Going to see my neurosurgeon today

[67_Dodge_Charger]

I have numbness down my right arm and a great deal of pain on the upper 1/3 of my neck.  I had an MRI and CT SCAN which shows the narrowing at C6-C7 on the nerves going down the right arm.  I have buldging discs at C1-C3,C5 and herniated disc at C7.  Kind of messed up, the doctors are trying to say the bulging discs are part of the aging process, but it is very painful.

So today I will be talking to the neurosurgeon about the surgery, I need to get this work done soon or I will be losing my job.  I am under FMLA which says I have no threat of losing my job for 3 months and my employeer will pay for my insurance during the 3 months off work.  The downside is I don't have any money coming into the house.  I have used up my sick leave, comp time and vacation time before I was accepted as eligible for Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA).  I did get some donations of sick leave from fellow employees and I have used that time as well.  What a time to not having a paycheck.

So today is the big day.  I have had this pain for almost two years now and have just been diagnosed April this year.  I was recovering from shoulder surgery when I was stuck at a point where I could not get my shoulder stronger with my physical therapist.  I have had three injections in my neck to help diagnose how my nerves react so my neurosurgeon can plan my surgery.

I know yoy may not know me but I really like reading the posts of fellow mopar nuts.  I hope to bring a happy ending story of recovery.  My 67 Charger waits in my driveway for the day I can work on it and reinstall the 383 (stroked to 496).  I hope to drive the country this coming spring with my Charger or a 2013 SRT8 Challenger.  My Charger will not have AC so I think I would prefer to take the new Challenger because it will more comfortable seats and much better gas mileage.

Robert

[440]

Good luck for a speedy recovery and before you know it you'll be back in the drivers seat.

[JB400]

Good luck

[Cooter]

Robert, The wifey has about 6 discs in her back screwed up and one blown out knee, so I know where you's comin' from.

Sayin' One for you for a complete and speedy recovery.

[tan top]

i have disc probs in lower back  ,  although been okish for a while   , good luck   

[AKcharger]

 I hope you're surgery turns out as well, I had S5/L1 surgery back in 2003, it was life changing, pain all gone...good luck!

[68X426]

Hey Robert. We feel for you in my household. L3-5 for me, C3-7 for her.

My wife had surgery for the same issues of pain in neck and shoulders. It was a last resort surgery. The surgery was extreme (so it seems to me). Now she has several bone transplants, along with plates and lots of screws to hold in the new vertebrae. Great news: it worked perfectly. She is better than new, though with some loss of flexibilty. Life has been renewed for her.

One advice: don't let anyone talk you out of a regimen of painkillers. It is just sensible to use the painkillers correctly, they are a godsend, and then get off them.

Best wishes, Dan.

[bull]

Sorry to hear about your trouble. I had a herniated L3 and partial L4 last year and there are lots of guys at work who've had surgery and/or are doing pain management therapy due to back injuries. I'm fortunate that the pain pretty much got better on its own (after 3-4 weeks of excruciating misery) and now I'm really taking it easy. I'm considering a career change into something less physical too.

All I can say to you younger guys is you really need to take it easy on your back because it will catch up to you at a time when you need to be the most reliable in life. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

[67_Dodge_Charger]

I just got back from the drs office and he wants me to get a neurology consult and a discogram at C5.  No big deal except Dr. Dilliad is is Billings 350 miles away, so the discogram will be an adventure to say the less.  Neurology consults take about an hour but should not be painful.

So after this my neurosurgeon will know exactly where my pain orginates.  Surgery is likely after this bout of exams.

[oldgold69]

hope it goes well        i've had two lamectomys  know the pain

[Todd Wilson]

All I can say to you younger guys is you really need to take it easy on your back because it will catch up to you at a time when you need to be the most reliable in life. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you should.

Thats no joke!  Young guys beware!  L4-L5 for me almost 5 years ago! Lucky I didnt have surgery. I am not 100% today but very close!


Todd

[dads_69]

Hey, I feel you're pain man. I have another appointment next week myself for same thing. Lose feeling in right hand/arm/elbow area, nerve damage/issues from painting for so may years.
I also have L5/S1 issues, right leg sometimes tweaks, I drag my foot also, can't walk a straight line, gees...All this started I believe 5 or 6 years ago, I bent down to pick up a 13 lb hood and bam! laid me out for 3 weeks!
Sucks when I can't even grab a glass of water sometimes.
Goodluck man! 

[hatersaurusrex]

Hey, I feel you're pain man. I have another appointment next week myself for same thing. Lose feeling in right hand/arm/elbow area, nerve damage/issues from painting for so may years.
I also have L5/S1 issues, right leg sometimes tweaks, I drag my foot also, can't walk a straight line, gees...All this started I believe 5 or 6 years ago, I bent down to pick up a 13 lb hood and bam! laid me out for 3 weeks!
Sucks when I can't even grab a glass of water sometimes.
Goodluck man!  

Strangely enough this post makes me feel even more at home here.  I've had scolioisis since my early 20's and disc problems on and off for years.   The pain was bad but manageable until about two years ago.  I was very active, played golf and racquetball, went moutain biking with my bro.    One night about 4AM I was out on the porch, and I heard a loud bang up the hill and the lights went out in the neighborhood.  I knew someone had hit a pole, and given that it was 4AM I called 911 and then my wife and I drove up the hill to see what happened, since it was 4AM on a Sunday I was afraid that noone else would see or report it since I was the only one up at that godawful hour.

When I got up there I didn't see much of anything at first, but as I approached I could see there was a young girl in the ditch to the left and my wife pointed to her and shouted 'stop'.   She was waving her cell phone to get our attention, so I went up to do a u-turn at the top of the hill and as I did the power wires from the downed pole scraped my roof.  As I passed the pole I saw it had been clipped completely in two and fallen over, and there was a red 90's Ram pickup laying on the side next to it, completely smashed in the front.   I turned around and parked, threw on my flashers, and told my wife to lock the doors and stay in the truck.   I went down, found the girl, and she was OK but had broken her ankle, I told her to stay there, but she wound up crawling to my truck later and sitting inside with my wife.   As I went on down the hill to the pole, I saw what I can only describe as an ginormous black dude hanging out of the driver's window of the truck.   He was alive but his whole face was caked with blood and he was moaning and mumbling.   It told him to sit tight, that help was on its way, and that he shouldn't move becuase he had hit a power pole and there were power lines down everywhere.  

Right then another car pulled up and stopped, and two young guys jumped out and came running towards me.   I had no idea what they were doing, but later in court I learned it was some of the other people who had been partying with the people from the truck and they were all high out of their minds. At the time all I knew is that suddenly a very young very skinny white kid was running up past me and tugging on the giant dude laying on the ground pinned beneath the truck.   He was obviously doped out of his gourd, and kept yelling 'We gotta get him outta there, it's gonna blow! It's gonna blow!' like he was in an old war movie or something.    I told him not to touch the guy, that he could hurt him worse than he already was but the kid wouldn't listen and pushed past me then grabbed his shirt and started dragging him further out.   Big man was wayyy too heavy for this kid and at one point I could look in and see that the big guy's leg wasn't just broken, it was mangled and his jeans were blood soaked.    This kid is tugging on him and his leg is caught in the cab and the guy starts screaming, so I push the kid back and say 'let me do it you're going to f*&^ him up' then I managed free his leg and dragl the guy out onto the ground.   Again I tell them both to stay put, but skinny crack head kid grabs him and is trying to help him to his feet, and right then big man steps down on the mangled leg and I hear the worst sound I've ever heard:  a cracking/splitting/squishing sound as he puts weight down on it.   Instinctively I grab him under his armpit and lift him up.   Right then I can see how enormous he is.  I'm 6'3" and 300 lbs, and this guy was a whole head taller than me at least.   Just after that, the Ram behind us creaks and groans and loudly falls back over onto its wheels.  Dude was so big his weight was anchoring the truck down on its side. Anyway, the kid and I walked him over to my truck, and it was about then I felt white-hot pain and something give in my back and my right leg went numb and I almost dropped him.   I manage to set him down on my tailgate and it's like there's a knife in my back.   Ambulance and police showed up right then and the party was over.

Turns out they were all driving super intoxicated (suprise) and the two guys who pulled up were trying to get him and the girl thrown in their car so they could leave the scene.   I was summoned to court over it, and the girl was there and thanked me for helping her, but she was so backwoods hillbilly hoodrat and saying things like 'Oh my Gawt you wuz like sum kinda angel and shit' , I didn't feel a bit sorry for her giant of a boyfriend (who was in jail so he didn't get to miss a day of work to show up in court like I did).   I did permanent damage to my back to help some dumbass teenagers and in retrospect I'm really lucky they didn't call a lawyer and sue me for what I did wind up doing.   Sometimes doing the right thing is completely not effing worth it at all.   Dude I helped is in jail now for armed robbery, not out finding the next cure for cancer or carrying baskets of spring-scented kitty cats to little old ladies in nursing homes.    I hate to sound jaded, but that's exactly what I am.

Long story short, after that, I had bad disc/nerve damage in my lower spine and my right foot has flopped/drug ever since then.  It's not really noticeable by most people but I'm not anywhere near the same as I used to be.   I can't be on my feet in a leaning position for more than 20 minutes or I have to sit down because the whole works locks up in my lower back.  The last two years have been pretty excruciating but it's been getting slowly better.   I have to admit, I hate doctors.   For reasons I won't get into here, I largely distrust almost all of them.  It's kept me from doing anythign other than getting an xray and painkillers and trying to live with it.

For those of you that have had the surgeries, is it really worth it?  Lately I've thought long and hard about what my life will be like if I live the next 20 years the same way I've had to live the last two and that thought is scarier than any doctor.   Any advice?   I used to see a Chrio years ago and it helped but there's only so much they can do.  

Sorry for the novel, lol.    

[Mike DC]

              
My GF just had a HUGE spinal fusion done this last summer (scolisis).

 She's only 24yo but her curve was already bad and worsening and hurting.  The writing was on the wall that she would eventually be having it done so she decided to get it over with.   Younger at the time of the surgery equals a faster recovery and final result closer to straight. 

They left a handful of loose vertebrae at the top & bottom and locked up a huge chunk about a foot long in the middle.  Of course she's still recovering 5 months later.  It's been hard but she does not regret it.  

I'm not sure how relevant her case is because a lot of her difficulty was related to the sheer size of what she had done.  The experience might be much less severe if you're only talking about having a few vertebrae locked.  

[67_Dodge_Charger]

Going to Billings tomorrow for a cervical discogram, the doctor will inject a liquid dye to see if he can replicate my pain.  The dye will also show any problems with the disc.  I will have to leave Missoula by 4 AM to get to Billings by 12 (noon) for my appointment at 1 PM, then a long drive home after the procedure.  My younger brother just moved to Missoula so I will have a driver for the trip.  I hope the weather is cooperative and we have sunshine the whole drive.

 I think I will need a double.  Robert

[Todd Wilson]

The thing I discovered researching my back problem 5 years ago and talking to and knowing several people who have had back problems and surgeries is theres nothing cut and dried. While the back problem can be the same each one is different if that makes any sense. I know people who have had surgery and are fine. People with surgery that are not fine and some that got over it without surgery (ME).  Although I was back to work in about 6 weeks looking back on it.it was too soon. It was 2 years before I really could do different things.  I knew a guy who had the same injury and got surgery and within 8 weeks was driving an antique semi truck to our big national show.  6-8 months later he hurt it again same place and had another surgery and was fine.


I dont do stupid shit anymore where it comes to picking up stuff.   If I got something heavy to move from one side of the garage to the other I scoop it up with the 2 wheeler instead of picking it up. I am really not wanting to do any more auto restoration of any kind which has caused me to really consider selling my 69 as I wont have the $$$ to pay someone to restore it and I dont have the time right now and physically either not up to it or dont want to try it.  I am really cautioned as to what I do now.  Messing around restoring the 69 could cost me everything if I blow my back out again and not able to work.

Todd

[67_Dodge_Charger]

I got back home 1 1/2 hours ago and feel pretty tired and a little sore.  The drive over was horrible, five hours each way, bumpy road in a truck and my brother was not thinking of my neck (next time I think I will drive myself and stay an extra day).  The doctor in Billings stuck needles in discs at C4-C5, C5-C6 and C6-C7.  He injects a fluid dye in each disc and ask if it is a new pain or familiar.  The worst part was the needle going in the front of my neck around my throut and into my disc, and being told not to swallow (time yourself and see how long you can go without swallowing).  Do all of that and go in for a CT scan in a very cold room.  Two hours in the injection room and xray room.  I am really tired and really happy to be on my pain medication.  I got the laptop and watched the Victoria Secret show on tv.  Woohoo.

[tan top]

aww man that must of been uncomfortable