6 Week Post-Op Update: Cervical Disc Fusion Surgery

Tuesday was the six week mark for my cervical disc surgery. I'm pretty much pain-free although the past two days I've had some shoulder pain on my left shoulder. It doesn't last long and may be from sleeping funny: I still tend not to turn very often at night since I'm not wearing the cervical collar and I worry about jerking my head.

I actually don't see the surgeon until the 26th and tomorrow I am headed to the hospital for an xray so he'll know how fusion is progressing by my appointment. I'm not worried, I'm sure that's fine. What I am concerned about is my voice or lack thereof. One of my coworkers called the other day and said I sound like Froggy from The Little Rascals. My voice is still raspy-sounding and I can't get any volume behind it if I want to yell.

I was lucky enough to call Tuesday and get an appointment with the ENT the next day. He took a look at my vocal cords and said that the right side is paralyzed. The left is compensating for it which is why I have any voice at all. It is also the reason I sometimes choke if I try to drink too fast. It doesn't effect my ability to eat, just drinking is a problem and for me...only when I try to drink something too fast. He seems to think the nerve is damaged and will correct itself; if the nerve is severed then this is as good as it gets. I have a follow-up appointment in 3 months. For now though, he said I can't damage it any further by talking..so no worries there. He said I may wear my voice out if I talk too much, but it won't damage that paralyzed side any more than it already is.

Last week was a little rough for me; I was feeling really down. I think because the surgery was a lot more difficult to recover from than I thought and having to deal with the losses: my voice, cutting off the pain pills after being on them since July, and quitting smoking. Silly, but I found myself crying over cigarettes the other day. While I feel better and smell so much better, I do miss my old friends. When I was feeling stressed or sad or angry...I'd reach for my cigarettes. Now I have to find other ways to cope and it's a loss although my bank account isn't complaining. Since both my husband and I quit, we figured we're saving at least $500 a month. Both of us were buying 2 packs of cigarettes each day, a little more than $5 each pack, for 30 days....big money.

I met a woman the other day at the doctor who said she's been smoke-free for years and still misses them. I suppose it will always be like that for me, too. The good thing is that less and less I think about them during the day and when I do get a craving, it's over fairly quickly now. I do like being able to smell things that I couldn't before and I did notice that things taste differently now and not always in a good way. I always liked eggs but the past two times we've gone to Denny's and I've ordered eggs two different ways, I couldn't stand them. I've really tried not to stuff my mouth with food because I didn't want to gain weight by quitting smoking and, so far, all my pants still fit the same way. Sugarless gum and mints help with the cravings. I also have a stash of suckers that help, too.

The scar seems to be fading and while it is still a bit tender, it's not nearly as swollen as it was before. I've even been rubbing some Mederma on it every day to help with the fading. I no longer have any pain when turning my head from side to side like I did when I first came home from surgery. The best part is the arm pain is totally gone and my fingers are no longer numb. Hopefully, the neck is fusing but I'll know more after my appointment with the surgeon next week.

Post-Cervical Surgery Update

I am one week post-op now. My surgery was last Tuesday the 15th. The neurosurgeon took marrow from my hip and used a cadaver bone along with fusing the titanium plate to the two discs. Surprisingly, the marrow extraction from my hip didn't hurt at all...and that was what everyone said was going to hurt bad. Just a tiny ache when I'd turn on my side but hardly noteworthy at all. There are two tiny "holes" where the put the needle in and they're slightly bruised and covered with this purple goo-covering to protect them while they heal.

The worst part is my throat. I apparently had "problems" with the breathing tube and there was a lot of swelling in my neck area that still hasn't receded. I don't know what the scar really looks like because he stitched it up and then put this yucky purple goo over it...reminds me of Super-Elastic-Bubble-Plastic in purple. It dries up to a purple crust and I guess it will come off on it's own or the doctor will chip it off next Wednesday when I go see him.

I had problems swallowing the first few days. I had trouble choking down the pain pills and when we got home my husband and I started to crush them and toss them in a Snack Pack pudding to get them down. They gave me Oxycodone for the pain and Flexeril for the muscle spasms...and there are spasms. When I get them, they're right between the shoulder blades and you can feel everything just seize up. So the muscle relaxers do help. Every waking moment is spent wearing the cervical collar...I'm only allowed to take it off for showers and sleeping. I take it off to eat too because I don't need to feel any more restricted in my throat than I already do. The collar actually doesn't feel too bad and now I feel naked when I'm not wearing it.

The thing that I'm most worried about is my voice. It's gone. I barely speak in a whisper now. My husband swears it's better than the first day but it's still "gone" and I'm worried it may not come back. It's like the world's worst laryngitis and no amount of clearing my throat makes it better. Couple that with kicking smoking cold turkey this week and I'm a basket-case. Since smoking apparently interferes with the titanium plate fusing, I didn't want to risk it so I haven't had a cigarette since the morning of my surgery.

But the arm pain and shoulder pain are gone. I knew I needed the surgery because I was having more and more periods of numbness in my right hand and fingers. While there was some pain toward the end, there was more numbness which is pretty scary.

I'm trying to be patient but the throat thing is really bothering me. Since I'm a police dispatcher, I need my voice..not some whisper-voice that no one can hear. I'm considering calling the doctor tomorrow and not waiting for my follow-up appointment on the 30th to find out if it's going to come back or not. I've heard horror stories about vocal cord paralysis from this surgery.

One thing my husband and I agree is that I should have stayed at the hospital longer. I had the surgery Tuesday morning, it lasted 3 hours, was in recovery for a couple hours and then in my own room that afternoon. They discharged me the next morning around 10am. I could have used a few days in the hospital especially since swallowing was such an issue. I sleep a lot now, the pain pills make me tired, which is good because it takes my mind off wanting to smoke.

The morning of the surgery wasn't too bad. They did most of the "prep" while I was sleeping..like inserting the catheter. They also took the catheter out before I woke up which was nice. I vaguely remember being in the operating room with the i.v. in and them putting the mask over my face. Next thing I knew I was in the recovery room moving my fingers. Since I've been home I made sure to take some Correctal every few days because anesthesia and pain pills slow everything down and I didn't need any bathroom issues in addition to everything else I have to deal with. The Correctal really helps.

Would I have the surgery again? Not sure...if my voice comes back and the plate fuses correctly, then yes, I would. We won't know about the plate fusing until at least 6 weeks post-op when the doctor says he'll take another xray. I'm going to try to find out about my voice tomorrow.

I'll update as soon as I know.

No Pain in the Neck: Cervical Disc Fusion Surgery

About a month and a half ago, I developed a pain in my shoulder. It felt like I slept funny and was concentrated in the area of my right shoulder blade, radiated to the front of my clavicle and shot down my right arm. The pain was pretty severe but I decided to wait a week and see if it got better.

It didn't; it actually got worse. I went to see my family doctor who diagnosed a "sprain" and prescribed muscle relaxers and Vicodin. Two days later the pain really flared up from my elbow extending to my wrist; it hurt so bad I thought that somehow I must have broken my arm although there was no trauma. There was no specific "event" that I could pinpoint and say "Yes, that's why I'm hurting now". Vicodin wasn't touching this pain. As I lay awake in bed, unable to sleep because I hurt so bad, I began thinking about a friend of mine who had just been released from the hospital after having pain in her arm from a blood clot.

Naturally, my overactive imagination kicked in and I decided to ask Dr. Google what the symptoms are for a blood clot in the arm. Of course, I diagnosed myself with a blood clot, woke my husband up at 5 a.m. and demanded he take me to the emergency room because I was convinced that because I'd waited so long, said blood clot was going to dislodge in the next 10 minutes, travel to my heart and kill me while I slept.

Three hours and a vascular ultrasound later, the emergency room doctor pronounced my veins in decent shape, prescribed some Oxycotin and advised me to make an appointment with an orthopedic doctor for follow-up.

The orthopedic doctor saw me a few days later. By now the pain was centrally located in my right arm between elbow and wrist. Occasionally my shoulder would flare up but I figured it was because of my "Swan Lake" move; the only way I was able to get minimal relief from the pain in my forearm. The Swan Lake move looks similar to this:



I call it the Swan Lake move because it reminds me of a ballerina. I would actually go to bed with my arm over my head like that and frequently performed the move while I was driving the car or sitting at my desk at work. Both the ortho-doc and the neurosurgeon say the move is fairly common in herniated cervical discs although it doesn't officially have a name...it does now: Swan Lake. She took xrays which were negative for any fractures. She prescribed Prednisone and another muscle relaxer and told me to return in a week for follow-up. Again, there was no improvement. She then ordered an MRI on my neck and called me the next day with the results: I had a herniation, specifically C6-C7 which was probably compressing the nerve causing the pain in my arm and shoulder. She referred me to a neurosurgeon.

The neurosurgeon actually saw me pretty quickly because the ortho-doc called him herself to get him to squeeze me in. After reviewing the MRI and performing a few motor-function tests in his exam room, he dubbed me surgery-worthy and I'm now scheduled to go in for surgery next Tuesday. I exist on Vicodin now. While the intensity of the pain has subsided, I'm now experiencing periods of numbness in my hand and fingers. As I'm typing this, my fingertips of my index and middle finger are noticeably numb. It waxes and wanes; sometimes it's numb, sometimes it's fine.

To say I'm scared would be an understatement. According to the doctor, and written here without all the doctor-ese, he'll cut the front of my neck open, move all the vitals like my Carotid artery and voicebox, scrape out the disc "filling" to release the pressure on that poor abused nerve, fuse the two discs together with a permanent plate, refill the area with bone marrow he'll withdraw from my hip, put everything back in it's rightful place and sew my neck back together. Sounds like a good time to me.

The surgery should take two hours and I will be in the hospital for a day before I go home. I'll be wearing a surgical collar for four weeks post-surgery and I can't help but think of the dog after we had her spayed. She wore that stupid funnel around her head for a week after the surgery. I'll probably be looking just as fashionable.

And to top it all off, I have to quit smoking. According to the neurosurgeon my fusion success rate drops to 78% if I smoke; that's down from a 98% success rate. While I know it's something I should do anyway, knowing I HAVE TO is making this whole thing more difficult. I called the Ohio Quit Line last week and they sent me my first two boxes of NicoDerm Patches free of charge; my insurance company participates in the program and I'm able to get a two month's supply of stop-smoking aide free; my choice of patches, gum or lozenges. They also have coaches who call weekly to check on my progress. Right now I'm staring at these two boxes wondering if I can fashion them into a giant tunic since these first few days are going to be rough and I predict I'm going to need the super-sized dose of nicotine.

While I'm not looking forward to another scar, especially one right on the front of my neck (although I'm planning on telling everyone I was in a knife fight), I am hoping for some relief from this constant pain. I am surprised that there actually isn't pain in the area that's herniated; everything has been in my shoulder or my arm. I suppose I'm lucky that I found an orthopedic doctor that knew what she was doing when she ordered the MRI; apparently pain like this is often misdiagnosed as gout, carpal tunnel or rotator cuff problems. I'll also update after the surgery for anyone that may come across this post and find themselves in a similar situation.

Poor Sasha

Last Friday, after battling with this tooth that has been giving me problems and finding out the dentist I've been seeing all these years has really done some crappy work in my mouth that's going to take tons of overtime to fix, I found out my dog needs emergency surgery.

The day before, she peed on the floor. This, in itself, is a big deal because neither of my dogs make "BAD outside" in the house. I seriously believe they'd rather die than do that. Just uttering "BAD outside" in their presence makes their ears go back and they slink away from the speaker. So to pee in the house is bad, but to pee in the house right in front of Mommy, is a cardinal sin.

As I'm yelling "BAD outside" and cleaning it up, I notice it's very dark and smells really bad. Now, pee doesn't smell great anyway, but this was foul. Now my mommy spider-sense starts tingling and I know there's something wrong with the dog.

Of course, the hubster says "Let's keep an eye on her for a few days and see how she is". But I overruled him. I whipped her into the vet Friday.

We found Sasha about 5 years ago. Someone had brought her into the police station where I work. She was barely 6 weeks old at the time. No one claimed her, she was dumped which was blatantly obvious by the fact that she was literally attached to each one of us when I brought her home. We spent those first few weeks dodging her every time we walked because she was always underfoot. She's got some issues. She refuses to play with toys. Balls, squeaky toys, tug-o-war...she refuses to play, which really drives our Chow-mix, Bo, nuts because he tries so hard, squeaking the toy right at her, dropping it in front of her, nudging her with them. She won't bite. She'll chew bones and she'll play wrestle with Bo, but she won't play with any toys or chase any balls. In addition you can't pick her up because she yelps and pees. She's always been this way and very rarely have we ever had to pick her up; we usually avoid it so not to make her upset.

Of course the vet wants her up on the examining table. I warn her she's going to pee but that was a good thing--they wanted a urine sample anyway. On that white tile floor you could clearly see blood in her urine. Not a good sign.

Then the vet starts feeling her tummy and says the dreaded words "I need to get an xray, I feel something". They pull me into the back room a few minutes later. As soon as I saw the xray, I saw the mass. It was big and oval shaped, right in her bladder. There was barely any bladder left, it was so big. My first thought was "tumor", but the vet said she was almost positive it was a bladder stone, and a huge one at that. And it's got to come out, there's no waiting. They scheduled surgery for Monday morning.

I felt so bad for her all weekend while we waited. Per the vet's instructions, we let her out every 1/2 hour so she could try to pass urine. Luckily she was getting some out each time, the fear being that the stone would block all passage of pee and then Houston, we have a problem.

Monday couldn't come fast enough. She came through the surgery with flying colors and while they had wanted to keep her overnight Monday, they told us to come and get her because she was anxious and they felt she'd rest better at home. It's been a few days now and I can see she's getting much better. The first few days her appetite was off and she was very lethargic. She's still resting more than normal and she's not interested in fighting with Bo, although he keeps trying.

It's funny, those first two days, he really left her alone. A few sniffs here and there but he really didn't try to engage her in play. I think he knew she was feeling bad.

That was the good news. Bad news...surgery was $450--OUCH. I suppose the timing is never right for such a thing, but it really came at the end of a bad month anyway. The vet's office is pretty terrific though; they're allowing me to make payments. So while it was a hit for the down payment, at least I can absorb the balance over a few months.