Seriously Twisted

 

When a spine gets seriously twisted, it's called scoliosis. When the lumbar and sacral spine get so seriously twisted they squeeze the nerves that go into the legs, it's called neurogenic claudication. These are common ailments that afflict habitually seated people and those who carry a heavy pack on one shoulder. 

In other words, me.

A neurosurgeon has finally figured out that these two conditions are the cause of a few of my health issues, particularly the problem of my feet and lower legs being paralyzed after about ten minutes of standing or walking. Now he wants to open up my entire back and screw with my spine. Literally! He's going to shave the arthritis off the vertebrae and screw them into place, plus clear out the shifted deposits that are crushing the nerves.

Am I scared? Heck, yeah.

If you've followed this blog, you know my health has been messed up for a long while. The stress fracture in my knee is healed after 4 long months, but there's still pain there. My heart continues to pump more blood than it can receive, so I'm still having trouble breathing when I do any kind of work or exercise... except for writing, of course, where I sit all day long reading, researching, editing, and composing, which contributes to the claudication and scoliosis.

This has led the orthopedist to try a course of a powerful level of prednisone to calm all the inflamation. What I didn't know is that steroids not only mess with the heart, they cause a seriously ugly rash on people who are prone to rashes (e.g., me) called perioral dermatitis - yup, "a rash around the mouth." No one knows what causes it, but evidently steroids trigger it and exacerbate it. So here I am with my heart beating like someone threw a drum set down the steps, and my chin covered in tiny red bumps.

It interferes greatly with writing, let me tell you!

But in other news, the seriously twisted decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Dobbs v. every woman in America inspired the amazing collection from Speculation Publications called Incubate. Now that we've had a year to see everyone-but-men's gender rights steamrolled, I want to call attention to this book again. A woman was bleeding out in a hospital parking lot and could not be treated for her miscarriage. A ten-year-old rape victim had to travel out of state to get rid of the rapist's baby. Transgender teens have been denied the treatment that will allow them to settle into their bodies. Bounty hunters have reported their neighbors for miscarrying babies at home and cleaning up the mess, leading to felony charges of "abusing a corpse." 

If that isn't seriously twisted, I'm on the wrong planet.

Go read Incubate. You'll see what grows from rage. It's a good book, with great stories.