PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. — The operation Jill Dugas will undergo in Syracuse, New York, on Friday will attempt to remedy the complications of a surgery that left her paralyzed and in constant pain for 13 years.

After Friday, her pain will be history, but that could come with life-long consequences.

“I could be in a wheelchair for life,” the 36-year-old said Wednesday night, her words coming slowly, in part from the many medications she takes for that pain.

Dugas suffered a soccer injury in 2004 that left her in excruciating pain. The original surgery’s intent was to install a spinal cord stimulator to keep the brain from receiving pain messages. Instead, she suffered strokes to the spinal cord and right and left sides of her brain; her legs were paralyzed.

Bu Jill didn’t stay down long. Her paralysis is spastic, which means she retained muscle tone. Using arm crutches and, at first, leg braces, she learned to put her hip flexors to work, powering her walk.

And she didn’t just walk. The athlete in her didn’t care if her legs couldn’t move on their own. Among many pursuits, she played sled hockey and placed first in the Handcycle Division of the Vermont City Marathon in Burlington in 2010.

But the pain took it’s toll and forced Jill to give up her job and her sports. But worse, she cannot participate fully in the lives of her husband and son.

Connor has had 42 hockey games this season. “I’ve been to only four or five,” Jill said.

She takes 13 medications — they allow her to get out of bed in the morning, but they also leave her fuzzy. 

Friday’s surgery will finally relieve her from those shackles, a relief that is worth the risk of losing her ability to walk.

On Wednesday, an escort of State Police took Duda to Punki’s Shear Perfection Salon, where she had her head shaved in advance of the surgery.

“It was amazing just to see them show up at the door and all hug me and tell me it’s going to be OK,” Jill said.

Her husband, Jon, is a trooper based in Plattsburgh; his colleagues not only surprised him with the turnout but stepped up to have their hair shorn as well. One of them even had Jill’s initials shaved against his scalp.

It made her proud and touched her heart, that her husband’s fellow officers not only stood in support of him, but his wife and their 11-year-old son, Connor.

“And they won’t back down,” Jill said.

Jill felt their strength and drew upon it as Connor made the first, tentative swipe with the clippers against her head.

Her mother, Barbara Davis, took a turn next, followed by Jon. Jill’s father, Bill Meconi, was there, too; he couldn’t help but, in memory, flash back to his daughter’s earlier surgery.

And as tears rolled down Jill’s cheeks, her service dog, Jack, didn’t let his gaze leave her face.

Connor had not intended to have his head shaved on Wednesday, but he changed his mind as he watched his mother as her hair hit the floor, lock by lock.

“You are the strongest cookie,” he told her.

Her good friend Elizabeth “Punki” Duhaime owns the saloon that cut their hair for free.

Friday, surgeons will put a spinal cord stimulator in place, with receptors on each vertebrae and close to Jill’s brain stem. Afterwards, her brain will not get the message that she has pain.

“I’m bringing myself back 13 years,” she said, recalling that first, disastrous operation.

She will know very soon after the surgery whether she will ever walk again.

While that prospect is not one she wants to dwell upon, loss of mobility isn’t something she can’t handle.

“It’s just a new challenge,” she said.

Either way, she will be “a new Jill,” she said, “who is clear headed and focused. The Jill I once was.”

Her son, she said, “is going to have his mom back.”

As for Jon, Jill said, “he met me when I was in a wheelchair and fell in love with me. If I go back into a chair, our love will never change.”

Moore writes for the Plattsburgh, New York Press Republican.