Aren’t there some spine specialists on here?

Let me just go ahead and throw one of these out there



Now that’s out of the way, I know and understand what you guys are saying. If I didn’t have shit fucked up, I wouldn’t be here to begin with.

And the chances of me even seeing any of these people again are slim to none. It isn’t really about them. I just personally don’t like having and/or showing weakness.

Logically I get and agree with what y’all are saying.

At the end of the day, I am basically just venting. I was told 2-3 days in the hospital, and I’m now on day 25 and just aggravated at everything.

 

Slap yourself upside the head and repeat 3x (or 2x if it makes you feel better). Group Therapy isn't all about me, healing is.

 

Are self-inflicted uppercuts possible?

 

Did the surgeon make you acknowledge the worst possible outcomes of the surgery before performing it? If yes, are you currently experiencing that worst possible outcome?


It may not have been 2-3 days but unless they have Wi-Fi in animal heaven, I would say that you must still be alive and among us. So you landed somewhere between the best case scenario and the worst. That's usually what happens.

 

No. That was the scenario I was given: 2-3 days.

Surgery was on a Friday morning. Best case was I stayed that night and Sat.,then went home Sunday.

Worst case was I had to stay Sun night also and would go home Monday.

So the aforementioned 2-3 days was the “best to worst” scenario I was given.

 

Yeah, you got robbed. If you get the same surgeon again, you should point that out and ask him not to butter you up this time.

 

That would be a negative, ghostrider. My surgeon was "just" an orthopedic surgeon whose specialty is the spine/back. But I do recall someone else here saying look for a neurosurgeon.

The quoted time to recovery was also a "little" misleading. He said 6 weeks, and back to normal. Well, I was home the same day as the surgery, did the outpatient physical therapy, and here it is, a year later (almost to the day), and I am not 100% by any stretch of the imagination. Having said that, I am basically pain free, which is the big reason for the surgery. But I am stiff all the time (ha!) and I do have to be careful how I move. And almost always sore in the morning, which gets better once I get up and out and about. I do have hope though, as for about 1.5 weeks, I WAS 100%. No back stiffness, no morning soreness, and I could move without fear. That was about 2 months ago. But then I had some issues with tingling in the toes/fingers, almost to the point of pain. Guessing something moved again, and disturbed my back nerves. I got a steroid shot, and pills, and that has helped, but I'm not back to the way I was. I think I just need to get things to pop back into place, and might be able to be 100% again.

My current plan is to just get my back to relax, take my valium, get into yoga/stretching/core exercises, and get myself a Teeter inversion table. Well, that is the plan. I always seem to be too busy with other stuff/people to take care of myself first. LOL. But having the surgery was worth it, considering how things were before. I was miserable, and couldn't function as a human at all.

 

Seek out a quality acupuncturist.

 

I just finished my 4 hours of PT for today.

While “self-inflicted” is crossing my mind, uppercuts aren’t.

 

Don’t worry, that conversation will be had, regardless of what happens in the future.

 

Keep in mind, when he told you 2-3 days, it was half the surgery it ended up being. 2 discs are a world apart from multiple discs at multiple levels. Jus sayin ...

 

Yeah, that is a valid point. And the Dr here (at this in-patient rehabilitation hospital) made a good point also.

(He made this point when we were talking about my knees being numb)

He said “I saw your original MRI and I agree with Dr Ken, I don’t know how you were still walking. Your spine was a disaster”.

But then he said “It could be that Dr Ken wasn’t finished. He was rebuilding joints and making repairs as he went up. It could have been that he simply ran out of time. You had been under anesthesia for 10 hours. He might have had to get to a good stop popping point, with intentions of finishing later”.

I’ve already had another MRI, so I reckon I’ll find out tomorrow.

 

Any idea what to look for when doing this? Besides word of mouth. I mean, I have poked myself a few times with pins and needles and nails, and that didn't seem to help me any!
(well, hollow needles with drugs have helped many a time, for many different reasons...)

 

Start with your PT to see if they know someone. PT/massage therapist with sports medicine focus is the next best bet. A PT specializing in sports medicine may be trained in dry needling which is also a pretty good alternative.

 

10 hours is a LONG time to concentrate/skillsets.....sounds like a good stopping point. I hope they get you squared up. Hang in there.
I swim in fire's of hell for couple years, my soul is long burned away, my soul is a corpse, I dont have much to give others anymore.....But i say, you are a Good person, TRUTH, you have always been.... you in my prayers.

Misery does NOT love company, so reading/thinking about your diliema, is not good for my brain/CNS/stress, so i skim/avoid, for my own self preservation. I appoligize to you, for that/this.

I believe you be OK, when it's over. I truly do.
stay strong, Good luck.

 

Tower, this is ghostrider, I wasn’t suggesting that at all (“ ‘just’ an orthopedic [spine] surgeon”), quite the opposite actually. At the beginning of last July, around the same time as yours, my back popped too. I was the same, on the floor, in agony hoping the pain would go away. After the ER visit (side story: the ER never figured out what happened), CAT scan, visit to primary care the day after, and MRI scan ... they finally determined my L1 and L2 were herniated, putting pressure on my spinal cord. Part of the problem was, as I then found out, I had also somehow developed scoliosis.

Everyone was quick to refer me to a neurosurgeon and was able to pull some strings to have a well- respected neuro guy see me. He looked at the MRI and spent only a brief time talking to me, and pushed surgery hard. I opted to do injections (at my suggestion, not his), but they would wear off after a little while. Things were a little better, but nowhere near what I considered an acceptable level. I was all set to do the surgical option. I think I had read your and/or someone else’s post ... but just had this nagging think in the back of my head that I really didn’t like the way the neurosurgeon was so quick to focus on surgery without suggesting injections, PT, or anything else.

I spoke to a surgical nurse (that my wife and I work out with at our gym) who works for both neurosurgeons and orthopedic spine surgeon. Because I was so sports oriented and active she recommended I get a second opinion from an orthopedic spine surgeon (and suggested a couple).

Anyway, the orthopedic spine surgeon’s approach was a night and day difference from the neuro guy. During the visit, the orthopedic guy bent me into a pretzel ten different ways, had me doing certain exercises, etc. He took a good 20min manipulating and study me and a good 20min more to study my MRI. He then sat down with me and dissected the MRI and explained things to me that the neurosurgeon failed to account for (e.g., how the scoliosis impacted the condition) and other things the neurosurgeon completely missed. The ortho guy didn’t push surgery. He said I was too young (I’m pretty sure I’m pretty sure both you and @GorillaGeorge are younger than me) and far too active. In fact, he said if I did have surgery with what little info the neurosurgeon was willing to go on, I’d likely be having 2 or 3 more surgeries soon thereafter to fix the missed problems and other problems the surgery would have caused.

This last point is what makes me think of what @GorillaGeorge is now going through, and what made me ask about ortho or neuro. In my VERY limited experience, it seemed the orthopedic spine surgeon was looking at my back as a whole i.e., taking into consideration all the moving parts of the whole spine, how they interact, and how each piece would react if changes were made. It made sense when it was explained. Whereas, the neuro guy was solely looking at one problem area (in my case he just focused on the L1, which was worse, and totally dismissed the L2 area as an issue), and missed where the issue really was because of my scoliosis.

As for me, in the end, I decided to do PT, massage, and exercises. Within 3 months, I almost had no numbness or pain in my upper right thigh/groin/hip area. While I can’t lift real heavy weights, I can do almost everything else including weightlifting, cardio/weight classes (similar to the Les Mills Body Pump classes), and (most importantly) I can race. While my upper right thigh/groin/hip area sometimes has some numbness & skin pain at times (no more PT and massage during corona time), it’s easy to bear and usually resets after a good night sleep.

I acknowledge that each disc herniation is different … and mine is different from yours, yours different from @GorillaGeorge’s, etc. What struck me, however, was the differences in the approaches between the two specialists. This is why I said I'm with @joec’s suggestion that it might be “worth having someone out of the circle take a ... look for sure” … like an orthopedic spine surgeon.

TL/DR
Cliff notes for @GorillaGeorge ... given the issues you say you're having, I'd humbly suggest you think about having an orthopedic spine surgeon take a look and maybe get involved.
.

 

I appreciate the kind words and wish you all the best of luck going forward.

 

He still beat you home.

 

Yep, he did, and I am genuinely happy for him for doing so.

 

You may have already covered it, but who approved the additional work once they got going? Did your wife sign off on it?

I hate to sound so negative but I have a hard time believing you had all those additional issues and they weren't recognized pre-op.

Either way, I feel for you. Been dealing with spine issues a long time, and have the hardware to prove it. BEST OF LUCK!!