The Injury

I posted on my IG account how I charged my implant in my back and in doing so I have had a lot of questions on it and how it works, how it happened, etc.  So I thought I would take a blog post and post it onto my website so people can better understand what implant I have in my back and why I have it.
In September 2013 I was on duty and playing hockey with the platoon as a pre work fitness game.  We had a lot of new recruits on shift that night and so as you can imagine it was a pretty competitive night.  Myself being only one of two females on shift we were even more competitive.

Long story short, there was a moment in the game where myself and another member were locked up and tangled sticks.  Neither one of us was going to let the other one pass.  Well physics played a roll and the stick broke.  And because the Irish in me didn’t want any luck to pass me by, I fell onto the broken blade of the stick perfectly between my glutes…..and then the other member who was male fell directly onto me, onto the blade of the stick…..

Yup, the stars aligned for me that night and I literally saw stars.  I ended up tearing my back end.  Tore all the muscles and tendons off the left side of my pelvis, jammed my sacrum, dislocated my coccyx and bulged L4 & L5.  Talk about OUCH.

I promise you I tried everything the offered for me to try to fix this injury.  I did spinal injections, cauterizing nerve endings, physio, chiro, acupuncture,  cortisone shots, internal floor physio, meds, pain killers, nerve blocks, back braces, exercises, you name it, I tried it.

Nothing worked.  I was getting some relief with pain killers but then I was numb all day and gained weight like crazy.  Prednisone was the WORST.  Helped the most but the weight gain is more debilitating than the injury itself.

I visited pain clinics, family doctors and finally I was referred to a Neurologist.  At this point I wasn’t able to sit flat for three years.  Imagine that for a minute.  Imagine car rides, walking, sitting, anything.  I was living in hell.

The neurologist mentioned this implant he highly recommends.  It was called a Spinal Stimulator made by a company called Boston Scientific.  Now the idea of this implant is to put two 16 gauge wires into my back along both sides of my spinal cord.  Attach these wires to a pace maker type box which is put into my flank.  Then control it remotely for pain management.  What it does is puts electrical impulses into my back which grabs onto nerves that align my spinal column.  In doing so, confuses the pain signals going to my brain.  So even though I still have the injury, I should be able to better manage my pain in my back with just this device.

Now to get this approved what a long process.  Including a psychological assessment.  For reals.  (Insert eye roll).  Not only that but I had to have a temporary wire placed into my spine for one week and carry the battery pack around my waist to see if it works.  All being placed while I was 100% awake.

 

As you can see they were only successful in getting one wire in.  And let me tell you, not a pleasant experience at all.  I wore this around for one week and could actually sit flat.  I was so happy.

Now after being finally approved for this surgery I had to get the courage to have the official surgery once again wide awake.

Well the surgery was quick and now the hard part, recovering.  The crazy part was they programed it in the recovery room and had it working almost as soon as I came out of surgery.

Now it doesn’t look so bad now but I promise you I’ll show you a few more post op photos to show you how much it swelled up.

OUCH!!  The pain I couldn’t even begin to explain.  I was a single mother when I had this surgery with no family in the country so just me and my kids.  I wanted to die it was so brutal.

 

Now you can see the incision lines.  Still really painful recovery but trying to stay positive at this point.  So much swelling and water retention.  I stayed on Keto to not gain any weight while taking time off from the gym.

It really took a full 8 weeks to feel back to me and being able to go back to the gym full time.  But looking back now, I am so grateful I went through with this surgery.  One of the wires ended up not working so I am only walking around with one functional and working wires but it allows me to sit flat and to be able to have an increased quality of life.

This is my implant and my remote control that I carry around that controls my implant.  I showed on my Instagram how I charge the implant.  I’ll upload it onto this website as well so you can see how incredible this device is.

 

 

Now since my implant was placed and I’ve recovered 100% I have been able to compete twice and been super happy with my transformations.

Just six months after my surgery I competed in my first bikini competition and placed 5th.

Then just a few 4 months after this show I competed again and won 1st.  This was that transformation.

 

Impressive isn’t it.  Now if you look closer you can see my implant.

There she is!  I try my best to glue my suit high enough so it doesn’t show but I get so lean you can actually read the serial numbers on my implant through my skin.

Well there you have it.  I am a true bionic woman haha.  J/K.  I am truly blessed to have this implant in my back to help me manage the pain in my back from my military injury.