Can't Be Around Much For A While

susiestar

Roll With It
I am sorry I have not been posting much lately. I am having major problems that are probably from another disc in my neck disintegrating. I have already had 2 fusions and will be having an MRI this month to see if another is needed. Meanwhile, my right hand is having lots of numbness, tingling and pain. How can something numb hurt, esp so dang bad??? But it does. Typing is NOT easy.

I am also having major neck pain and a constant migraine. I am heading into week 8 of this one. medications help for about 4-8 hrs IF they don't make me throw up. THAT is painful. So I am skipping medications and coping with the migraine when I can.

My parents are all upset because I am not going anywhere and they have called at times when I am in horrible pain and fighting not to be sick and have not come to the phone. It isn't personal, but my mother makes it personal every time. So Annoying. I just want to crawl into a cave and hide.

I wouldn't be upset or even too worried about another fusion except for the bone thinning. My doctor is FAR from expressive and when I told her about the pain, tingling, etc... she looked really scared. It was disconcerting, to say the least.

Anyway, that is why I will be gone or at least not posting much for the next couple of months. You are all in my thoughts and prayers though.
 

TerryJ2

Well-Known Member
ACK!!!! I am SO sorry!
I am kind of on the path you are on. No surgeries ... yet. I had an MRI and consultation last year but did not like the "only" surgery option. I will wait until I cannot function until I have surgery. I'm still halfway functional. :)
Tingling down the arm, itching palm, pain in the neck and shoulder.
Sometimes dropping things.
Migraines.
Really have to stay off the computer (although the ergonomic keyboard and the new chair have helped, not to mention chiropractic, massage and exercise).
I hear you!
And I feel for you.
Take care. :grouphug::cry:
 

GoingNorth

Crazy Cat Lady
Susie, you have my sympathies. I'm in the neck and back boat right now as well.

Both an itchy numb palm and an itchy numb patch on my very upper back that I've scratched sores in.

I can feel the itch, but can't feel the scratch. My palm is peeling right now because I scratch it in my sleep (I also scratch my back in my sleep)

I hope you don't need surgery again. I've been told I need surgery on both my lower back (L5s1) and on my neck (who knows, I have a non-displaced C1/C2 fracture that fused on it's own and is just a mass of bone spurs and other ick)

I refuse to have surgery until I can't stand it anymore. Scares the crap out of me.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
I didn't know so many of us were in this same awful boat. I will say that I have not regretted the 2 surgeries I had. Life got to the point very fast where it was even painful to lift a cup of coffee and I would cry while pouring it if the pot was even half full. Much of the time I didn't realize I was crying but it sure upset people around me, esp my very tender hearted husband.

I don't have the itching this time, but did before. I have other nerve issues that can lead to intense sleep itching, to the point I wake up with bloody nails and deep sores. It hoovers, so I empathize, GN.

If you do the surgery, do NOT NOT NOT let them take bone from your hip. Use donor bone or if you are eligible, one of the replacements. I had the 1st surgery using my bone and that hip is STILL a major problem and it has been almost 20 yrs. They say it is from a non-weight bearing area and you heal and won't have a higher fracture rate, but actually I have a drastically higher fracture rate there and the bone density issues are going to make it break at some point. I have been told it is likely inevitable. I had the 2nd surgery with donor bone and have had zero issues.

If you smoke or live with a smoker, PLEASE be aware it will add at least a month to your healing. Nicotine and other things in tobacco use keep bones from healing as quickly or as well as they do without it. My first surgeon had so many complications in smokers and their family members that he refused to take patients who smoked or lived with a smoker. He was excellent and I am glad to have had him. Many ortho and spine docs will not tell you that nicotine slows healing of bones, but if you ask about it, they all seem to be aware of it.

I know three smokers who never did heal properly after surgery for this, partly because of other things they did (like take off the neck brace way too early because it was 'inconvenient'), but they all had smoking related healing issues.

I will say the surgery did make a HUGE difference in my life each time, and I don't regret having done it. You DO need to be aware that after the first disc fusion, you will most likely need another every 8-10 yrs or so. It just is what it is, so if it can heal using Phys Therapy, chiro, etc..., then you should go for that at least to try. Mine just refused to respond. Now they say the vit D issue played a big role in that, but who really knows?
 
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