C3-4, C5-6, C6-7, T1-2 ProDisc-C Nova ADR blog

[Kathy]

Mark,
Wow, you have alot going on, make my head spin. I had no idea that you had so much pain and so many issues prior to surgery. I had thought this had just been an off an on thing, that had just gotten worse a few months ago. After reading your post, I'm feeling like a sissy, just back pain pre-surgery and muscle pain now.

Just curious, how could your head be crooked? I don't understand how that is even possible Aren't your vertebrae flat (basically) and during surgery they shave (chisel) off any abnormalties to make them flat and make the implant fit correctly? The implant is designed to move and flex in different directions; but is implanted flatly between the two vertebrae... So, how would it be tilted that would make your head crooked? I remember reading someone ask something about one of your first x-rays; but all that x-ray reading and lingo is above my head. Is this what they were asking about? I have never heard of this happening, is this common? Or just a freak accident? (Can you tell I was the kid in the classroom with my hand up all the time with a question? I just have to understand things, how they work)

Take it easy, sounds like you are doing way too much too early. Remember the pain medication can be a good and bad thing, good because you don't hurt and feel good, bad because you don't feel if you are overdoing it. You still got a lot going on with your spine and need to give it a chance to heal, like one of the earlier posters said, you only get one shot at healing. Take Care, Kathy

[treefrog]

Mark, I hope you have started taking some of your own advice, and are taking things a little easier. Yep, you only have one shot at healing correctly. You don't want to blow it. Take it slow, and easy.

[guymontag]

Hey Mark. Glad your doing ok. I amazed how quick you are recovering. Ditto on everybody's advice for giving your body to time to slowly adjust and get out of this relatively pain free.

You remind me of this Anime series called "Ghost in the Shell". It's set in the future and technology of the day can allow a transplant of your whole brain and spinal cord and stick it into a artificial body. Most of the people of the time have artificial implants of some sort. It's a great series if you want to lay in front of the tv for a while.

Take care. Hope you keep on powering along.

[mmglobal]

Turned 5 weeks post-op today.

I'm still limited in my uptime... but the limit is VERY high. B the end of the day, unless I quit early (after 5 or 6 hours) I get into significant pain when laying down... rolling over (knife in low cervical or upper thoracic). I also get the pain in R chest and back on deep breathing.

When I had my big setback 3 weeks ago... these symptoms kicked in and stayed for more than a week before I started to turn around. For the last week, I've gotten better and better each day. (evidenced by my uptime improving and the when the pain kicked in, it did not last.)

This was proven to me last Thursday. I had a very busy day, but I had a MUST ATTEND event at night - ceremony for Jason getting masters degree in education (way to go Jason!) I knew I was hurting pretty bad early in the ceremony, but there was no way I was bailing out. Thursday night, I was worried... it was pretty bad, but Friday I was OK. In fact, Friday was the first day since the big setback that I was actually running around saying "I haven't felt this good in years."

Same thing Saturday... busy day preparing for graduation party... lots of pain Saturday night... but OK on Sunday. I don't know how much longer I'll be dealing with this, but I see myself getting better and better each day.

We'll see how I do the next couple of weeks... I leave in a few hours for Germany. I have a few clients lined up in Munich and Straubing and will spend the next 2 weeks doing the marathon that is a surgery trip. I usually do much better on the trips than I do at home because the activities are so varied... I don't sit at a desk all day. As long as I don't fall asleep on a flight with my neck in a goofy position... I'll be good. Wish me luck.

Sorry I have not been able to post more. It's not because I'm bad... it's because I'm busy. That is a good thing!

All the best,

Mark

[Maria]

And then again sometimes we are bad while being busy!
take care of yourself Mark, pace yourself and delegate ~ make someone else carry your bags at the airport!

[Cheryl]

Best of luck!!

[mmglobal]

I'm sorry I have not been able to post more. There are a lot of important discussions I want to weigh in on. I'm here in Straubing... midnight Sunday night. It seems like today started at 5am Wednesday morning in California, when I left for Germany. I arrived here on Thursday and hit the ground running. Every day since then involved little sleep, up VERY late, long stressful days (including standing w/lead apron for hours observing surgeries), and a fall that I was worried would fire everything up. If the bad news is that I'm too busy... the good news is that I'm tolerating it well. I'm still taking pain meds because I'm afraid to taper off while the demands on me are so ridiculously high. I expect to return home on little meds compared to when I arrive. We'll see how the rest of the week goes. Hopefully, I'll be able to get involved in more discussions soon.

All the best,

Mark