Today Lou got the results of her MRI by the head of Rehab at Hendrick hospital. She has a collapsed #3 vertebra with fractures in it. It is collapsed 50%. The solution to have vertebroplasty or kyphoplasty, both inject a quick setup plastic that stabilized the fractured bone. One uses a balloon insert to lift the bone before injecting the plastic material. We have called Dr. Vechtel, the surgeon in Fort Worth who did this same surgery for Mary Kathryn's mother and she got immediate pain relief. He also worked on Mark (I think it was his shoulder) and they were pleased with him. We left a message on a recorder and are waiting for a call to schedule a meeting. Other options were to let nature heal the break, but Lou said the pain is too excrutiating to wait the more than three months for nature to heal. That would also require an uncomfortable back brace. The good news was no comment about this being a result of cancer, an offhand comment that has caused a lot of mental stress after going through cancer treatment.

We celebrated by eating at the Lytle Land and Cattle Company Steakhouse along with the cutting horse contestants. Ken and Dixie Welch were eating with her parents plus a couple of I think her sister's beautiful young daughters. Both her mother and sister were competing in the contest. We talked to Ken about how cowboys handled fractures and they just continue to work, because, like my son, they are in pain all the time anyways. Lou is using Tylenol and the generic Norco when the pain gets too bad. She walked to the highway this morning, but the pain has made her decide to quit walking until she has surgery to remove the pain. From the sound of the weather forecasts, I may not be walking for the next several days if it is icing.

For more info look at http://www.spine-health.com/topics/surg/vertfract/vertfract01.html