I visited my surgeon today for my preop appointment. It was re-scheduled from Friday, so I had to go alone. Things were not too bad, but I started a migraine headache in the office and I am still in the throws of it now. I think it was because I could not take any pain medications all day. I couldn't read the list of questions or even dial the phone so I could have my husband in on the conversation.

There was good news from the visit, however. My surgeon explained that he would only fuse 3 vertebrae to correct the position of the neck so it is not pushing against my throat. This will hopefully elevate the unending pain in my arms. Swallowing will probably be worse for a while due to movement of throat during the surgery. He is also hopeful that some of the migraines will be reduced. The nerve pain will need a long time to recover, but he is hopeful that this will also improve.

The surgery is scheduled for only 2 hours and he said that I will only need to spend one night in the hospital. The recovery should be quick as well. He said that recovery from my C1-C2 fusion would take a year (I am only 6 months out from that surgery) but this one is only one month.

He is going to do the whole surgery from the front and will not cut any muscle. I should not need to wear a hard collar either.

This is great news on all fronts. I had heard from my pain doctor that this surgery would be more invasive than my C1-C2. I could not imagine anything being more painful than the recovery from that procedure, so naturally I was very nervous. I do hope and pray that all the surgeon said today will be correct. I knew that the C1-C2 fusion would not get me out of pain. It was a procedure to help save my life. This surgery is different in that it is not life-threatening, but pain relief.

There is other good news. I finally made contact with a social worker. She is in a new position at Children's. She covers families with chronic illnesses. Within a couple of days of our first phone call, she had tracked down a clinic at Children's that specializes in treating children with special needs. This clinic's website description was a list of everything that I had been praying for during the last year and a half. This center looks at the whole child and the whole family. I had been saying all along that the 13 different doctors and therapists that we see only address one aspect of our children. Too many times the advice we would get would be contrary to what a different department would say. This led to confusion and frustration on our part. With the help of this clinic and it's resources, appointments could be coordinated so that we don't need to go to Children's multiple times a week. They could set up a "care conference" between all of the doctors so that there is consistency in their care. This clinic also has social workers that help the families with organizations that can help the family as well as dealing with insurance companies.

The social worker did warn me that there is usually a 2-3 year waiting list. She gave me the name of one of the nurses at the clinic. She would decide if we would even be eligible for the clinic services. When I spoke to her, she had already heard about our family from our new social worker. I explained more of our situation and she said that she would get back to me at the end of September or beginning of October. I thought she meant she would give me an answer as to if we would be accepted. She explained that we were already accepted and this would be the first opportunity to schedule an appointment. I asked her of which year and she replied, "This one, we can see you in a couple of months."

When I heard that, I began to cry. I felt such a weight had been lifted from my shoulders! In the last year and a half I have done nothing but work on coordinating care for our family and my mom and now I have a resource to go to for help!

It is almost like a dam breaking and we are finally going to get some rest and peace. I know that God's timing is perfect. Just when I thought I should yank the whole family out of the endless stream of medical issues and go it alone, God sends down an answer to a prayer.