First Steps
Well, I decided to start posting a blog to describe my process leading up to surgery and my (eventual) recovery.
The lawnmower fell on top of me on July 3, 2005. I've always felt like someone kicked me really hard in the rear. And the middle of my back has pain when any type of twisting or bending occurs. Now, almost 1 year later, I still have the pain in the tail and the middle of my back seems to be getting worse.
I have been seeing a surgeon exploring the surgical option. At first, I thought that I could live with the pain. Now, it seems to be getting un-liveable. I don't sleep very well. It's very hard to concentrate at work. It's hard to play baseball with the kids without shooting pain when I bend over or twist.
So, the first step is a diskogram. The explanation that I got was that they stick needles into my spine and pressurize the disk to recreate the pain. I will be awake when they do this. This gives the Dr. a better idea of what is causing the pain. All the MRI's show a slight bulge at L5 S1.
After that, he can do an anterior fusion. This is where they go thru the belly and remove the disk and put a bone from my hip and fuse the vertebre together. If they have to do a posterior entrance, the recovery becomes much longer. This is due to the muscle structure that they have to dissect to get to the spine. Then they have to reattach the muscles.
I will post more later.
posted by Rob @ 4:09 PM
2 Comments:
I'm going to add you to my "daily" prayers. I cannot imagine living in constant physical pain. Let me know what else I can do to help!
Hey kiddo...i know where you are with the everyday pain in the back.....i have lived with it for many years now. But i did see on the news i think it was where they now have a new thing instead of fusing the disk they replace it with an artificial one....you need to check into it.....they remove the bulging one and put a metal plate on the top and bottom and a plastic disk in the middle.....it seems to be a better route to take...you get more movement and less pain. if they fuse it you just get stiff. if mine was a bluging disk i would look into it...but mine is from the spinal stenosis...bummers. I will be praying for you though....good luck and keep us posted. Love you!!
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