Interesting development--this is good

Brace yourselves
In the trail of paperwork that is now flowing from Dr. Hostin's office to me, I noticed that one of the documents was called "surgery info without bracing."

Without bracing? I e-mailed the patient coordinator I'm working with at this point (there are two of them that work with me at different stages of the process) to ask if this means I will not have to wear a brace.

I've never heard of anyone going through this surgery and not having to wear a brace. I'm going to ask on SSO (my support forum) if they've heard of it. Typically, a person wears the brace almost immediately after surgery and for the next four months while doing everything except lying completely flat.

My patient coordinator said this:

At this time Dr. Hostin feels like you will not need a brace after surgery. The younger a patient is and/or the smaller the fusion, the likelihood of needing a brace goes down. You are still young enough that you heal more quickly than someone in their 50’s plus your fusion is more in your upper back and doesn’t have a lot of weight bearing pressure. Once you get sitting up in a chair and then walking after surgery, if you feel you might like the added support of a brace, we can order one for you then.

My thoughts on this
I'm happy about this because it makes me think that this may not be as hard on me as it is for a lot of other people. (Don't jump to conclusions here--I know this will still be one of the hardest things I will do in my life.)

At the same time, I'm a little scared about not having the support, but it sounds like if I get too worried then I can get one at anytime. Not a bad deal.

So, no yucky white body armour for me! This will be potentially a little less socially awkward for me. Woo-hoo!