Personal Stories: Traveling Through Time via Yu-Gi-Oh As A Result of Two Surgeries

When I was 16-17 years old I went to an endocrinology appointment and my Doctor noticed that something wasn’t right about my posture. More specifically that my shoulders were curved. I ended up having to see a spinal specialist and after some tests, I ended up having to undergo a spinal fusion to correct what went wrong with my growth spurt. The way it typically works is that you simply get taller, what happened to me was a bad omen. Instead of simply getting taller what happened was my spine went up and curved which ended up with me being diagnosed with the trinity of back problems (kyphosis, lordosis, and acute scoliosis). I was told that if I didn’t have surgery to correct the problem I would have become a hunchback which didn’t fit my style at the time so I went ahead and had the surgery in June of 2011. Before I had the surgery I still had to go to school and I was forced by both my doctor and parents to wear a back brace which made me feel extremely embarrassed and feel like a loser at the same time.

So what ended up occurring was me going to the local hospital and underwent the spinal fusion and for those who are lost I will simply tell you what happened. I was wheeled into the OR (Operating Room) and was given anesthetic and the next thing I know I wake up and am surrounded by my family along with my aunt who is a nurse and I’ll be honest about this, the first thing I did was puke. Afterward, I was drifting in and out of consciousness and I woke up and shockingly got up out of bed and was walking around the hospital room I was in which was a big shock to the nurses on my floor seeing as how 5-6 hours earlier I had very serious surgery done and here I was walking around like I had minor surgery. Not just that but my spinal specialist said I had come out of the surgery with flying colors. Not just that but I had actually grown to about 6 feet tall after the surgery. The only downside is that I had a scar from my upper back going down all the way to my lower back. It’s been nearly eight years but I still have remnants of the scar but the following picture shows me eight years ago after my second spinal fusion (don’t worry I lost a good amount of weight from then to now) (I’ll get to that later)

To be specific I had two titanium rods put in my spine and nearly 30 screws put in my back and I’m not even at surgery number 2! So after the equipment in my back nearly broke my back due to the weight of everything I had to go back into surgery in early August and man, did things feel weird. During my combined two weeks at the hospital, I needed something to escape to when I eventually got home. Enter YuGiOh! It had been a source of escape when I was a socially awkward youth back in the very late 1990s to early 2000s. I had all the handheld titles ranging from the Dark Duel Stories game for the Game Boy Color to the Yu-Gi-Oh GX games on the PSP. But as I got older I became distanced from YuGiOh and tended to stay away from the shows and games as I felt too old to play or watch anything YuGiOh related. That all changed in 2011 after my spinal fusions, I needed to once again escape from my pain, my torment, and my bout with a stomach virus that was both bothersome and tiresome.

That video is my “Let It Be” so to speak. When I find myself in times of depression, sadness, and other bad feelings I watch that video and feel better almost immediately. This led to me ordering Every YuGiOh game released for the Game Boy Color and Advance and a crap-ton of Yu-Gi-Oh! Cards from the first series era. For something as old as YuGiOh it felt like the closest thing possible to return to my childhood and the days where I would talk, play, breathe YuGiOh with my friends. To quote the song, “No Matter What Let The Games Begin, No Matter What May The Best Man Win.”