains."
A few years ago, after I moved to Tennessee, I had lifted something I shouldn't have at work, and felt a "pop" in my spine right between the shoulders. It's something that bothers me to this day.
Come last year, my back was so unbearable that I finally decided to go get it checked out. There were seven vertebral slippages: Two cervical, three thoracic, and two lumbar. My doctor also found that my L3, L4, and L5 are missing the transverse processes (what he called a "genetic malformation"), and there is no disc between the L5 and S1. The lower lumbar are also fused to my pelvis on the left side; later diagnosed as Ankylosing Spondylitis. I don't have the grade of slippage because, to be honest, I was getting hit with all this all at once, and along with everything else going on, I didn't get all the information. Also from that meeting with my doctor, he told me that if I planned on having children I could put myself in some danger. The pressure on the pelvis could cause I possible fracture. GREAT.
I'm not getting treatment for any of this for a few reasons. Right now I don't have insurance, and don't qualify for the lax Medicaid in Tennessee. After seeing my dad suffer with cancer and having to get bi-weekly infusions, I have reservations.
I don't know what the future holds right now; I only know what's going on in the present. And in the present, I'm having a lot of pain. I have days when my back feels like it's on fire. My spine is tender to the touch in certain places, and from time to time I have trouble walking because my feet feel like dead weights.
- Kristin
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| Kristin's Pre-Op X-Ray with Multiple Spondyo Slips |
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