Thorough Explanation of Chelsea's mom's situation

Chelsea is my new daughter-in-law. She is married to Jon our youngest son. They were married in October and her mom, Janna and I hit it off right away. Janna is a vibrant and sweet lady and her pain is shared by all who care for her. I asked Chelsea if I could post this on my blog. It is such a good explanation of what is going on with her mom. It is rather lengthy, but worth the read. Please continue prayers on her behalf.

from Chelsea:

"My Mom, has been having several surgeries because of Idiopathic Scoliosis. That disease, is passed thru generations, usually skips one (grandma has it, then it goes to the grandchildren) in my family's case it was my mom's Grandma, then her, then me (the skipping generations did not occur). Also, of all the people who have scoliosis only 1 out of 7 are boys, the rest are girls (this is y i got it, and not my brothers). She had her first surgery in her early teens, and has had several several more (20+).

Over ten years ago, mom had surgery on vertebrae L1 (L stands for lumbar, meaning lower back). When she had this surgery done, one of her lungs was punctured and 2 of her ribs were broken of and taken out. (i thought it was so cool when i was young, because i could see her heart beat thru the hole where ribs were no longer there). I used to think that she had such a pure heart, that i could literally see her heart thru her skin!

Then, during the summer of this year, she had another surgery to fix a pinched nerve (vertebrae L3 and L4) that was causing her lots of pain. The surgery had apparently gone well, but a couple of days later, when she was not healing, and the doctors took the stitches out and the incision reopened, they discovered that she had a very bad infection. They took her into emergency surgery, scooped out all of the infected tissue, put a catheter thru her heart to pump antibiotics and after 3 months, it had seemed to gone away.

Now the problem is that,she went to the hospital because she could not take the pain any longer. Doctors took blood and found that the infection came back. To know more about the origin of the infection, they did something called a "Bone Gamaeotomy," which is dying all of her bones ~ the die is one color with healthy bone and another color with sick bones. They found that ALL (L1, L3, L4) vertebrae were infected. Looking back at her past history, they dont know if the infection started with the surgery of L1 and just now surfaced, or if it happened during her last surgery of L3-L4. The doctors don't know how to begin treating her because they dont know the origin of the infection.

Usually what would happen: The doctors operate again, take all of the plates and screws from any previous surgery, and leave the spine unstable (very painful~ no walking for several months, just bed rest).

the problem: her back is waaay too unstable, and while doing the surgery, they would have to puncture her lung to undo the L1 surgery, and take out completely vertebraes L3 and L4. Most likely she will die if this is done.

What is being done: she is being pumped with very potent antibiotics, trying to get her as strong as they can, to fly to the US and have surgery.

I hope that for everyone wondering what is going on, this is a good explanation. Please keep praying for her!!!!"