Monday, May 03, 2004

Neck Surgery

I thought I would give a little update on my neck.

I wish I could make fun of it but it is a little harder to laugh through the pain medication. I have 11 more weeks of incredible boredom. In the healing process of which some of it is physical therapy. bleah. Compared to football and swimming workouts that will be a bore too.

So anyway here is what they do. The cut an incision in the front of your neck (on my right side) all the way to the spinal column, remove all the disc and them go down to your hip in my case my left one cut a hunk out of it and fill the gap between the vertebrate which will then act as a bridge allowing bone to grow hence the fusion part. Since we have 7 vertebrate in our necks I will loose approximately 1/7 the range of motion in my neck.

Pain:

My neck hardly hurt either in the front or at the spinal column. I have been acutely aware to be extremely careful with my neck since especially for the first 4 weeks or so my head will technically not be (except for 4 screws and a titanium plate) attached.

My hip hurt like it was broke or something which is true. But I have broken bones before and I knew what to expect. I guess I surprised the therapist when I got up and walked around without the cane. Gimped would be more like it. Been gimping ever since.

What caught me by surprise was when my brain figured out that their were parts of my body it had forgotten about,my upper shoulder, laterals, triceps, and muscles about half the way down my back And decided to cramp them up all at once. Now that hurt. I couldn,t breathe but in grunts. They cramped so hard that some of them have pulled loose I am pretty sure of that.
I found the solution in two shots of pain pills and two of muscle relaxers and ice packs on my back for two days. I did nothing but sleep yesterday.

Well just thought I would put a little in here so you'all wouldn't think I had fallen of the earth or something.

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