Hello Friends, On November 20, 2008, 11-year old Laura walked into her first spinal fusion surgery. Reflecting back on the last 15 years, I’m filled with conflicting emotions – grief, triumph, loss, compassion, frustration, sorrow, anger, loneliness, hope. A lot has changed in even just the last five years. At the 10-year anniversary in 2018, Continue reading

Hello friends! I wanted to give a quick update, since tomorrow I will be 3 weeks post-op! My surgery went smoothly, and thus far, so is the recovery process. What did they actually do? I know my post-op x-ray above isn’t as clear as the pre-op one – I had a wound-vac and staples in Continue reading

Hello Friends, My surgery is scheduled for one week from tomorrow. How I feel about it changes day by day, and sometimes hour by hour. Overall, anxiety and fear probably come up most often, with occasional bursts of hopefulness, and a chronic mild dread. I wanted to give you all an update on what I’ve Continue reading

Hello friends, Earlier this month, my neurosurgeon and I decided that the best option for pain management at this time is another revision surgery, which is scheduled for the end of September. I suspected that this was coming, but still it’s been a lot to process. I’ve tried to write this post a couple of Continue reading

Hello friends, It’s been a little while since I’ve written, and to be totally honest, that is because the next of the mindfulness attitudes, gratitude, took me some time to wrap my head around. When I first considered gratitude in terms of my relationship with pain and my scoliosis journey, I felt annoyed and frustrated. Continue reading

Hello Friends, Over the past week, I have tried to be more aware of moments when my mind is engaging in unhelpful comparisons or hypothetical “what-ifs” in my process of grieving. Through this, I realized just how much of a default mode these comparisons are for me. In these moments, I tried to practice a Continue reading

Hello friends, This past week, I have tried to be more intentional about doing things just to do them, without any expectation of the outcome. I have gone on walks around the neighborhood, done body weight exercises, and played on my keyboard while singing along, just for the joy that these activities bring me. Of Continue reading

Hello friends, Reflecting on last week’s post about trust, I wanted to mention briefly how incredible grateful I am for the people who I have in my support corner. Allowing myself to feel my feelings around other people isn’t always easy for me, but I am so appreciative to have friends and family who are Continue reading

Hello friends, I’m not going to lie to you all, it’s been a really challenging week for me, physically and emotionally. I am in a season of my life of a lot of changes right now, and new and unexpected things keep coming up. Pain has been running high, patience low, and anxiety off the Continue reading