SQJ Taipei

I’m pasting this letter that I just sent out to a mailing list of people who support our work here in prayer. I wanted to make sure people who read the blog but aren’t on that list get the scoop, too.

I’d like to update you a little about my back surgery. Angie has mentioned it in other updates, but before I go in the hospital I wanted to write and give a few more details in case anyone wants to know for whatever reason.

About 10 years ago, I was helping someone move some stuff… I can’t remember who. It was in Joplin and I remember moving a piano, but the rest is unclear. I don’t remember actually hurting myself, but the next day I couldn’t walk. The day after that I could move VERY slowly and with MUCH pain in my back and down my right leg to my toes. I was able to see a doctor maybe the next day or so and promptly failed all the tests he gave me regarding strength in my toes and leg, etc. He ordered an MRI which I was able to have done rather quickly.

When I went in to see the doctor for my MRI report, his first statement was, "I’ve never seen anyone walk in with that big of a herniation." I figured that meant that my problem was major and surgery would be the next option. However, he suggested that I try some pain meds and muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory drugs. These worked very well and although I wasn’t pain free, I was able to function and so continued on the meds for a while. After a refill or two I began to think that I didn’t want to be on these drugs all my life so I thought I’d stop to see what the pain was like without the drugs. It hurt, but not like before and I was able to find ways to deal with the pain… hunching my back a little… stretching… whatever… several little things.

A few times over the years my back has hurt to the point where I had to just lay flat several days and then it seemed to be OK… which means it was constantly painful, but I could live with it. I kept hearing that if you can "stand it" (the pain) that you should hold off on surgery. That is what my original doctor said and also others with back pain. It seemed reasonable to me except that I often wondered if this was really how a 20-30 year old should experience life. I mean… I could take it if I needed to, but these days, did a person really need to deal with so much pain?

During my time in Taiwan, I talked with at least 3 doctors about my problem. I won’t go into the details of these visits, but for the most part they said, "Well… you walked in here so you must not be hurting too bad." I’m truly not sure if my pain tolerance is low (or high) or if I’ve just gotten used to living with this back problem, but they were wrong about my pain. There have been some days better than others, but the pain is always there and it is often just shy of unbearable. I really didn’t know what more I could do. If you *should* see doctors and you go see them and they send you away… what more can you do? Keep being patient and trying to endure, I guess. So I tried.

We’ve prayed about this problem for years and trusted that God was neither confused by nor unaware of my situation. Actually, I believe that it is that understanding that has allowed me to persevere all these years. When we returned to Taipei in the fall of 2006 after our last Home Service, we were going to move to a new area and help some Taiwanese brothers and sisters start a new church. We had put all our "stuff" in storage and needed a temporary place to stay while we found a permanent apartment. Our friends Bi-ling and Qing-hong knew of a family who might have a small apartment available for such a purpose and inquired about it. In fact, it was available so we crashed there for several days. The family who owns the apartment is from Hong Kong and came to Taiwan years ago as missionaries. They were doctors and dentists and used their practices as deliberate outreach opportunities. In fact, Bi-ling and Qing-hong both came to know of Jesus through one of their dental clinics. The brother and his wife are now doing similar work in another country, but the sister is still in Taiwan. She came to see us and the apartment when we were moving out. We really didn’t know their family story too well at that time so we started with some small talk and then came to discover that she is a neurologist. AWESOME! I didn’t want to just unload on her about my back… but I took her office information and said I’d be in touch if my back got worse.

Well… my back didn’t really get better or worse… but this summer I talked with my friend (and our old forwarding agent) Dan Toney. Turns out that he had back pain similar to mine and waited and waited… like I have been doing… and then discovered that a leg muscle had atrophied to the point of I guess what you would say is paralysis. It just doesn’t work. For the first time, I began to see that my problem wasn’t just about "if I can stand the pain" as I’d been told by several doctors and others. This fall, we called Dr. Jo and I went to see her about this problem.

I’ll again spare the details here… but she ran no small number of tests over the next few months… cutting edge blood tests… physical therapy… nerve conduction tests… MRI… and more. The tests confirmed what she suspected… my chronic back pain was severe, was limiting my body and mind, was causing serious weakness in both legs, was probably causing some upper back pain and headaches, and that surgery should help. She referred me to a surgeon that she trusted.

I saw Dr. Shi (actually pronounced "shr") 2 days after Christmas and after talking with me and looking at my MRI pictures… it was OVERWHELMINGLY OBVIOUS to him that surgery was a great option for me. He sent me to get another xray so he could see exactly where the bones were… but after seeing it, he was ready to schedule surgery.

{WARNING: SCIENCE INFO BELOW!!}
The MRI and xrays confirm that my L5 and S1 vertebrae are almost touching… um… that’s not normal. There is supposed to be a soft cushion in between… but that is the part that herniated and over the years has just kept squishing and flattening and spreading out… and rubbing the nerves in my spine and causing swear words to enter my mind - although they don’t pass my lips!

Here’s the plan… he’ll cut a small incision (1 or 2 inches) in my lower back… find the ruptured disk (it will most likely have a few pieces) and remove all of it that he can find. Then… he’ll sew me up and I should be pain free (in my legs) when I wake up. It normally takes 30 minutes for this procedure, but most people only have herniation on one side… mine is BOTH! I’m special! So it will take about 1 hour. I’ll recover in the hospital for 4-5 days… then can come home, but need to take it easy for a while and wear a protective belt. There is no need for any special rehabilitation afterwards, but I’ll need to strengthen my back muscles and try to regain full use of my leg muscles that have been weakening all these years. If you are curious about the bones touching… well… we were too. Turns out it is fine and since the bones are already almost touching it will mean a much easier recovery since they don’t need to try to deal with a big gap once they take out the herniated disk. I’ve heard people get shorter as they get older… but I wondered if it was to happen in your 30s. I’m shorter by 1 inch than when I came to Taiwan… now I can clearly see why. Interestingly, my friend Dave had back surgery (way bigger than mine) and he gained about 3 inches since the doctor was correcting a severe spine curvature.
{SCIENCE INFO FINISHED}

I’m not sure the exact time of the operation, but will be at least fairly early… maybe Monday 8AM… that’s Sunday night 6PM if you are in USA Central Time.
People ask me how I’m feeling about this… Angie tells them I’m more excited than the kids on Christmas morning. I’m not sure she’s wrong… but it seems like "excited" isn’t really the right word… but it may be. I’m not excited to get surgery, stay in the hospital, miss work, be a burden to people, OR have someone messing around with my spine. However… I’m VERY EXCITED at the prospect of having this situation dealt with finally. So… I guess it is like most things in our lives here in Taiwan… a paradox.

I certainly don’t think there is reason to WORRY about me and our family. The doctor is capable, I’m ready, Angie’s kinda OK with it , the kids are fine, and Angie’s mom is here to help. Our church will also go "above and beyond" if needed.

However… I do request your prayers. We should pray for God to be glorified in our lives so that’s what I ask you to pray in this case… but of course you will want to pray as the Holy Spirit leads you to pray.

{A LITTLE MORE SCIENCE FOR YOU}
I’m attaching a picture from my MRI that shows the problem most clearly. You’ll see s side view of my spine and when you know what to look for, you’ll see the problem immediately. A problem like mine literally "jumps off the page" to a person trained to look at these pictures. There is actually much to see… but the most obvious is this: The spine should follow a nice curved shape… if you drew a line along the edges of the bones you should see a smooth curve. My back looks great up top… but when you get down to where the arrows are added… you can see that the bone below where the arrows point is pretty far out of line… totally ruining my smooth curved shape. I’m talking about my spine, you know. You can also see the disk bulging out from between those vertebrae on top and bottom (L5 and S1) like a marshmallow squished between your fingers. There’s the problem… probably pretty clear to even the untrained eye when you know what to look for. The vertebrae below my injured area resume the smooth curve.
{SCIENCE CLASS OVER}

I’m gonna send/post this to our prayer group, the blog, facebook… maybe other places. Sorry if you see it a few times… I guess I just want to make sure that the people who we keep in touch with in all those ways will hear about this. If you are in Taipei, feel free to some see me at Chongshan Hospital on the southeast corner of Dunhua and Renai roads - the big circle. Unless there is a major problem, I won’t be pathetic in the hospital… just need to stay there to make sure everything is OK. I’m hoping Zach will let me borrow his new game, Memoir ‘44, to have in the hospital if any guests come. I won’t make you play, but we can.
I’m not sure if I’ll have internet in the hospital or not… I’d guess YES… but don’t know. I’ll definitely try to be in touch afterwards.

Grace and Peace to you.
SQJTaipei