A hit from behind just before Raegan (Trapmore) Milani turned 18 didn’t just damage her vertebrae, it shattered her dream of playing university-level hockey.
“I was going around the net and I twisted in an awkward position,” says Milani, who played defense for the AAA Winnipeg Ice. “The other player cross-checked me and pinned me to the boards. She cracked my back and held me in a really awkward position. When she finally let up, I dropped right away and lost feeling in the lower half of my body.”
The feeling came back, but the pain in her back and right leg persisted through Milani’s twenties. Some days were tolerable, but even a sneeze could trigger an excruciating flare-up. She often used an arm crutch to reduce the pressure on her right leg.
Milani, an executive assistant, went years without the proper diagnosis. “The doctors I saw thought I had a pinched nerve and some torn muscles and felt that the injuries would recover on their own,” she says. “It was hard on me physically and mentally. I went from playing hockey and soccer at a high level to not being able to do anything. I went through my twenties just trying to make it through the day. It was life-changing.”
Life changed again—this time in a good way—when Milani went to see a pregnancy specialist. She and her husband Derek were considering starting a family and wanted to understand the risks with pregnancy given her condition. The specialist reviewed Milani’s history and suspected there might be a surgical solution to relive Milani’s pain after 12 years and referred the patient to HSC. The pregnancy specialist was right.
In April, two weeks after she turned 30, Milani underwent minimally invasive surgery for what was diagnosed as lytic spondylolisthesis—severe nerve compression caused by a defect in the vertebrae. Using new, advanced navigational equipment funded by the HSC Foundation’s Operation Excellence campaign, Milani’s surgeon was able to remove the compressive bone and stabilize her spine with screws and rods.
Thanks to the new equipment, Milani only needed five very small cuts and was on her feet in a day and discharged two days later. Prior to the arrival of the donor-funded navigational equipment, Milani would have needed a 12 cm incision and would have likely been in hospital for four days. Additionally, with larger incisions, there is significant pain for the patient and a higher risk of infection.
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