Episode Details

It's been a while. We were using my phone without any external mics. Sorry for the audio. We ordered some lavalier mics. 

Host: Hi. Hello, and welcome back to the show! It's been a long damn time. A long time. Uh, some things have transpired since the last time we talked to you, so bear with us. You may have noticed I am in a much different chair. This is my mobile throne, if you will. So what we were originally told were back spasms and muscle spasms that would go away in six weeks did not go away. 

Co-Host: Turned out to be thoracic myelopathy, which just means that she had an infection in her spinal column that kinda destroyed T7 and T8. Well, it destroyed T8. 

Host: It was working—almost... 

Co-Host: It was working on T7... It was munching away on T7 and working its way, I don't know if it was up or down the thoracic spine. Either way, thanks to the quick thinking of Dr. Hansen Bo at UCI Orange, she got into surgery within, like, three hours of him getting her scans and her paperwork and everything. Did the surgery, a laminectomy on her spinal column, T5 through T10. Took care of that. Took out the infection, put in some rods and some screws. Please pardon the noise. We're outside because she finally has freedom! 

Host: Freedom! 

Co-Host: She's not in her brace anymore, so that's good. 

Host: Yep, no more brace. We're happy about that. I'm not limited on how far my head can be up. 

Co-Host: Hold on. And we're back. 

Host: Okay, so I'm not limited on how high my head can be up when I'm laying down. I don't need to use my brace... Oh, I'm sorry, it stopped. I'll have to stitch this together later in post-production. 

So today is the first day with no brace, which means I did physical therapy with no brace. I did occupational therapy with no brace. I am in my wheelchair with no brace, and it's okay. I was a little apprehensive, a little scared out of my mind, but, you know, I had that brace on for so long, it was kinda hard to say, "Okay, I'll stop wearing it," but I did. 

Co-Host: Thanks to the amazing physical and occupational therapists here at the rehab facility she's at in sunny Southern California. The team here is nothing short of amazing. They make sure that they're not pushing her too quickly, not pushing her too far, so everything is controlled and measured. They know what they're doing here, so we have absolutely no complaints whatsoever about Jacob and Arnold. So thank you, guys, if you ever come across this podcast. 

Like I said, we haven't done this podcast in a while because she's been on her back and in a hospital room, so I thought today would be a good day to catch us up. 

Host: It was very hard. I spent six weeks in the hospital on my back. When I would have therapy, it was basically just sitting on the edge of the bed trying to understand where my center of gravity was, and being able not to have to depend on somebody to put me back right when I was falling backward or whatever. 

I was told one of the future things I'm gonna do in physical therapy is they're gonna have me sit on the mat in the therapy room—

Co-Host: Ooh... 

Host: —which means they would lift me out of the chair, put me onto the mat, and have me sit there, which is a little daunting. But the one thing I never wanna do is I never wanna say, "I can't do that," because I've always told my students there's no such word as can't. It's, "I can't do it yet." 

Co-Host: Growth mindset! 

Host: The second you say you can't do something, your brain switches off and says, "You know what? You can't do that." So am I apprehensive? Yes. Am I anxious? Yes. Am I nervous? Yes. But I've done things in therapy that I didn't think I could do. Like today, I was holding on to the bar, and I was in my wheelchair, and they wanted me to