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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

It’s just another health setback….got worse today. Now it’s better!

ScottsGT

By ScottsGT
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ScottsGT

ScottsGT

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Sorry for the long post.  I felt like I needed to get this out there.  

So last week the wife and I went to Asheville NC for one of her continuing education conferences.  Got there Sunday evening.  I had stabbing pains in my left knee, a little worse than normal.  Wednesday morning I woke up, got out of bed and noticed I was having balance issues, much worse than my normal issue.  
Went on throughout the day.  That evening my knees would just collapse if I wasn’t careful.  By Thursday I was a hot mess.  We went to a few thrift stores to shop around and I found a used walking cane for $3.  Great!  I can get around a little better with a cane. 
Got back to town, delt with the struggle until I could get in Tuesday to see a chiropractor.  That being said, things were improving Monday evening it seemed. 
My regular guy is out due to an operation he had last month, so he’s got a well experienced lady filling in for him.  
She’s really concerned with my situation and even asked for my latest MRI from 3.5 years ago.  She gave me an adjustment yesterday and sent me home to relax on ice packs. 
What did I do?  Sat at my bench all afternoon assembling the AIM 1’s for the Cutlass. Today, woke up feeling a little worse.  Went back for the follow up, got yelled at for sitting at my bench.  
Yep.  We’re at DEFCON 1. It’s worse now.  Under no circumstances am I to sit at my hobby bench. She wants me reclined back with ice packs every 30 min.  I remember the good old days when I was out of school from being sick and how mom would stop at the base toy land so I could grab a model to keep me busy.  Can’t even do that now! 
The good news is that the left knee pain is getting better.  And thankfully I have no pain associated with this situation.  Just loss of communication between my brain and my leg muscles.  
For some reason, the powers that be just do not want me to complete this Fisher Cutlass.  

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ScottsGT

ScottsGT

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Thanks guys.  Chiropractor called me after looking over my old X-rays.  Said she wants to give it a shot at aligning things, but she’s also asking around in her circles about the best neurosurgeon in the area that can take care of this if moving things around done work.  She said the majority of the issues look like they were brought on by bone spurs and arthritis more than stenosis. 

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ScottsGT

ScottsGT

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Just an update….while my legs are still very weak, I am finding myself walking more without the cane, up and around for longer periods of time.  I still use the cane assist at night for my bathroom trips and navigating the stairs around the home.  
The hypersensitivity in my lower extremities is still nonexistent.  Jabbed myself with an injection this morning and didn’t feel a thing.  
Yesterday I did climb up on my ZTR mower and took care of the yard, of course no weed whacking was done.  Thankfully I installed a spring suspension seat last year that takes any hard shocks from bumping around out of the ride.  And I can kind of lean back a little it in as well.  
I just took care of the kitchen after the wife destroyed it making breakfast for everyone (no empty nesters this weekend, full house) and now I’m chilling with ice packs on my back. 
It’s good to feel some slow progress!  

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BlrwestSiR

BlrwestSiR

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Glad to hear you're getting back/closer to normal. Hope it keeps trending this way so you can start ballroom dancing again. 

PS- I hear you on the destroyed kitchen bit. I've got the same pet peeve. 

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ScottsGT

ScottsGT

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Everything still feels about the same.  Sitting out on our dock yesterday afternoon and my friend visiting splashed ice water on my foot/ankle area.  “Oh yea, that’s good and cold.  That’ll make you jump!” 
nope. Cannot feel the cold.  I can feel the water hitting, but not the chill.  
At that point I think my wife started understanding just how bad off I am.  Especially when she asked me what I was going to carry up as I was standing up and almost face planted back down.  “Oh, I guess nothing then.” was her response to her own question.  
She jumped my behind and told me to get the ball rolling with our GP and a Neuro guy she works with. Today the fill in chiropractor looked at my 4 yo MRI and admitted there was nothing she could help me with in this situation.  She feels I’m looking at a total lower fusion just to stop anymore progressive nerve damage.  And of course my wife has us booked on two more cruises until November.  
This is going to get dragged out longer than I hoped.  

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ScottsGT

ScottsGT

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Thanks Peter.  Right now I’m dealing with setting up appointments between my PCP that I see next Tuesday for an already scheduled appointment and the Neurosurgeon.  Neuro wants to see me tomorrow, but no order for an MRI or the necessary referral from PCP yet, and they’re not responding to my messages.   Of course this is all on the office staff, not my doc.  I’m going to have to bite my tongue and not read him the riot act Tuesday when I see him.  Neuro did give me a late afternoon appointment on Tuesday at this time. 
And of course they can see we’re trying to fast track everything like my wife did with her breast cancer.  It doesn’t seem to be working for me.   
It seems that I’m doing much better in the evenings lately.   But bathroom runs in the middle of the night are rough, as is getting up first thing in the morning.  
In the meantime, I’m going to go downstairs and clean up the disaster after finishing up the Cutlass and go donate another pint of blood today.  

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ScottsGT

ScottsGT

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So today was my appointment with the neurosurgeon.  Wife works with the guy, and he’s great from everything she knows about him.  Young guy, puts modern technology to use in the OR.  All he had to look at today was my MRI from almost 4 years ago.  What he saw, was very ugly.  And based on those images (and he doubts his procedure would change) it’s going to be a very extensive 8 hour operation.  He has to go in from the front, side and back.

Front access through my belly will be to replace my degenerated discs with spacers on the front side.  Side would be a laminectomy around the nerves and to insert more spacers.  Back would be to add all of the fusion hardware.  Currently my lumbar region has no curvature to it due to the crushed and degenerated discs.  His goal is a complete decompression and proper curvature.  Currently I’m experiencing SI and thoracic issues and these are because I’m trying to correct my posture by over extending these areas. 
 

Now here’s the part that scares the hell out of me.

5-7 days in the hospital

1-2 weeks in rehab center

6 months to a year recovery time   

In the meantime I’m starting a series of steroids to see if it helps.  Next week (leaving town for the week in the morning) a current MRI and X-rays and then a steroid injection.
  I’ve come to the decision that I have to do the surgery, it’s not going to get better ignoring it.  We just have to plan it out accordingly and make sure things around the home are basically in order so it can be ignored for at least 6 months.  Lawn care, boat getting serviced, auto maintenance, etc…. keeps running through my mind. 

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HubertB

HubertB

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Sorry to read this, Scott. My wife Patricia went through this (in the cervical vertebrae area) in early 2017. With numbness gaining the arms and hands, it was a matter of urgency. The neurosurgeon, a brilliant lady, did the procedure you describe for two discs and decided to leave the third one untouched, not wanting to push luck too far. It went very well in two operations (from the front then the back) 3 weeks apart. The second op, cutting though the cervical muscles, which are some of the strongest - and most solicited - muscles of the body, left her in pain for a few weeks.

Don’t miss on the rehab / physiology training. When you have a number of vertebrae welded together, there are movements you took for granted you cannot do anymore, and you have to learn other ways of achieving the same result, and re-train the brain for those.

Anyway, good luck with this. What is important is that you have a (very) good neurosurgeon for the procedure, and that you trust him/her. Even if you have a long period to grind after that, you’ll be happy to recover a more mobile life for the following years.

Hubert
 

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