Today is our “Father’s Day”, the day I celebrate my Husband who exactly a year ago today, took a leap of faith and decided to have spinal surgery. Our son was not even a year old at the time, but he knew it had to be done for him to be the best Father he could be. He was in so much pain to the point where he couldn’t carry his infant son, couldn’t lift him out of his crib or play with him on the floor. This was when he told me, “I’m having the surgery”.
He lived with his chronic back pain for many, many years after having played football. Before we had a baby, it was always something he just learned to live with. My Husband is the type of person that will fight thru anything and hide his pain, just to put a smile on my face. He never let his pain get in the way of doing anything; from flying for work or a simple walk around the neighborhood with me, he would just do it and never complain. It wasn’t until I saw his x-rays that I semi understood the pain he was going thru. He had two herniated discs in his lumbar spine; one was completely blocking his spinal canal and resting directly on the sciatic nerves. He now tells me that even something as simple as eating or sneezing, caused him excruciating pain.
As we signed the hospital papers and knew the potential risks of this major surgery, we put our faith in God’s hands. We did our research and found one of the most amazing doctors I ever met, Dr. Alex Gitelman. Dr. Gitelman allowed us to exhaust all our options before advising to move forward with the surgery. He was always so patient in answering all our questions and never once did we feel pressured from him to do the surgery. After a lot of research, physical therapy, second opinions and multiple cortisone shots that did not work, we knew surgery was the only option.
Thank God, the surgery went well. He had difficulty waking up from the anesthesia but once he was awake, he was already up and walking within the first 12 hours. It was the greatest feeling in the world to see him up, walking and smiling knowing the pain was instantly gone. Although it was still a long recovery we knew the worst was behind us. What a true blessing and a huge thank you to Dr. Gitelman.
Post Op was an intense six-week recovery period, but the Doctor said he would not be fully healed until at least 6 months to a year later. For the first few weeks, he ate standing up, he had trouble lying in bed and obviously couldn’t pick up anything heavy, including our son. Surprisingly, his recovery was a lot quicker than we thought and he was back to his normal routine before we knew it.
Now, I can gladly say, my Husband is the best version of himself. He goes above and beyond now mainly because he simply can. There are so many times out of habit I tell him ‘don’t lift this’ or ‘don’t do that’ worrying about his back, and his reply is “I can finally do it without pain, I’m doing it!” which is like music to my ears.
Today not only marks the one-year anniversary of his surgery but also our baby girl’s One-month birthday and we are one month away from our Son’s second birthday. Eric is now able to hold both of his babies at once! God is good!
