Degenerative Disc Disease and Facet Joint Arthritis

Post by **WLLady** » Thu Jun 16, 2016 8:06 am

i am certainly going to be taking my cellphone LOL so i can get a PTO fix every day, probably multiple times a day!!! LOL. you guys are all the absolute best....i honestly don't know what i would do without all of you letting me blabber on and on.

Post by **WLLady** » Mon Jan 02, 2017 11:45 am

well folks....thought i would share.....unbelievable what medicine is capable of.
i am the bionic woman, iron woman, titanium broad, i don't know quite yet hopefully i don't break any of the rods or pull any screws...but heres the before and after xrays....

before: lateral scoliosis

and rotatory scoliosis

: right bending.JPG (15.55 KiB) Viewed 2556 times

with bad discs and bone spurs

after the fix:

(if you look closely you can see the staples!)

i am pretty darned close to 0 degrees on the scoliosis!!!! and my spine isn't twisted anymore either! it feels totally different to walk, sit, stand, basically to do anything, but that's okay! the square things in the after xrays are cages to replace the discs that were removed.

Post by **Home Grown Poultry** » Mon Jan 02, 2017 11:53 am

WOW!!! Thats amazing Kathy! what a difference! xrays are to cool. I seen one of my foot seperated from my leg, then with the hardward to rebuild it and then fully healed with bone grown around the hardware. its amazing what a surgeon can do with todays technology.

we're wishing you all the best in your recovery!

Happy · Post by **Happy** » Mon Jan 02, 2017 12:32 pm

What an amazing difference! And a whole lot of hardware omg.
My hubby had a (much smaller) fusion completed a year and a half ago by the now infamous neuro-surgeon that is currently awaiting trial for murdering his wife. I didn't want to bring that up prior to your surgery because NOBODY needs to hear anything negative about doctors just prior to a big surgery lol.
Anyways it took a full year of physio,swimming and then strength training but he is doing great and back to doing almost everything he did before the car accident that caused the problem. He did develop a bad case of frozen shoulder from immobility and just everything moving differently after fusion so be careful and nip it in the bud if possible. It's apparently quite common after back surgery but easily treated if caught early.

Jaye · Post by **Jaye** » Mon Jan 02, 2017 12:37 pm

Well, words just fail me at the moment. So I'll quote Vizzini (Princess Bride): Inconceivable!
So happy for you, WLlady. Onward and upward!

Post by **WLLady** » Mon Jan 02, 2017 12:48 pm

ha ha jaye, somehow vizzini is appropriate isn't he? LOL.
too bad i don't have that movie on dvd....it's fun.

yeah, i'm pretty impressed. and my surgeons (yes, plural) all were fantastic. they all came by after the surgery, to see how i was doing.....and my primary surgeon that i've been seeing through the assessments and surgery and now for post-surgery care, has been amazing. he dropped in 2 days after my surgery looking all the world like "some guy" off the street, wearing jeans and a hoodie LOL. and was all excited with copies of my xrays on his cellphone and literally grinning ear to ear about getting this all back to 0 degrees!
had a few issues with pain control immediately after the surgery, but aside from some silly nerves waking up and itching like crazy across the incision today things are pretty good. trying to move around enough....i actually went up and down all the stairs today! my left leg needs to readjust muscles to the change in the physics, so i figure i can do simply put my foot on the lowest stair and stand up. then back down. that will get that figured out. doing laps around my house...i'll get onto the treadmill next week probably....where i can walk with a book or the tv.
been doing all my wussy stretching exercises....still feeling really timid and tender around L2, which is the one that is worst off to the left side in the first xray. they really had to crank that one back into position. i also met some very very happy medical students LOL. they thought it was "so cool and totally awesome" (quote-scary enough) that they could see a laminectomy and help put me back together again (apparently everything twisted and they needed hands to hold things in place so they're stop twisting.....um. LOL.
so they removed the backs off the vertebrae at L2 L3 L4 and L5 it looks like from the xrays. took out all the facet joints (the bars are where they would be)....so that freed up all the pinched nerve roots and took the pressure off my spinal cord.

Just waiting on the nurse to come today and tell me whether i can actually get staples and stitches out in the next 2 days or so. martin counts 66, i counted 65, 66, 67 or 70 depending on the day LOL. i think there's 66 or 67 staples. there's a pile of tension stitches as well.
and a 20ish inch incision!!!! yikes!!!!
glad i can't actually SEE it....although i have seen photos of it!

Post by **WLLady** » Tue Jan 03, 2017 12:55 pm

66 staples and 15 sutures removed today.

Post by **Killerbunny** » Tue Jan 03, 2017 2:27 pm

Wow! You must be healing up fast !

Post by **WLLady** » Tue Jan 03, 2017 2:31 pm

it's been 15 days now since the surgery...i can't believe it! my back is still draining a bit, so VON wouldn't "discharge" me today, they'll be back on friday to check on that. steristrips for a week now, but at least all the blasted staples are gone! yay! now i have a little bin of them sitting on the table. LOL. We were joking that there were enough there to melt down and make jewelry!
I was surprised. Getting them out didn't hurt that much...not as much as the nerves waking up again.
but i tell ya, it's nap time again. so exhausting!

windwalkingwolf · Post by **windwalkingwolf** » Tue Jan 03, 2017 3:50 pm

Now the REAL itching begins lol