Monday, December 26, 2016

Posterior Microdiscectomy Foraminotomy

.... or what Santa is bringing me for Christmas in two days time. It is supposed to provide some pain relief to my left shoulder and arm as well as eliminate the tingling in my hand and arm... in 90% of the cases it does anyhow. Hopefully the doc don't mess it up, and the anesthesiologist manages to wake me up afterwards.


https://youtu.be/sgHQas9VeLA

6 comments:

  1. Said a prayer for you. I'll try to say some more if my feeble mind allows me.

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    1. I do appreciate it Gorges. I know you are on good terms with the man upstairs. I am trying hard to believe the outcome will be positive, nevertheless, I am a bit uneasy about it all.

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  2. Modern medicine is incredibly good and I'm sure you'll be in good hands. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Make sure you take it easy afterwards to give yourself enough time to heal!
    Good luck!

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    1. Hey Kev, Thanks for checking in. Seems I will be still coming down for breakfast and have not assumed room temperature and better yet the operation was successful. Going in it to it my fear was that I would not wake up afterwards.... not ready to check out and leave Annie a widow just yet.
      8am on Wednesday they cut a hole in my neck, they drilled a hole in between my C-6 and C7 vertebra and removed some bone and some of the herniated disk just like in that video except the dock did not use the dialator tubes and just went with an incision so he did not have to work inside a half inch tube. I am in no pain really. And the pain and tingling symptoms in my arm/shoulder and hand are no longer there. That problem at least for now appears to be solved. Need a couple weeks of rest, and then no heavy lifting for 3 months so the spine and nerve can heal up. They did have to put my head in a HALO ring with four screws to immobilize my scull/neck during surgery so when I woke up I was in a lot of pain and felt like my head was in a vice and now I have four new holes there. The whole medical team was really superb and the care was top notch. They they did have to keep me over night as I was unable to pee due to the anesthesia cocktail. They had to catheterize me ....twice .... the most wretched brutal experience ever ...15 out of 10 in pain.. I can take a lot of pain but that one made me scream and cry like a little girl. Finally all the anesthesia drugs seem to clear out of my system Thursday morning and they cut me loose. Home now and all is well. No pain really, just sore from the incision to the muscles in my neck. Managing that with Tylenol...
      I am really pleased with the results.

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  3. How are you doing now? Still taking it easy I hope (but doubt!). Are you managing to stay sane with all this time off? To go from 100 miles an hour to stop is hard at the best of times so I hope you're not too bored.

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    1. Hey Kev, doing very well. Considering that I am now almost two weeks out from surgery. Still a bit of minor pain where they drilled through my vertebra but otherwise no problems and off the pain meds completely. I also was informed after the fact that apparently I gave the surgeon and staff a good scare as my heart stopped during the operation. Seems it started back up on its own while they were deciding what if anything to do about it. All's well that ends well. Still a scary thought though. I am still on house rest but it is getting too me. Had to teach Annie how to run the snow blower and let her do the roof raking and shoveling the last two storms. Eager to get my hands dirty again. Got some car repairs to do this coming week to get the van to pass inspection (like your MOT) so that should provide some distraction. As son as the new front struts arrive I'll be on that one and perhaps post about it.

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