Author Archives: tuthillce

Hello blog world! As I continued to recover from surgery, reapply to jobs, get hired, and work the last three months, I lost the thought entirely to continue to post on this blog. I hereby apologize and hopefully my small base of readers will remain loyal once this post reinvigorates interest.  I was trying toContinue reading “To Walk a Mile in Someone Else’s Shoes”

I’ve spent a long, long time thinking about how I should write this post. Discussing my experience with surgery comes fairly easily…except the piece which involves narcotic painkillers. For the purpose of this post, narcotics, painkillers, and opioids will be used interchangeably to mean prescription narcotic pain medication.  Throughout my life I have had plentyContinue reading “The Best and Worst Medicine has to offer”

No bending, no lifting, no twisting. No bending, no lifting, no twisting. For the past three weeks this mantra has been circling my brain like a shark around prey. It’s the “BLTs” of back surgery recovery (the medical community is obsessed with their acronyms). These are my restrictions for a minimum of six weeks. TheseContinue reading “Twist and Shout”

I wanted to share a post I wrote for just myself in January of 2020 while recovering from my original fusion surgery. It will hopefully give you a glimpse into the power and importance of love and relationships in my life while also referencing some scary experiences caused by narcotic withdrawal; both are topics IContinue reading “A Blast from the Past”

There is a phenomenon in the human condition where the brain purposefully suppresses or “forgets” the trauma or physical pain of an event. If we let our brains remember the exact sensations of a painful experience just by thinking about it, then we would never engage in those types of experiences again, even when necessary,Continue reading “Suppressed Memories”

It’s the last Sunday before the big day. In just two short days I’ll wake up in the morning, drive to my venue, put on that gown, and smile at my parents as they watch one of the most important days of my life…the day I have an L5/S1 lumbar fusion surgery, obviously.  My nameContinue reading “The Big Day”