YEAR 2 UPDATE from Tim's dad: December 17, 2007
My name is Jeff and I am Tim’s Dad. I wrote an update last December 11, 2006 and I told Tim I would write an update in his honor every year near his surgery anniversary on your website for as long as I can, so here is my update for year two post-op.

Tim is now 15 years old, a sophomore in high school, and has grown to 6’2” tall. I sometimes kid him about how tall he would be if his spine wasn’t fused from T4 to L1. He is working hard at school and is doing good…..well, not so good in geometry….but he is trying to do better, and that’s what is important. He got braces on his teeth this summer and he hates them! We did a lot of hiking and fishing last summer around Mt. Hood in Oregon. We also started playing a lot of tennis, and he is planning to go out for the tennis team this spring, but it’s hard to get a lot of practice in winter in Oregon because it rains so much. Tim still loves to play basketball but he is mostly just playing for fun these days in pickup games with his friends, and not so much in organized team ball.

Tim has had a tough time putting on weight and building up his strength and endurance, but he is trying and knows that will just take more time. The thing you learn about spinal fusion surgery is that all the timetables you read and see about recovery time, and all the things the books say you should be able to do within a certain number of days or weeks after surgery are just rough guidelines. Tim is almost two years post-op, and he is still working to recover in some small ways.

His back never hurts or bothers him, but his strength and endurance are slow to progress, and it is still hard for him to sit for more than about 90 minutes (one class period in school) without getting some muscle pain in his leg, so he almost always needs Advil to get through the day, but a year ago, he couldn’t even go 45 minutes without bad pain……so it is getting better.

He has also had a hard time gaining weight back, which has been made even harder because of his braces (sometimes hurts to eat) and the fact he has grown so much in the last two years…..about 8 inches! That’s what I mean, some things may take months and years to get over completely, and you make slow progress in some areas, but Tim knows he is always getting stronger and never going backwards. His Mom and I would tell you not to put time pressure on yourself to reach specific goals after your surgery, because everyone heals and recovers differently.

Tim is a really nice guy and he has some great friends who have always supported him. His teachers all say he is a good kid and that he is great to have in class. His Mom and I are very proud of him (except when he won’t do his homework!).

UPDATE from Tim's dad: December 11, 2006
My name is Jeff . I am Tim's Dad. He has his story on your web site from his surgery last December, 2005 (see below). This Friday December 15th will be the one year anniversary of Tim's spinal fusion surgery, so in his honor, I wanted to write and tell you how he is doing.

Tim turned 14 last March and is now 6 feet tall. When he had his surgery, he was about 5'6" tall. The surgery gave him about an inch and a half of "instant" height, and he has grown another four and a half inches in the last year. Tim's back is doing great. He just had his one year check up, and his surgeon, Dr. Kit Song at Children's Hospital in Seattle, said everything looked perfect. It hasn't been easy, and he still has some issues with leg pain (of all things) when he sits for a real long time, but physical therapy and stretching he did this summer helped.

Tim started high school this year and has been doing a lot of walking, hiking, and bike riding, as well as playing basketball and tennis. He will also be learning to snowboard this Christmas with his "old man" up on Mt. Hood in Oregon over Christmas break. He continues to work on his strength and endurance, but it is a long road. He began playing organized basketball again last month and was surprised at how quickly he got tired. His friends and teachers have been really supportive, and especially helped him get through the really tough part when he first went back to school last January. I think he has been surprised to find out how many other kids (and teachers) at school have gone through the same thing with scoliosis and back surgery.

I am so proud of him and how hard he has worked to get strong. I look forward to the time when he totally forgets that he even had scoliosis surgery......maybe he never will, but that's OK. He feels good now about having had the surgery and always talks about helping other kids who are scared and going through the same fears he had before his surgery. He is growing up to be a good, honest, strong young man who will do great things with his life. He is the bravest person I know.

TIM'S STORY

Hi, my name is Tim. I am 13 years old and I had scoliosis surgery (or spinal fusion) about 15 days ago.

I live in Oregon. My surgery, however, was done by Dr. Song at Childrens Hospital in Seattle, Washington. My family and I first discovered that I had scoliosis about 7 years ago, at a normal checkup doctor appointment. At that time, my curve was only about 30 degrees. But unfortunately, as I grew the curve grew worse.

When I was in 5th grade, My scoliosis doctor at that time, Dr. Kenen, discovered that my curve had grown to about 42 degrees at one of my every-4-months checkups with him. Now I officially had scoliosis, he told me. But then at the end of 5th grade, my family decided to move to Washington, and my new back doctor would be Dr. Song.

I liked Dr. Song a lot. He was laid-back, easygoing, and relaxed me about the whole thing. He was also very conservative, and told me that I didn't have to have surgery now or for a while, but at the rate I was growing, surgery was probably in my future. He was correct.

In August, 2005 my family and I moved back to Oregon. But since we liked Doctor Song so much, we decided to keep him as my back doctor. After many appointments in 2004 and 2005, my curve steadily grew worse. Finally in an appointment with Dr. Song in early September 2005, Dr. Song told me that my curve had grown to about 64 or 65 degrees, and that I had to have surgery. My surgery was dated for December 15th, which made me sad because that was right before Christmas.

In my pre-op appointment on December 2nd, one of Dr. Song's assistants and a nurse told me more about what was going to go on. I was scared. No matter what anybody said to me to try to make me feel better, I was still really scared. It just seemed so overwhelming to me, and I often wished that it wasn't such a big deal.

I was dreading December 15th greatly. When we took the car ride up to Washington on December 14th, I felt trapped. There was no way I could get out of it now, I thought. The doctors wanted us to come at 6 a.m. the next morning to the hospital and report to the surgery center. The car ride there in the morning was one that I will never forget. I could hardly breathe I was so scared. When we got out of the car, my dad handed me a basketball to make me feel better, and we walked inside.

The next thing I knew I was in the surgery center, in a little tiny room that my dad called the "nervous room." It didn't have a door, just a curtain, and all the doctors that would be assisting doctor Song, and of course Dr. Song himself came in and said hi to me. I was still extremely scared, so a nurse gave me some medicine to relax me before I was wheeled into surgery. It helped me a lot.

I was wheeled into the operating room, which frightened me because it was so big and there were so many doctors. But I fell asleep before any of the preparation even started. The next thing I knew, I was in my own hospital room, and my parents were sitting and talking. My surgery was over.

For the next 4 days, I slowly got IV's out of my veins, the cathedar out of my bladder, and I started to feel better each day. The pain was not as bad as I expected. My nurse always asked me to rate my pain on a scale of 1 to 10, and most of the time it was a 1 to a three, the highest was a four, and sometimes I even had none. That part I was relieved with because that was part of what made me so scared. I thought it was going to really hurt, but all I had most of the time was a little discomfort and soreness.

On the second day I was sitting up, on the fourth day I walked a loop around the floor that I was on and walked up a flight of stairs. It felt great to be able to do that. It exhausted me though, so as soon as I got back to my room I got back in bed the way that the physical therapist had taught me to. My walking consisted of baby steps and slow movements, but I was so glad I was able to. The next day, the doctors decide that I could go home. My family and I were delighted. My grandfather had offered his motor home (which had a bed) for my to ride back on, and it was a great Idea.

It is now December 31st, and I am doing great. I had my first public outing the other day, at the library, and I was even able to bend my knees and kneel on the ground to look at books. My post-op was yesterday (another 4-hour car-ride) and an assistant took my bandage off. It hurt a little, but it felt great to get it off. Now I am at home recovering, and I am so glad it is over. But I have to say that the whole experience was not as bad as I expected.

I know this story might not help those about to have it, I know that no story could make me feel better about the whole thing, but trust me, when you wake up after surgery, you'll feel really good about it and it probably won't hurt as bad as the whole thing makes it sound like its going to. I am now completely off pain meds like oxy-conton and I have been for almost a week. I spend most of the day reading and relaxing on my bed but I also take walks every day, and I get up a lot to do different things. I am able to do more things every day. The first few days at home I wasn't really able to sit up that well or for more than a minute, but now I am able to sit up for a much longer period of time and I have been able to walk for longer periods of time as days go by as well. So just remember, no matter how scared you are, it will all be worth it in the end.

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