Marianne Kenney will never find it easy to make it through airport security thanks to the metal rods and screws inside her back.
Kenney, a sophomore computer science major at Stonehill College from Sudbury, Massachusetts, underwent major spine surgery last August that has not only made security checks interesting but helped her begin a long road to recovery toward a better life.
At age 14, Kenney was diagnosed with minor scoliosis in the shape of an S-curve where the top and bottom of the spine were curved like the letter S. From there, the scoliosis progressively worsened.
“When I was diagnosed, there was a fifteen-degree curve on the top section of my spine and a five degree curve on the bottom. By the time I had my surgery, the top curve was approximately 60.3 degrees and the bottom was 48.2 degrees,” Kenney said.
As a result of the scoliosis, Kenney struggled with basic tasks such as sitting, standing, walking, or riding her horse for long periods.
The pain and scoliosis was going to keep getting worse, so Kenney made the decision to get surgery to fix it.
The surgery was called spinal fusion, and it involved placing rods and screws next to her spine in order to support it into a straight position. The goal of the surgery was to reduce pain in the long-term and reduce the curvature, so it wouldn’t get worse.
“They had to cut open my back from my T2 vertebrae [just below the base of the neck] all the way down to my L3 vertebrae [the 3rd to last vertebrae from the bottom of the spine], which left only two or three vertebrae un-fused,” Kenney said.
It was a high risk surgery with a two-to-five percent chance of paralysis, a one percent chance of death, a 20 percent risk of infection, and a 30 percent risk of additional surgery.
“They placed sensors in my calf, thigh, foot, and a few other places that would check and make sure I wasn’t paralyzed throughout the surgery,” Kenney said.
On August 2, 2018, Kenney walked into surgery being 5’4” tall. Eight hours later, she was 5’7”, and her back was nearly straight.
Kenney spent the next five days in the hospital in intense pain.
Kenney spent the first day after surgery sleeping, and the second day after was when the recovery process began.
“The only part of my body I could move was my arms since everything else hurt so bad. When I woke up, I was terrified because I couldn’t feel my foot and thought it was paralyzed,” Kenney said.
As soon as they started giving her less medication, the pain was intense, Kenney said.
“There was lots and lots of crying because I was in so much pain. Nothing was comfortable anymore - I couldn’t even sit down or move without constant pain,” Kenney said.
Kenney also had to relearn how to walk after surgery because of the different weight distribution.
“I had to retrain my body and the muscles to put one foot in front of the other, so I didn’t fall down. I had to have people with me at all times,” Kenney said.
The majority of the rehab at the hospital consisted of practicing standing up, walking, and getting in and out of bed, Kenney said.
“I didn’t really have physical therapy. It was mostly just seeing what I could do and taking things slow,” Kenney said.
After the five days in the hospital, Kenney returned home, and it took about three weeks for her to be able to do normal tasks such as brushing her teeth on her own.
Kenney was told that she couldn’t lift, bend, or twist for six weeks after surgery and to get up and move as often as possible without pain. She was not given a specific rehab or physical therapy program.
“The absolute hardest part of the recovery was the limitation. I couldn’t pet my dogs or go downstairs to get a drink. I was completely reliant on my mother to give me my medications every two hours. It was hard to be so reliant,” Kenney said.
For Kenney, every bit of pain will be worth it in the end.
“Three weeks after the surgery, I knew it was the best decision of my life. I knew the pain was less, and I knew that I’d be so much happier. I knew the pain of the metal in my back would go away, but the original back pain would’ve never gone away no matter how much physical therapy or treatment I would’ve had,” Kenney said.
While she won’t be able to twist her back very much at all, Kenney said she is looking forward to being able to run, stand, ride, and do other things that she wasn’t able to do much of before.
“Sometimes going through more pain is worth it when in the long run, you’re capable of so much more,” Kenney said.
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