Back Surgery and Neck Surgery
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Thu, 07/02/2009 - 20:35
Let's turn this into something funny
Okay so I have a surgical date scheduled for July 13. I have a strange combination of procedures done. My doctor knows how much I don't want to be doing this, so we agreed to do everything that I need to have done while he has me zonked on the table. I will have the revision of my PLIF. I will have a cervical fusion of the little bit left that isn't already done. Then I will have an ulnar entrapment released in my left arm. Finally we will end up with removing a strange cyst in the middle of my left palm which is about the size now of a very large grape and causes electrical sensations down three fingers in that hand. I agree...age is NOT a pleasant issue when you start falling apart like this. LOL. I am glad to have made peace with Doc#1, as he is a "one stop" doctor instead of the compartmentalized practice where I had been sent last month. I dont think you can call a ACIF and a PLIF revision a 360 so lets just call this procedure something like a 290. I know one thing...I dread it like crazy and just look forward to getting it all over and done. The hand thing is the one the just has me confused as to why that one has even happened. I know it is going to help some very uncomfortable nights getting it out, but geez, what timing! Oh well...at least the laptop will keep me sane.
Happy July 4th to all.
Love to all my spiney friends
Jane in TN
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What, is this going to be like a 52 hour surgery? My, my, you sure have a lot to be taken care of.
I'm wishing you luck on everything that's going to be done and hope you finally get some relief.
Take care.
Cath
October 21, 2008 - ACDF, 3-level (C4/5, 5/6 6/7), with hardware and eight screws. C4/5 and 5/6 fused, still movement at C6/7.
February 2009 - Lower back pain and sciatic pain.
January 6, 2010 - Scheduled for TLIF at L4/5.
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Each forward step we take we leave some phantom of ourselves behind. ~John Lancaster Spalding
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I am in no way affiliated with the medical profession. Any recommendations I make are based on my personal experiences only, so do not take my comments as medical rules.
I like that - a 290!
Well, might as well have one recovery. Is the cyst a ganglion cyst? They are common, grow quickly and create a lot of pain, but not a difficult recovery.
Keep us updated on your progress and good luck!
Happy 4th!
MRI 3/07: T12-L1 herination; DDD
L4-L5 facet joint degeneration; L4-L5 disc degeneration; synovial cyst
3 Epidural injections; 1 Facet Joint injection - no relief
Preop diagnosis: lumbar epidural mass, lumbar radculopathy, spondylolisthesis
12/18/08 Surgery: L4-L5 hemilaminectomy, removal epidural mass, fusion, instrumentation (Medtronic allograft infuse BMP; set screw; 45mm spire plate; mastergraft) PLIF w/ decompression. Full back brace worn 3 1/2 months.
4/6/09: released from back brace and started physical therapy 3X week per Dr. & xray: fusion in progress
PT 3 months, minimum success. still have intense muscle spasms in thoracic area, burning pain near fusion and SI joint
6/25/09 New MRI, L-4-L5 vertebrae bone on bone) continued pain when sitting. Continued thoracic spasms.
Referred back to pain management
7//15/09 SI Joint injection (no relief)
8/09: 2 Thoracic epidural injections minor relief on right side, short-lived. Burning pain still in lumbar region. Continued thoracic spasms.
9/09: NS now says I need discs replaced;
9/18/09: New DR. opinion. (Ortho, spine specialist - says I am NOT fused, hardware moving, bone not formed. more tests: 10/09: CT scan, MRI thoracic- need surgery - will determine 10/6/09 appt: outcome
Surgery scheduled 10/26/09 - 360 fusion L4-L5 + disc replacement
Jane- That's a lot of surgery at once!
The growth could be a dupuytren nodule which begins to grow towards the fingers causing contractions of the fingers. When you said palm and fingers I thought of that because someone in my family had that and he felt those weird nerve pains up to his fingers. Google it and see it if sounds like yours. If it is one, an orthopedic specializing in hand surgeon would be your best bet. Of course, I am just guessing. Just a thought.
Take care. http://health.idahostatesman.com/2008/story/127
Also interesting that people who take glucosamine and chondroitin have increased size of the nodules.
Doc hasnt actually labeled it yet, but he is a sports medicine specialist and despite the fact that I got VERY angry with him for not communicating with me in May I do trust what he does. That is a plus...and as he pointed out at our last meeting, ours has been a long term relationship, and in all relationships of quality there is sometimes conflict. If the relationship is significant, you work through the conflict and you overcome it. We did, so I trust what he does. I know that this bizarre little lump in my hand occasionally hurts...occasionally has electrical sensations, but never leaves. I will just be mega glad to get it over. I had hoped the PLIF wouldnt fail, but it did, and that means I have to deal with that as well. I really don't know anyone else who wouldnt have me in a state of total meltdown right now knowing I was going to have to go back into this situation, but I know that Doctor #1 will do his best at whatever he sees I need done. He said that patients like me who say exactly what is on their minds are what makes medicine interesting. Go figure. I dread it like crazy, but this seems to be my destiny to keep having my spine remodeled. Thanks for your responses....You keep me motivated to keep fighting this stuff.
Jane
Doc hasnt actually labeled it yet, but he is a sports medicine specialist and despite the fact that I got VERY angry with him for not communicating with me in May I do trust what he does. That is a plus...and as he pointed out at our last meeting, ours has been a long term relationship, and in all relationships of quality there is sometimes conflict. If the relationship is significant, you work through the conflict and you overcome it. We did, so I trust what he does. I know that this bizarre little lump in my hand occasionally hurts...occasionally has electrical sensations, but never leaves. I will just be mega glad to get it over. I had hoped the PLIF wouldnt fail, but it did, and that means I have to deal with that as well. I really don't know anyone else who wouldnt have me in a state of total meltdown right now knowing I was going to have to go back into this situation, but I know that Doctor #1 will do his best at whatever he sees I need done. He said that patients like me who say exactly what is on their minds are what makes medicine interesting. Go figure. I dread it like crazy, but this seems to be my destiny to keep having my spine remodeled. Thanks for your responses....You keep me motivated to keep fighting this stuff.
Jane
Good on you for getting all those things taken care of in one sleep! I wish I'd thought to ask my surgeon about lopping off a few of those scary moles on my back while he was there. It would have been such a simple thing to do.
Surgery aged 57 for Scoliosis
Laminectomies, Osteotomies and Fusion T4-pelvis
using autograft, allograft and BMP
March 3, 2009, Brisbane, Australia.
Curve corrected and spine de-rotated from 68 degrees to 22.
I have been looking for the list of things to have on hand before surgery. Just a little whacked out and dont want to miss having everything ready. There is a great post hidden someplace back through time and if someone has the link to that one saved please share with me. Thank you.
Jane in TN
I was told by a close friend (former professor, NATO employee and very credible) who visited me a few weeks ago that his friend went into European hospital for a standard surgury. When waking up arm was in plaster. Asked what was going on as went in for xxx. Answer was that they dropped him while putting him on operating table, so did the X-Ray and plaster and fixed it all up while he was under anesthetic. The joke in Europe is that if happened in US he would have a lawyer and make a lot of money out of it!
Hope your operations go well without any extra's.
I actually have both one radiologist, one nurse practitioner, and two lawyers in my immediate family. All of them are getting this little story. Thanks Terry. I needed a good laugh...and the others in my family are going to enjoy this one as well. Thanks for your good wishes
Jane