6 week surgical follow-up

6 week follow up went great! As you can see, the disc is sitting in there just perfectly and when I flex or extend my neck it behaves exactly as an organic disc would. And just look how perfect the other discs are! It's a beautiful sight to me. This is the last section of my spine that's not fused.

The knots, or adhesions, in my shoulder area remain, leftover from when the nerves were causing muscle spasms constantly. I bought some tennis balls and am rolling around on them trying to work the knots out, also doing lots of stretching in that area. Dr. Spivak was impressed with the range of motion that I've already been able to acheive, movement that was impossible or impossible without pain before. No more pain going down my arms, yay!

I've got an appointment with their pain management specialist for a shot or two next month, as I'm more concerned with the pain in my legs coming from my lower back than I am about the neck.

Bactroban Nasal ointment

The Bactroban Nasal video! NSFDT (Not Safe For Dinner Table).

Give it up cause I'm BACK

I wish this pain would give it up already.
I had a couple good years. I don't mean to sound defeated and pessimistic, and I'm not saying that the surgery wasn't worth it, it def was. Without it, I'd still be walking with a cane, unable to stand up straight or hold up my upper body. I am having leg pain, throbbing pain, like a heartbeat, after activities that require lots of walking or standing on hard surfaces. Had to coat my legs in Tiger Balm last night and use my fists to pound some additional circulation into my muscles in order to relieve it somewhat. For some reason, I have in my mind that pain can only be relieved with something equally as violent, hence the fist pounding, and before you make an assumption of masochism or anything, I learned it from a yoga instructor (the fist pounding, not the weird idea about pain relief). This was after a day of running errands and doing an hour yoga class in the morning, not exactly running a marathon. Incidentally, I'm wondering out loud here why the hell I need to cram all my errands into Saturday when I'm unemployed and can go to the post office and CVS and Bed Bath and Beyond during the week? W/E.
I also have sciatica pretty bad again, and I when I say pretty bad I mean moving a certain way which I might add, is still completely unpredictable, gets me a lightning bolt of pain down my leg, like a filament of an old light bulb, white hot and quivering.
The other large issue now is my neck. A few weeks ago I had xrays and an MRI. I'm now able to read xrays and MRI films pretty well, and I was shocked, as I was 20+ years ago when I saw my thoracic spine twisted like a vine around a tree in that set of xrays, to see my C5 disc completely collapsed. The physiatrist I saw was a joke, writing a script for muscle relaxers I can't take for obvious reasons and NSAIDS that I can't take because of stomach problems. Dr. Spivak, who was recommended to me by Dr. Balderston, says he can go in and TRY to fit in an artificial disc, but, like the sitch with my lumbar spine 5 years ago, it's collapsed and he probably won't be able to pry it apart to fit the disc in. Aside from that, I have bone spurs and arthritis in there and he says he can clean it up and I may get some relief.
I need relief. My left arm and shoulder kill me a lot, and I can't depend on the left side for anything (which makes chaturanga dandasana a challenge and sometimes a comedy routine and sometimes just a balasana (child's pose) until I'm able to use it again.
But I keep going. I keep doing yoga, I keep hiking, I keep trying to lift stuff with my left arm, cause if I don't that'll mean I give up and I don't.

Cortisone shots SUCK !

Big time.

I barely slept Wednesday night either. I'm not looking forward to the next shot, but at least I know now how to prepare. Dig out the anxiety meds and dose up trying to calm down.

Neck blog?

Yesterday I got the first of a series of cortisone injections in my neck. I had a MRI a few weeks ago that showed my C5-6 was bulging and also that the hole that the nerve goes through had narrowed, causing the worsening pain in my neck and upper back and shoulder. The lidocaine she used to numb the area before the steroid was nice, I had a pain free neck for an hour or so. Then it wore off. My neck was a bit stiff, which they'd warned me about; they also warned me that the cortisone might make me a bit "jittery," like I'd had too much coffee. That was an understatement.

I did not sleep A WINK last night, and my heart and mind are still racing. I'm due for another shot next week and think I'll ask for a sleeping pill on my way out! I sure hope this helps with my neck pain. Hmm, maybe I'll change the name of the blog to "A Pain in the Neck." What do you think?