Oh man with a back surgery coming up this post was like a train wreck. I just had to look. Wish I hadnt :banghead

Hope you have a speedy recovery and get back to riding asap.

I am going to drink heavily and cry now about my upcoming back surgery. :bawling

 

i've been told its about 50/50 when it comes to back surgery. my friend had the same thing from another doc and two days in the hospital and he was all good.

what are you having done?

btw, i'm up with insomia waiting for the valum to kick in because i had coffee for the first time in about two months and my body has yet to adjust to it again.

so far tonight i have taken soma, methadone and valum and i'm still awake:banghead:banghead

 

discs in the lumbar area they putting in some kind of rods and then wrapping it in a titanium cage. NOT looking forward to it

 

Surgery scares me...hope you feel better soon and it was worth it long term.

 

LOL since i got medevacced out of iraq this is ummm #20 i think.

3 Shoulder surgeries
1 spinal cord stim trial (this was fun, had wires hanging out of the middle of my back for 2 weeks)
1 perm spinal cord stim surgery
4 revisons to move battery pack
3 busted wire replacement surgeries - where they pull wires from battery pack that go up epidural column to shoulder
3 lead resetting where they had to reset leads over nerves in shoulder

Even writing them down i cant remember them all lol. This isnt even counting the times i went in and they knocked me out just to numb my right hsoulder and arm with an injection. 9 of those (3 sets of 3) thats actually kind of cool cause arm just hangs there for several days lol you can burn yourself, break a finger, or arm and not feel anything. WIERDDDDDDD.

I will try to remember the rest tomorrow lol. How sad is it when you lose count on surgeries? :coocoo

oh 1 surgery to stablize me in iraq, 2 in germany before coming home stateside.

Cant remember the other one. I know its 19 so far because this one a nurse is giving me a t-shirt that says Surgery #20 bigger-faster-stronger. It's become somewhat of a joke with surgery team. LOL sick joke huh?

 

obviously i missed it....what happened to you in iraq?

 

Walking out of a bulding when a mortar hit it. The proverbial needle in a haystack shot. :banghead

 

Oh man that sucks (for both of you).

My daughter is looking at some back surgery if the therapy doesn't work in 5-6 months time. Hers is from spondylolithesis at a ripe old age of 15. :banghead

Best of luck to you with your recovery and best wishes for your upcoming surgery Canedriver.

I took a Soma a few hours ago for relief from yet another kidney stone Still hurts like a bitch but at least I was relaxed enough to not care. :laugh

 

LOL @ the soma commnt. They give me so many drugs I feel like a zombie, so much so i think my Bucs are still going to win the Super Bowl. :laugh

Majority of my problem isnt even my back, its the nerve damage in right hand, arm, and shoulder. Half the time it feels lke right side is on fire and I get huge welts. That arm is also a couple degrees hotter then left side and sweats horribly. It's called RSD or CRSP and is pretty nasty. Shoulder can be so sensitive it hurts to even wear a shirt. Thank god the stimulator helps that.

LOL My nurses and Doctors keep telling me stop looking at internet because it will only scare me but damn its like a train wreck ya just got to look stuff up.

 

Hey twin arent you a cop? This going to have any lasting impact on your career?

 

yes i am, but the more i'm away from it the less i miss it. i ride a motor at work and right now that's about the only thing keeping me going...aside from the paycheck.

hopefully this won't do much except make it hard for me to get a job anywhere else. no one wants to buy an employee with back probs. there will always be someone "more qualified". anyway maybe a welding career will be in my future.

all this pales in comparison though to whaat you got going. sorry to hear about it, but i do thank you much for your service and doing the stuff that i wasn't able/willing to do.

rawdonflyer, my surgery was a decompression at L4-L5 and L5-S1 with a partial laminectomy. turned out peachy!

 

i had a L4L5 hemi-laminectomy last may 27. the disc was blown and pushing against the cord. the vertibrea rolled and the lamina penitrated the spinal cord. the doctor told me he was going to fix the disc and remove the part of the lamina that was in my spinal cord. it worked for 3 months or untill the epidural wore off. then the pain came and lots of it.
i got a private mri done on my back($3800) and i find out the doctor only trimed the lamina but not the disc. he then blamed me for wrecking my back by going back to work
yet he cleared me to go. so now i have a ****ed back that needs another surgery or 2
plus dealing with the mess he made to the musles in the lower lumbar. i hate doctors.

has anyone had any experience with spinal decompression? does it work and is it permanent?

 

Damn twin that sucks. Thank a real soldier though, i was a contractor. I went this time for the money :coocoo

Your back related to work at all? They can at least pay to retrain you into another position within the force.

Heck you can be chief of police. they dont work

 

The worry is from "failed surgery syndrome" as been described, thats was put me off.

I popped two discs L4/5 - Never experienced pain like it. Like having our lower back/leg on fire! However, had no confidence in Surgery, and so toughed it out. Looked like a spina bifida patient so was so crossed up in pain. and took a whole year before improvment took place, then progeressed rapidly. to the point was back riding time trials on my push bike. Funnily enough, only way could get around was on a racebike, leant over, reduced stress on back. (getting on/off it was another matter though)

I beleive the body knows how to take care of itself, plus my point was, before advent of surgery people got better without it. Just takes time. Keep moving to stimulate body etc.

general advice is give it some considerable time before contemplating surgery and always get a neuro to operate rather than a "bone surgeon" (cant remeber correct name?)

Get well soon all.

 

I had microdisectomy on erm lower back - I forget what, about 3 years ago. Real good now, getting much better as I exercise and lose weight too strangely enough :dowhat
Couldn't imagine toughing it out - I was paralyzed after a few minutes standing up.

Good thing about the size of the population and the health system here is the surgeons get a ton of practice ... I forget the exact number of operation the neurosurgeon had done, but it was in the thousands!

Hope things look up for you :thumbup

 

I have not had back surgery (thank God) but have handled a lot of claims involving them over the last 22 years. The percutaneous discectomy that Kamikuza had is not a big deal - very high success rate. Actually most surgeries that I have followed have complete or at least partial improvement. It is pretty rare to have one go to hell in a handbasket. The fusion surgeries are indeed more serious - harvesting bone from the pelvis - so that hurts too :banghead

From what I have seen, the disc problems can be dealt with. The facet joint issues are tougher. They are hard to see on MRI. They really can't tell until they get in there and see the affected nerve with their own eyes.

 

... not a big deal ...

bloody hurt! :laugh

 

i toughed it out for about 5 years and it got to the point i couldn't even work a full day and kept having to go on light duty at work. riding the motor felt really good on my back, but getting on and off was painfull and slow. walking with a 20 pound gunbelt riding on the affected discs was bad too.

i feel sooooooooooo much better when i walk than when i sit or lie down. moving is good! anyway, i get more movement and more strength every day. if the muscle spasms would quit i would be 100 times better.

 

Well, as far as back surgeries go :lol

The anterior neck surgeries really freak me out. The come in the front, and you get to wear a halo afterwards :eek

 

The doctors fished something out of the wife over Xmas - they went in from the RHS about 3 inches under her armpit, to get in between the lungs and just behind ... stuff.

Surgery - I'm so over that. The people who get it done voluntary, like boob jobs and stuff? ****en idiots!

 

Was great to see ya yesterday and see that things are finally progressing FORWARD! :thumbup

 

We recently had 2 guys at work have back surgery. Same doctor, one went well the other had complications. Hopefully you're finished with the surgeries and can get on to the healing.

Sounds like a good time to promote to Sgt. Maybe a motor Sgt.? They don't do much and get paid more :laugh

 

So... What's the Update *******?

 

Update

well, lets see. i can walk about a quarter mile now without too much trouble. i finally had a night without the raging muscle spasms and i didn't have to take muscle relaxers either!!! woo hoo:doug:doug:doug

everyday is a little better with less pain and more range of motion and strength. so far i've been able to stop taking valium, oxycodone and hopefully i'm done with soma too. the last real hurdle is to get off methadone. it doesn't really make me impaired, i just don't want to have to explain to anyone why its in my system when something bad happens(ie car crash or shooting).

anyway, i'm hoping to be back to work in about another month or so, but that's not really up to me.

 

Dude that's awesome news right there! :doug

Best of luck that it keeps getting better for you and they let you back on duty when its the right time for the both of you to be there. :cheers