UTMC

I was expecting a Vertical throat cutting, but nope, they went traditional, right to left stopping at my voicebox.

Voice still sounds like shite

I
Can
Feel
My
Fingers!!!!

with no numbness or tingling. EVEN in my right hand with all the permanent nerve damage from the Buell Wreck.

Surgery was the 17th. About to head out for the follow up with the Surgeon's office.

Have played it low key and fighting tooth and nail to stretch every hour out before I have to cave and take an Oxy...I HATE taking Oxy. I don't like how it makes me feel and I Absolutely LOATH that sick feeling I get when I go a couple hours without one. I came home the 18th after getting 20mg Oxy and IV Dilaudid before going home. At home for the first night and half the day it was 20mg every 4 hours. Then I got it down to 10mg every 4 hours by Saturday, and right now I am having to really fight the withdrawl sickness rather than the pain to go 5mg every 6 hours. Sucks being an Addict by nature. I am hoping to be off the Oxy and back onto Hydrocodone before my wife and I head off to our 9 year anniversary (re-attempt of our 5 year since I had to put my foot down and check her into rehab) on the beautiful island of Oahu. It will be my first time back since everything went to shite with my Ex and our daughter.

Here is what they did (xrays may be forthcoming after doc's visit this morning)
Procedure is called Anterior Cervical Disc Fusion
Slice open throat
Shove windpipe out of the way
Remove offending disc/discs
Insert Spacer (synthetic, bone graft from you, cadaver bone*)
Fill surrounding space with mixture of cultured bone in a mortar like action
Attach Titanium Plates to support and immobilize area
Push windpipe back in places
Close with Doc's preferred method

In my case, they removed the discs between C5-C6 & C6-C7. The assistant accidentally said it was going to be the C4-C5 instead of C5-C6, in reality, they were considering replacing the C4-C5 also, but chose not to at the last minute. They used cadaver bone which is great since I didn't feel the love on having a bone graft taken from each hip before going to Hawaii. But I HAD to have this surgery. We can't cancel Hawaii btw. We either go, or walk away from all the money we have put out for it.

So here is to modern medicine!

... spinal surgery is freaky scary ENOUGH. The hairs on my back stand up when I think about having the bolts pulled from my sacrum, and that's only the BOTTOM of my spine ... the top ...

You're a fearless man, man!!

Glad to hear it seems to have worked, too!
Now, if they try and hang ya, you can laugh as you dangle and mock them with your titanium neck

Ew?

Pix, mang!

Glad to hear everything went right, tho. That's some distressing shit.

--Jaeger

Fixing things surgically is pretty neat. Based on the title of the post I assumed you were talking about divorce

Right on! Now you'll have a very cool scar, ala Christopher Walken in Seven Psychopaths!

Glad to hear you're on the mend!

Man that's a nasty area to get to.
Good news is, good!

Wow, hooray for success.

Update:

Bone growth is not going to plan. Doc has ordered a bone growth stim machine that I will need to wear for the next several months. PT has been ordered. Range of motion is limited, but mostly due to muscle tension rather than the fusion. PT should help that a lot.

Pain med dreams suck major Horror film ass. That is all I am going to say other than my pain level is down to my normal background level 3, so no more pain meds, as of a week last Friday.

Now that the pain is down to background levels, there is some residual nerve damage that was being masked by the pain meds. They are hoping it is due to the muscle tension in my upper back/shoulders and not permenant.

Slowly getting back strength after detoxing, but I am definately feeling much older than I am chronologically. But, my wife likes to keep reminding me that I am her Classic Timex, takes a beating and keeps on kicking.

Hang in there, man!

Not to be pedantic, but it's licking and ticking.

guitargeek wrote:Not to be pedantic, but it's licking and ticking.

His wife was talking about beatings, don't mess with their marital harmony.

Keep on healing, I hope it improves fast.

Yeah, how goes the healing? How's the pain/function ratio?

guitargeek wrote:Yeah, how goes the healing? How's the pain/function ratio?

Seems there are underlaying issues that were previously hidden by "chronic pain" issues. I am waiting for approval to have another EMG done. They want to check the nerve paths in my upper back and shoulders to try and figure out why the muscles in my upper back will not relax, even with muscle relaxers, therapy and massage.

Flergh.
Hope they find it's something that can be fixed with minimum muss, fuss, pain or inconvenience, man.

Update:

Had a full back MRI on the 31st of December...
We got the report back at the beginning of January, but life has happened and after a death in the family, I am still without a follow up appointment with the doc...

What we do know, the numbness, burning, pins and needles I am still feeling is due to...

16 "bulged/herniated" disks from T1-L4... from .5mm to 3.5mm in "intrusion against the spinal cord area". No, it doesn't mean there is 3.5mm of disk pressing directly against the cord, but intrusion into the canal that the spinal cord travels through. Mine is also narrowed, with a lack of fluid. This is all in the report.

So for now, I am still in a holding pattern.

Feck. That sounds ungood.
Best of luck, man!

I've been dealing with sciatica for a while now, part of the awesome bundle that comes with lupus. I have an appointment with a urologist at the end of this month, try to find out if the lower back pain is associated with the blood in my urine.

guitargeek wrote:I've been dealing with sciatica for a while now, part of the awesome bundle that comes with lupus. I have an appointment with a urologist at the end of this month, try to find out if the lower back pain is associated with the blood in my urine.

oh dude. that's really no good. heal quick.

Not to steal wyckedsin's thunder or anything!
I know I'm bad about threadjacking, but shit...

I don't mind, had appointment the other day, but life, anyways, doc says "severe neuropathy" and is sending me for EMG to determine if it is "redicular" or not since there is no evidence of pressure on the spinal cord, he wonders if I directly damaged the cord some where. If it isn't redicular, then we have a whole gambit of meds we can try to desensitize the nerves.