Today I’m doing at-home blood collection for the CORALE V IBD Study! In June 2021, I signed up for the CORALE V IBD Study to learn more about antibodies and the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines in patients with IBD. Since I have Crohn’s disease and know I have autoimmune diseases and use biologic/immunosuppressive medication like Stelara, I thought this study would be great to participate in considering we are living in COVID times and I’ve had my 3rd shot or booster. This study was easy to sign up for – Link below – and my at-home test was shipped almost immediately. The ..read more

If you guys remember, I was in a car accident on February 22nd. I had been worried about that happening since I had my ACDF surgery on my spine last August – it has been my biggest fear, to be in a car accident, rear-ended, etc. Now, it has been almost 3 weeks since the wreck, and I’ve had some neck and back pain, toward my right shoulder blade area. It has been lighting me up and super sore since the accident, so I had to reach out to the VA and my care teams.  I tried to connect with my Neurosurgery team, considering I was afraid of my discectomy and fusion being disturbed, but they had ..read more

Had to get another CT scan of my ribs for Dr. H. The cover photo for this post is an older CT scan – but you get the idea. I’m about 8 months post-op from my last Slipping Rib Syndrome surgery and I’ve already had my follow-up with Dr. Hansen a few weeks ago. We think that my lower ribs, 8/9/10 on my left side – are doing okay after surgery with the bioabsorbable plate and cartilage spacers. Now, that being said, we think there has been pressure pulling on the higher ribs and that I probably have a bridging cartilage fracture somewhere around my 5/6/7 rib area – last photo for reference. I thi ..read more

Happy New Year! – Now let’s catch up.  My last few posts were ACDF Surgery – 3 Weeks Post-Op & X-rays & Anterior Cervical Discectomy & Fusion – ACDF Surgery & Recovery and a lot has happened since then, so let’s dive right in. My 2022 ended phenomenally with friends, laughter and music. 2022 was one for the books and a year I will never forget. There was so much more happiness (and BMFS) this year than in year’s past and I’m grateful for that. Peep my 2023 planner with all the fun from 2022 on display! Now, I’m aiming to make 2023 even better. It has been 5 months s ..read more

Hooray for finally getting to see my new hardware! I was a little bummed last week when I didn’t have X-rays taken for my two-week post-op appointment. I wanted to see where the titanium was placed and what it looked like but they told me I would have to wait and get a set done by week 4 or 6. They had mentioned that they had taken some X-rays during my procedure – but I wasn’t seeing them in my medical chart, I could only find fluoroscopy images of pre-hardware. I checked my chart today to see if they had updated it – and there were two images of hardware from the ACDF surgery. It makes me ..read more

I have been on Stelara now for 4 and a half years! And man, this week has been busy. Not only did I post multiple blogs today, but I got to do my CORALE IBD study blood sample yesterday, and I’m 2 weeks post-op from ACDF surgery, too – which means I could finally take my Stelara yesterday! I haven’t had a Stelara injection since May, and with my ACDF surgery, I had to postpone taking my 29th dose. I had to wait 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after surgery to take it, leaving my body some time to heal before taking immunosuppressive meds. I can tell you, I know when my medicine is due because my w ..read more

If you look at previous posts, my neck and herniated disc have been causing me some pain, tightness, and, numbness down both of my arms and hands. Pre-Op – July 2022 I recently had ACDF surgery and I am currently 2 weeks post-op, so here is a catch-all post discussing pre-op, surgery, and post-op so far. (If you follow me on social media, you may have seen some of these posts and I may repeat myself a little.) I was really upset I had to do it, but I was going to need another surgery. Thankfully, this one wasn’t for my slipping rib syndrome or ribcage – but still disappointing nonetheless. Th ..read more

Today I’m doing my second at-home blood collection for the CORALE V IBD Study! Last June, I signed up for the CORALE V IBD Study to learn more about antibodies and the safety and effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines in patients with IBD. Since I have Crohn’s disease and know I have autoimmune diseases and use biologic/immunosuppressive medication like Stelara, I thought this study would be great to participate in considering we are living in COVID times and I’ve had my 3rd shot or booster. This study was easy to sign up for – Link below – and my at-home test was shipped almost immediatel ..read more

7 Weeks Post-Op and my side is still trying to heal. My incision had been closed after the hematoma draining and I thought it was good to go until this week when my body rejected one of the stitches. I know my body has previously rejected stitches with numerous surgeries and 7 weeks post-op seems right on schedule. I was getting ready for bed and kept feeling scratching near my side. Lo and behold, it was a long little stitch (with the knot intact) poking out of my incision. Suture rejection has happened so often to me that I have my own suture removal kit that the hospital gave me, so I got o ..read more

4 Weeks Post-Op (technically 30 days today!) and I had my 1 month follow-up with Dr. Hansen yesterday (virtually) for my 7th Slipping Rib Syndrome procedure. My ribs are recovering nicely but I’m still healing. See my previous post – Slipping Rib Syndrome – 7th Procedure. After my hematoma drained, the swelling has gone down and is no longer an issue. I still have to be kind to these ribs for another 3 to 5 months – there is no plan to use if this surgery fails. So, no bending over, no repetitive motions in my torso, and no crazy dancing for a little while still while I let these Slipping Rib ..read more