Re: Recovery

[Guest guest]

I am sooo sorry that you had to have endured such a rotten time

evidently surrounded by stupid white coats. I am not amazed at the level

of ignorance and bungling at the hands of our medical care.

To have it compounded by your personal doctor who didn't want to be

inconvenienced by giving your Novocaine !! I'd retort to him you first !

I haven't yet investigated the patients bill of rights but it seems to

be there is too much of a barbaric attitude in our " care " providers and

that needs to change.

I'm glad for you you had a husband to yell at people on your behalf. I hope you

don't need another surgery to correct their work. good luck to you and may you

have relief of pain.

medusa

Mist wrote:

> Some of you have written to me privately asking how I'm doing since

> my spinal surgery and a couple of have reminded me of my duty to

> contact everyone, so here goes nothing and I hope I make sense as I'm

> still pretty muddle headed due to medications. <snip>

[Guest guest]

Thanks Allan;

I honestly didn't have much of a choice. I broke L-5 in 2000, lifting a patient

by myself who was paralyzed with Lou Gehrig's disease. (ALS) His nurse was too

busy to help me that day growls.

In 2005 they had to go in and do a laminectomy and a hemiectomy on L-5 because i

scar really badly and develop a lot of proud flesh around deep wounds.

Well this time the disc between L-5 and S-1 was completely gone. I had bone on

bone and my nerves were being crushed, so it was either have surgery or go

insane from the pain an eventually loose function of my legs.

What's bad right now is no matter what position I'm in it hurts.

I see my surgeon on the 10th, and my pain doc on the 11th. They are going to

check and make sure that it is fusing correctly if it doesn't I have no idea

what I am going to do.

I hate sounding negative just the past 10 years haven't exactly been rose

colored if you know what I mean.

Mist

[Guest guest]

Dear Mist,

Oh my heavens I cant believe what you have been through and I think for you to

have told us this story is wonderful considering the pain you must have been in

at the time.

I send you all my love and best wishes for your recovery and I hope you get good

news when you go back to the surgeon.

Please take care.

Regards,

Liza

Mistwrote:

> I went in on the 12 of July to have my 3rd spinal surgery on L-5 through S-1.

This time they removed the disc between them completely and inserted a carbon

mesh cage between the vertebra.  They then cut out all of the preexisting scar

tissue from my last operation and then cut out new damaged areas on the right

side from the disc collapsing in on itself. 

[Guest guest]

> Mistwrote:

>> I went in on the 12 of July to have my 3rd spinal surgery on L-5 through S-1.

This time they removed the disc between them completely and inserted a carbon

mesh cage between the vertebra. They then cut out all of the preexisting scar

tissue from my last operation and then cut out new damaged areas on the right

side from the disc collapsing in on itself.

Mist,

I wish you the best of recovery and that this helps and relieves pain. I just

had botox injected yesterday in my SI area and it helped thank goodness with

spasm.

My doctor gave me a prescription for Relistor, you have to inject with TB

syringe, for severe constipation and it helped for those who were asking about

alternatives Keep in touch.

Bennie

[Guest guest]

Why three surgeries? Just trying to learn...

Thanks,

Anne in tx

>

[Guest guest]

I think I can give a partial answer to this one.

Especially down in the lumbar region, you have many nerve trunks leaving the

spinal canal through many little grooves, recesses and holes called foramina. If

a level breaks down it can lead to several conditions which pinch these nerves.

These include narrowing of the intervertebral disc space, bony formations

building up on the recesses and foramina and tissue swelling around the nerve

roots.

As spinal surgery is still as much an art as a science (says my surgeon), the

doctors usually try to do as little as possible to open up the nerve spaces. For

some people this works, for others the bony spurs grow back or the disc breaks

down further and you have to do more work.

Putting cages between the vertebral bodies to hold them apart - called interbody

fusion - is usually a last step and it involves a lot of shoving those spinal

nerves around to get them out of the way while the doctor works on the bone. So

it's risky.

So doctors start with the least invasive surgeries, (laminectomies and

decompressions) and only move on to fusion if the situation really warrants it.

Other fusion patients -- does this sound about right?

- in New Mexico

>

> Why three surgeries? Just trying to learn...

> Thanks,

> Anne in tx

[Guest guest]

Anne in Tx wrote:

> Why three surgeries? Just trying to learn.

My first operation on my spine was June 22 of 2000 After my breaking a lamina

off of L-5 from lifting a patient alone in March 1st of 2000.

It took them 3 months to find it due to the fact that I was extremely muscled

and it didn't show with regular tests until it finally shifted due to nerve

impingement.

The second surgery in 2005 was to remove scar tissue from the first operation

and to clean up the L-5 area as my first surgeon didn't do a clean job of the

first surgery. The surgeon who did the second surgery told me that I would have

3-5 more operations to this area. I thought oh great.

My pain by this point due to RDS, FM, and Osteoarthritis was bad I haven't seen

a day since 2000 that my pain has honestly been under a 5.

This last spinal operation I thought I would not hopefully need but it

eventually became a necessity. We had hoped I wouldn't need it as I had hit the

5 year mark this last January, then in again May it started really bothering me

my legs were collapsing more, and the pain was slowly increasing to the point

where my pain doctor was getting a bit frantic as of last august I had had a

constant migraine for months due to constant use of narcotics for years to

control pain.

I can't remember the syndrome that occurs when you have as many years as I have

of narctotic use but your nervous system gets over loaded from the drugs and you

become so hyper sensitive that everything hurts extremly bad and you get a

certain type of migraine which doesn't stop. I suffered from August until about

February of this year.

Then as I was saying in May my back started hurting more and having more

problems even with neurological tests as my reflexes are really slow on both

legs.

So instead of talking to my doctor first I called the same neurological

speciality office which did my last surgery and demanded a different doctor and

after a month of waiting I got him.

It was worth the wait. the new surgeon was/is great even though I did have a

huge panic attack when they did a special test and did 7 injections into my low

back to see how neurologically I would do and it would verify what would have to

be done along with 2 MRI's and 2 Cat scans.

In the end they found that I had absolutely NO disc between L-5 and S-1 which

you have to have without that you end up with bone on bone. So they replaced the

disc which was worn away with a carbon cage, and filled it with a new

genetically modified stuff called Infuse and the bone that they had to remove to

remove scar tissue and bone that was damaged. They put in 4 screws, 2 Rods,

2plates.And the new disc.

I've been on a do not lift, twist, lean over, push/pull, do anything order since

the operation on the 12th of this month.

But I have new pain since then that's been getting worse and I'm concerned as I

don't know what it is causing it and its deep so I know that its not

neurological.

I had to do all the things that the doctor told me not to the other day as our

two dogs got tangled during rough play our great danes lower jaw got caught in

our German Shepherd's collar and was strangling him slowly, I couldn't get them

pulled apart as it had been drawn so tight I tried. The I ran to the other end

of the house and grabbed a pair of scissors and cut off the collar, I hurt

almost as bad as the day I woke up from the last surgery. But had I not done

something our Shepherd would have died.

I found last night actual teethmarks on his neck which were healing from this

incident last night. I had examined him afterwards and not found them at the

time it happened but now he has scabs.

Our dane is 110 lbs and only 9 months old she is HUGE, her sire was 185 lbs and

big enough to ride, she may get close she's so big.

And our shepard is a rescue when we got him he was 65 lbs now he's close to 90

and is filling out and growing too, the vet doesn't think he was more than a

year old when we got him a couple of months ago.

So you can see I was struggling with TWO big dogs.

Prior to getting the Shepherd to keep our dane company as our 9 cats don't do

such a good job of company for her we were training our dane to be a therapy

dog. Once i'm released from limitations I'll go back to working with her full

time. The shepard I'm not sure if he will ever be able to do therapy work but I

can hope.

Now whether or not I will need another operation is only a matter of time as

when you have a fusion the disc directly above the fusion point takes on a new

load and strain and as L-3 through 4 are already bulging so its only a matter of

time before probably another fusion where in I will notice a defenet limited

mobility.

Hope that answers your question.

Mist

[Guest guest]

That was a clear explanation and I have the fusion with plates and

screws along with continued pain. I am trying chiropractor now and

getting some relief but not a lot. I am getting sleep which is a

blessing. Thanks again.

Lois

wrote:

> I think I can give a partial answer to this one.

>

> Especially down in the lumbar region, you have many nerve trunks leaving the

> spinal canal through many little grooves, recesses and holes called

> foramina. If a level breaks down it can lead to several conditions which

> pinch these nerves. These include narrowing of the intervertebral disc

> space, bony formations building up on the recesses and foramina and tissue

> swelling around the nerve roots.

[Guest guest]

Wow thanks for explanation but so sorry for all your suffering. I will pray for

you to find some relief. I had morphine pump installed in January and am just

now at about a 5-5, starting to think about life instead if just coping with

pain and despair. So I understand.

Blessings,

Anne in TX,

[Guest guest]

WHOA! Ease up! Be good to yourself while you're recovering. If YOU go to

hell in a hand basket, there will be nobody to pull you out. You'll be able

to catch up with everything in due time

Pam

>Mist wrote:

> My incision is healing very well, however I have a spot to the right, right

> over my kidney area that is hot as all get out and hurts like you know what

> its about the size of a large grapefruit. I don't know why it is getting

> worse or what it honestly could be. I've been using ice packs on it but that

> only helps temporarily.

>

> I see my surgeon Tuesday and my reg doc Wednesday so perhaps I'll find out

> what's going on. For me the hardest part of all this is I am a really bad

> compulsive person I can't stand anything out of order and I demand that the

> house is always spotless now with 2 large dogs and 9 cats and of course my

> husband who is a total slob i get a little B* & chy if I can't keep ahead of

> it. And since the surgery I haven't been allowed to do ANYTHING and to me

> the house is a total wreck.

>

> My depression has gotten worse too and I don't know if it is because I'm

> not allowed to do anything or if it is due to pain, I wish I knew. About the

> only thing I have been allowed to do is work on my two yahoo sites I run

> but that becomes monotonous after a while.

>

> I can't even work in my herb beds which are a total disaster they have

> NEVER had so many weeds and grass in them ever. I dread cleaning them out in

> September when we hope to put up our greenhouse and get it covered by

> October for fall planting.I really appreciate all the support here, you guys

> are great.

[Guest guest]

YES get to the ER. This is clearly IS AN INFECTION. I had the same

experience after my surgery which went ignored in the hospital and

afterwards.. I think it may have a part in my chronic post failed spinal

surgery. L4-5 s1..

Please don't wait. You will feel

More in control once this is resolved..!! Gentle hugs to all the suffer

daily..

Debbie

[Guest guest]

I fully agree that you have a major infection going on Get your hiney to the ER

quickly. Don't think just go

Blessed be,

Ms.Katurah

>Lyndi wrote to Mist:

If I had a hot spot the size of a large grapefruit, I'd be high tailing

it to the nearest ER.