Back Update #5 - Post injection/Pre-surgery

The last post was two weeks ago the day of my 2nd spinal injection. It was rough but a couple days later I did feel a little bit of improvement. I found that I could be on my feet for 20 to 30 minutes before I would have to lay down to calm things down. An improvement but not quite life altering. Then it wore off about 4 days after. So much for that. During that time my spinal doctor came through and set me up to meet with a surgeon sooner. Instead of Aug 8 it would now happen on July 12! Finally something positive. So my follow up for the injections happened on the 10th and the PA agreed that it was good I had the consult lined up for Thursday. He said that even though the shot did cause some relief it wasn't enough and I'm officially part of the 20% of people that just don't recover with physical therapy and the injections. If I don't do the surgery I have a very long haul of recovery probably not being able to go back to work for quite some time. As we were leaving, my nurse asked if I had anymore questions and I had been wondering how long it would take between the consultation and going under the knife if he decided that was the right way to go. She went and talked to the surgeons schedulers and reported back that it looked like he was booked till early to mid-August. Not at all what I wanted to hear. It didn't sit well with me but what was I going to do. M and I decided we would talk specifically about my timeframe when we met with the surgeon. Maybe he could pull some strings if he knows my job situation.

This brings us to the surgeon consultation. I met with Dr. Brown yesterday and he is really on top of his stuff. As we talked and he had me run through some physical tests and he explained that unfortunately with my previous injury (5yrs ago had the same thing but I recovered with P.T.) there is quite a bit of scarring/calcium deposits from bones rubbing together while it healed the first time between my vertebrae. Due to this he isn't surprised it happened again because that stuff has misshaped the area between the disk and has an easier time pushing the disk into the wrong place. He explained that odds are that eventually (and hopefully) the two vertebrae will fuse together naturally since most of the disk is trashed. He said there was some consideration of fusing them together but felt we should give the area a chance to work it out a bit more naturally. He said that if it really gets bad in the future we will talk spinal fusion. With that in mind he feels a hemi-laminectomy is the way to go. This is surgery to help alleviate the symptoms of an impinged or irritated nerve root in the spine. During this procedure, he will remove part of a vertebra called a lamina (it's like a little wing off the back of the spine that covers and protects the nerves). This removal of bone creates more space and a little window in the spinal canal and is meant to release nerve tissue from pressure. He will also remove the debris from the nerve area that was the various parts of my disk that broke off/leaked out and is now pushing on my nerve root in that part of the spine. After the surgery I should feel relief on my leg immediately since no more stuff will be pushing on the nerve. It will require an overnight stay in the hospital and I will be on some very strict restrictions. Dr. Brown was however concerned that since the current MRI was taken, I had really hurt myself even worse two different times. He really wants to make sure there would be no surprises. With that being said, I have to do another MRI on Thursday this coming week. I am glad he wants to be thorough. As we talked he stressed the fact that we needed to get me back on my feet by the time school starts. Since everything else doctor related had move so slow, it was nice to hear him say that but we still didn't know when the surgery would officially take place. I know recovery for this takes at least 2 or 3 weeks before I could go back to work and it would be 6 to 12 weeks before I felt normal and didn't have any major restrictions. With that being said we went out to schedule the surgery. The assistant said that Dr. Brown spoke with her and they want to do the surgery on July 23rd! My mouth hit the floor. I thought it was going to be mid-August. So yeah, 10 days and I'll hopefully be on the road to recovery. I'm pretty nervous, I mean, it's not terribly evasive and it has a really high success rate (95%) but its still my spine. The doctor also said that because my injury is cross-lateral (when sitting if he raises my left leg, it sets off the nerve causing problems in my right leg) my chances of success are even greater (I don't know why but that is good). I have done the research and this surgeon is top notch as are all the surgeons at OAM so it should be good. I'll keep you all posted.

Books

 

Posted with Blogsy