RV How's the Back

[mscans]

Derek,

 

Good luck with the lumbar. Minimally invasive is the way to go. . . .if you can. I could not. 3 discs fused, 2 rods and 6 or so screws. Got me out of pain but I had to wait about 2 months for the surgery for a total of 3+ months with no walking. Still learning to walk but it is improving. I wish you Godspeed for your surgery, keep us up to date with your results. Do NOT overdo exercise until you are cleared then have a ball.

[RV_]

Thanks Mike,

The doc said he gave it a 95% chance it lasts me the rest of my life. I can walk with my brace but don't need it for sitting standing or sleeping. The neck brace is gone, my cervical surgery only has the medical superglue cover on it and I have full medical clearance for it just five days after. Zero pain. The lumbar is like a broken rib, the incision site, about a 1" cut, is still tender as it was a bilateral four nerve channel roto rooter, and it only hurts when I move stand or cough. But the pain is gone once I settle down comfortably and relax. I am on a kitchen counter stool in my suite typing this on My Surface Pro 3. No real serious pain. I am no hero but I could not take my usual Naproxin Sodium and aspirin as they thin the blood, since the 5th of November, five days before the first surgery and I will get to take them again in the morning. But despite it being sharp when I move wrong I have not broken the seal on my Percocet, nor needed to. My daily pain was worse than this more often than not as you probably know.

 

These guys invented the procedures and are the best. As my doc said it was an uphill battle for approval and now the other surgeons are copying them but I doubt anyone is a s good as these guys. I bet they grow to be for spine surgery like MD Anderson cancer centers have become the defacto place to go with cancer. I made a great gamble having them 5 days apart, saved another airfare and there aren't even dressing, just sutures that dissolve, and superglue sealing the incision. I could shower the day after surgery both times. I just have to call for help if I drop the soap. Roger from here drove over and stayed with me through both two nights each time and expected nothing, so my wife could take care of her dad with late stage Alzheimer's and home hospice. Thanks again Roger, was great to finally meet face 2 face.

 

I can sleep on my stomach and turn my head and neck with not even a twinge!

 

I'll post back in two weeks when I quit having to use the back brace while walking. I am staying home and lazing on my place for two weeks then I'll be clear to ride my mower and vacuum up the leaves and burn them. Good timing!

[DJW]

RV

 

Great news. Hang in there. You can see the light at the end of the tunnel now just take your time getting there.

 

Dennis

[RV_]

Thanks Dennis, I am. The light is now at the end of this tunnel:

 

[mscans]

 

 

Great news. Glad it all worked. Rolling in bed without pain. . . I remember it well. Stay with the program, brace etc. and all will be well.

 

 

Florida Mike

[Five Wood]

RV

 

Glad everything worked out well. It's amazing that they can do all that work in there with just a small incision.

 

Jim

[RV_]

I will Mike, thanks!

 

Jim,

It is amazing when one day you have the shooting pains/numbness/pins and needles and the next all gone with only a sore spot to show. What makes it so painless is that they only cut the layers of dermal tissues. They move the muscles out of the way by stretching the incision with increasingly wider probes until they insert the tube they operate through. They do bruise the muscles some, but no cutting of muscle tissue is done.

 

Delta blew my wheelchair assist in Atlanta where I had to fly from Tampa to get the flight to Shreveport. So I just walked after hitching a ride on a motorized cart to the hub center. I then did the escalators and shuttles to my gate just in time. I had the bigger lumbar surgery, decompressing the L 4/5 on Tuesday the 15th, and was running across the Atlanta hub on Thursday the 17th two days post op. I had my brace on. My friends and family that had any spinal surgery in that area could not even walk for a few days and hiking fast across the Atlanta hub would take them 4 months of recovery just to hobble around. No damage done, I was careful.

 

I have to walk 5-10 minutes 3 times a day and to move a lot not stay in one position. This is a different kind of recovery. The hardest part is because it does not hurt. I keep forgetting I just had surgery and move too fast or twist quickly without thinking. I also have to remember "Body Mechanics" when sitting down or getting up.

 

I am already out of the neck brace from the laminectomy on the 10th. On the 29th I lose the back brace from the surgery on the 15th too.

[mscans]

Yeah!

[RV_]

Here is a pic Roger took of the cervical incision the night of the cervical surgery. They said that of the two the cervical caused more patient pain/discomfort, and the lumbar was less painful for many. I was the opposite. I had no pain from the cervical and no pain just ghosts of the old pain and numbness from the lumbar, but they were gone. No bandages to change or protect from shower water, no weeping, drainage or other concerns post op.

 

 

That is a denim shirt and after the neck brace came off for good. Unless I press on the incision directly I don't even know it is there. They had to shave off about a half inch of my haircut and my neck for surgery, and the dang nurse gave me a great blocked trim! Those are my hands and the neck brace is still around the front of my neck. It looks wet but that is actually medical super glue if you will. It feels dry and I was allowed to shower with it from the day after surgery after a noon post op incision check. So as you can see I could reach up and back easily and had no pain. My lumbar incision despite four times more work there, is the same size and appearance.

 

Neither incision has any local tenderness from the incision. They both feel like a cut that is three days old and stitched and no longer hurting unless you grab it hard. I have taken no pain pills at all for either surgery, not one, despite having 60 on hand of the strongest, most addictive available. I was told that it is different for each person and they have pain free folks like me almost half the time, but all feel the pain and numbness pretty much gone when they wake up in recovery.

 

The sutures are internal and will dissolve and the top glue will flake off like a scab. They only asked that I not pick at it and see my local doctor to visually inspect the incision sites and send them the observations.

 

I chose their Tampa location, although Oklahoma City is just a six hour drive. I have been there and every time there has been a tornado the day or two after. The crime there always seemed worse than Tampa Bay. In hindsight I made a great choice. I stayed at the Sailport suites on the bay and here is a pic of the view from my balcony:

 

 

The shack next to the pool is actually a great restaurant. Their blackened fish sandwich was one of the best I've ever put in my mouth. The hotel had a free shuttle to and from Laser Spine Institute (LSI) and their rates for a suite was less by fifty bucks in high season (after Oct 1st) than a room on the bay or ocean. For those with the extra money, there are two more expensive luxury hotels next door to LSI on the same street. The Sailport also had a free shuttle once a week to WalMart's to get supplies which we took. No car or driving needed except for Roger's truck the four days and nights he was here.

 

It was that sunny and bright all but 2 days of the trip from the 8th-17th November. I know, hard to beat anything about the trip. The sofa bed was terrible so Roger slept on the sofa with the bed stowed. I would not like to do hookups or driving immediately after surgery, thus our choice to fly instead of me taking the rig alone. If my wife wasn't tied up with her dad at end of life she could have done all the hookups and breaking down and driving. I am going out today to pick up some teas and snacks for my recovery. I will go alone and drive just fine. Gotta go jump in the shower and do a ten minute walk now.

[DJW]

Looking good RV, just take it slow for a few days.

 

Dennis

[RV_]

Dennis, I am because it does not hurt and I tend to go on autopilot and forget to take it slower with good body mechanics. I just went for a drive today to visit my FIL and drove myself, then went shopping for odds and ends for a few hours myself. It really is surprisingly easy afterwards. I don't need to act like I am made of glass. I just need to avoid bungee jumping and a few other things.

[Jim & Alice]

Thanks for sharing, Derek. I am up in Michigan now, and boy... does this cold weather play hard with my sciatic nerve problem. I appreciate you sharing you experience.

Jim

[Five Wood]

RV,

How is the recovery going?

 

Jim

[RV_]

Already doing more than I should because the pain is gone and like the doc told me post surgery to listen to my body and go slow. I am frankly amazed and gratified that I qualified for this type of surgery and that I did not go to the local quacks I almost do go with. MY FIL had their surgery and his last days now are filled with a lot of pain from the scar tissue. He is in hospice now at home and we care for him, but his pain from scar tissue has been going on for 20 years and he is 86.

 

I am doing great. Thanks for asking.

[DJW]

Great news RV

 

Dennis

[RV_]

Thanks Dennis. Thursday I go in for cataract surgery and two different lenses ($3k out of pocket) that eliminate glasses for near or far. I needed the surgery anyway as my cataracts are giving me fits driving at night with halos everywhere. The doc said the extra cost lenses I picked will last me the rest of my life. They do the right this week and the left next week.

 

Since I can't bend over or stress my back anyway from the spinal surgery, since the restrictions on bending and lifting for the eye surgeries are similar, I figured recover from both at the same time. Concurrent recovery.

 

I have been very healthy my whole life. No issues with blood pressure, heart, diabetes, or anything really except too much abuse of my frame skiing, racquetball, Diving, and lifting loads of weapon racks, ammo crates, and Humvee off road bouncing as well as several wrecks as a passenger. So it looks like just frame damage and ocular degeneration should be it. So it is great to have new tech medicine just in time for my needs.

 

This is my big co pay year. I am getting them all done before Medicare takes over for Tricare as TFL.

[DJW]

RV

 

I am starting to think you may have abused your body in the past?

 

Dennis

[Alie&Jim's Carrilite]

Your just about a new "Borg"...

[RV_]

Dennis,

I didn't, like you the military did,

 

Jim,

I have been assimilated:prosthetic eyes are installed tomorrow and next week:resistance is futile.

[StarDreamers.us]

Real good dancing!

 

Safe Travels!

[RV_]

Amen Star. (I think?)

[Five Wood]

So RV,

 

How goes it with the back?? I hope well.

 

Jim

[RV_]

Jim,

Recovering slowly but surely. Though I can walk and carry light loads, I still have to defer to asking for help with a case of soda or water etc.

 

However somehow my cataract surgeries went sideways. It seems that my left eye is occluded now and I have no near vision at all! Shoot! That is what I paid the big extra bucks for. MY doc assured me there will be no out of pocket expenses for me and he will make it right. I am having a heckuva time remembering to bring reading glasses and take them into stores with me. I was near sighted my whole life and am an avid reader online and off. Right now that is more a PITA than I ever relaized. I used to take off my long distance (Watching TV and driving) glasses to read. I never wore glasses indoors as I never needed them.

 

Now I cuss out the doc twenty times a day as I get frustrated trying to read a label or see my remote or even my 27" computer screen. So now I have my fonts larger and still need reading glasses to read them. Yes I can make them really ginormous but then the scrolling is more hassle than it is worth. Besides, I usually have the TV tuner on in 1/4 of the screen, my browser above that, and my email taking the other half of the screen real estate.

 

I'll be glad when all is right again. I do have great distance vision however, and that lets me drive OK anyway. I bought my first set of non prescription transitions lens sunglasses in my adult life as I needed glasses to see far from age 25 or so. SO it is half right.

 

Tomorrow I go to the specialist that my specialist goes to when he has a stumper. <sigh> I already met my catastrophic cap for the fiscal year anyway so there is that.

 

[Five Wood]

RV

Glad to hear the back is improving. Sounds like you are a heck of a lot better than pre-surgery. A friend of mine had cataract surgery several years ago and within a year had to have it "tweaked" and now he's just fine. Hang in there and keep moving forward.

 

Jim

[RV_]

I know Jim, thanks. I am much better than my buddy here who had traditional back surgery three years ago and still is in PT and cannot lift much at all. But he is past the very cautious stage I am getting past now. I have to remember I am only a month and a half or so out of surgery and flew home alone two days after my lumbar which was done, which was five days after my cervical surgery, which is already completely healed. I sleep on my stomach and have been able to since the second week after my cervical surgery.