Inspiring Woman Overcomes Risky Spinal Surgery To Lose 150 Pounds

MERIDEN, CT — As Emily Puglielli, 38, listened to her doctor describe a recommended spinal procedure, she feared she would not be able to move after the surgery, if she even woke up at all. She asked her doctor what could happen if she did not go through with it, and was told her spine would break in half and cause permanent nerve damage.

It was a sobering moment at a time she should have been riding high. Puglielli weighed 300 pounds only 18 months ago, but had managed to lose more than 100 pounds in a matter of months through strict dieting.

She was on her way to dropping 50 more and achieving her goal when she began to feel a severe pinching sensation in her leg, which doctors attributed to a more serious issue.

“It wasn’t very good news," Puglielli said. "They told me I had spondylolisthesis, which is where your vertebrae is sliding off of the one below it, or the one above it. They said it was already at the point where no kind of [physical therapy] or injections were going to help.”

Doctors advised she undergo a 10-hour surgery to correct these issues, the details of which which made Puglielli fear the worst.

“They go through the front of your body all the way to your spine," Puglielli said. "They gave me an artificial disk, they took a chunk of my hip bone and then they flip you over and go through the back, where they put in a bunch of hardware."

Surgeons inserted six screws and "a couple rods" into Puglielli's spine, which are still in her body today. After enduring the challenging procedure, the real hard part began: recovery.

“Recovery was tough," Puglielli said, "because you basically wake up and you’re kind of worse off than when you went in [for the procedure]. I basically couldn’t lift my left leg when I got out of the hospital.”

After enduring a grueling six months of regaining some mobility, surgeons gave Puglielli approval to develop a fitness routine. She sought out a trainer who could work with her condition at The Edge Fitness Clubs in Meriden, the first gym she had ever walked into.

“I was kind of at this point in my life," Puglielli said, "where I was either going to sit around and become a person who is on painkillers and not doing anything, or I was going to do something.”

She was set up with a trainer who had underwent a similar recovery after having neck surgery, who helped Puglielli "work her butt off" for three months in what became a life-changing period.

“It was probably one of the hardest moments of my life, just going in there and learning how to move again," Puglielli said. “My goal became more focused on how to touch my toes and tie my shoes, do all this stuff that I had to relearn how to do and less about weight loss. Then I moved on to doing stuff that I never would have though I could’ve done in my life even if I hadn’t had a broken back.”

Today, Puglielli is still doing things she never dreamed she could. She has competed in a number of 8-week Edge fitness challenges and just this month set a goal to climb Mount Washington next summer.

She has also ran in a number of 5K's, and is set to run another on Thanksgiving.

“It’s something I only dreamed of doing when I was really heavy, so to be able to run races is like amazing," Puglielli said. "I’m not super fast but I can do it.”

Though she has made remarkable progress since waking up from that 10-hour procedure, Puglielli has made a conscious effort not to get too comfortable.

“Even after you lose the weight, people are like ‘that’s great, you lost 150 pounds’," Puglielli said, "but then you have to keep it off. It’s constant work, being conscious of your health and fitness. It doesn’t stop, you have to keep going.”

Though her journey to this revelation was full of challenges every step of the way, Puglielli hopes her story inspires others to keep moving forward even when everything tells you to give in and give up; an uphill battle that has left her confident she can conquer a mountain.

“I know that it’s hard to live with a chronic condition and chronic pain, and that losing weight is not easy; it’s a struggle," Puglielli said, "but despite how hard it is every day, in the end it’s ten times more worth it than quitting. Success is not about being perfect, it’s about getting up again and again. So don’t quit because if I can do it then you can do it, anyone can.”

Images courtesy Mary-Catherine Citarelli