Re: [MLUG] Back surgery

["Christian M. Cepel" <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

Mark Rages wrote:

>On Tue, Sep 07, 2004 at 12:34:50PM -0500, Christian M. Cepel wrote:
>
>  
>
>>I'd like to be able to connect via win2k and linux to this volume.  I 
>>often need it to get work done and I'm flat on my back for 8 weeks while 
>>I heal from back surgery (using a projector on the floor, pointed at the 
>>ceiling is _really groovy!_)
>>    
>>
>
>I must confess respect for whatever pain medication you are taking.  I 
>haven't read a rant like that in a long time!
>
>(bengal is still down)
>
>Regards,
>Mark
>EMAIL:PROTECTED
>  
>
Not a single painkiller since released from the one night I had to stay 
in the hospital.  That's not bravado... I'm a Wuss.  There was just NO 
NEED for one.  There was little to no pain, and NONE of it constant.

The lapriscopic method they used to cut off the protruding bit of disk, 
and suck the nucleus out of the disk was incredible.  A 2 inch incision 
and a little window cut into the two vertebrae framing the disk to allow 
access.  They had me up for walks of the ward only a few hours later, 
each one longer in duration and less difficult.  15 steel staples.  The 
actually let me WALK out to my car the next day instead of insisting 
that I be pushed in a wheelchair.  The dr's orders were simplicity 
itself.  Keep the opsite clean and bandaged, no sitting, and WALK WALK 
WALK.  To be walking 1-6 miles by the 6 week followup (with a supportive 
corset of course).  I was able to drive for short distances after 2 
weeks.  I'm 2.5 weeks out and our last walk was 4.5 miles in an hour and 
15 minutes.

Can't bend however and get down to futz with my nic, but I can WALK WALK 
WALK.

I must say, if you're plagued by persistent nerve pain by a bulging disk 
and it's dehabilitating, and they keep shooting steroids into your 
spine, and they don't last and the pain returns, and you're just frantic 
and desperate... STOP  See a good orthopedic surgeon. Discuss the odds.  
My surgery was performed less than  two weeks from when I got up the 
nerve to see the Doc.

I was so depressed, dehabilitated, and hounded by horrible pain that I 
wasn't sure how much longer I could resist some rather stupid desperate 
actions.

I highly recommend it.  The pain is GONE.  Not less... GONE.  I am ME again.

Based on the advice of friends, I was trying the 'desperately avoid 
surgery and try to prevent the need by doing PT and epidural steroid 
injections.'  I was terrified by the very notion.  I put myself through 
a year and a half of horrible pain for NO REASON.  The PT made things 10 
times worse, and was actually rubbing my spinal cord across the disk 
like a climber's rope on a sharp edge.  The injections worked, but were 
an emotional  trial for me each time, made the pain 100% times worse and 
constant for a few days before relieving around 80% of the pain and then 
tapering off in effectiveness after a couple of weeks.

Anyways, that's my experience.  Keep it in mind if you suffer from this 
and ever face a similar decision and weigh it in with your other 
research.  The _only_ negative experience was the Clear Liquid meals 
served at Columbia Regional.
-- 
||

Christian Marcus Cepel           | And the wrens have returned &
EMAIL:PROTECTED icq:12384980 | are nesting; In the hollow of
371 Crown Point, Columbia, MO    | that oak where his heart once
65203-2202 573.999.2370          | had been; And he lifts up his
Computer Support Specialist, Sr. | arms in a blessing; For being
University of Missouri-Columbia  | born again. --Rich Mullins

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