Jarrod's surgical outcome in Barcelona!!

[Jarrod]

Hello everyone,

Sorry for the delay, but I'm home and ready to tell my story. Me and my sister arrived in Barcelona on Dec. 5th and checked out the city for a few days before my schedule date for surgery. On Dec. 7th we saw Dr. Clavel and went over the procedure and he answered all of our questions and was very professional and reassuring about the 3 levels that he was going to replace, c56,c67,c7/t1. After we did somemore sightseeing and got a feel for the city.

On Dec.9th, we arrived at the Quiron Hospital at 730 am and were sent down to get x rays and blood work done, which took about 2 hours and then up to admissions for an assigned room. Once we arrived in the room we checked it out and it was awsome, big and private and clean. After we got situated a nurse came in and took my medical history and vitals and said that someone would ve up shortly to take me down to the OR. Within 20 min I was on my way down and met the anastelogist who asked my weight and allergies and then had a nurse run the IV. Afterwards DR. Clavel came over and asked how I felt and I said nervous but ready, he said well let's go get this done, don't worry, within five min I was out and knew nothing until recovery.
Once I came to I was asked if I had any pain and to my surprise I did not, I was quite comfortable and warm with a soft collar on. Within the next hour or so I was back up to my room.the Dr. Had already been up to reassure my sister that everything had gone beautifully and that c/7/ t1 was hard to get to but they got it and it was perfect, he expected a good recovery. He said my muscular neck and trapezious muscles were hard to get by and that surgery took about 4 hours. Once back in my room the nurses came by about once every couple of hours to check to see if I had pain and check my fluids, I really had no pain so meds were not needed. After about 8 hours the DR. Came in and asked how I was doing and I said ok, but I lost my voice and my throat was so sore to swallow, but other than that I was good. He wants to sit me up and walk me over to the chair so I could eat and man I had to pee too. So I got to the chair carefully and went to the bathroom and then finally got a meal. Man I had to chew, chew, chew cause it was so hared to swallow food or liquids, and I coughed everytime I did either. This worried mencause I didn't want to move the discs, but the doc said they were in pretty good and not to worry. So afterwards I fell asleep on off for the rest of the night.
The next day I was up walking by my self and by mid day the PT had come in and took the soft collar off and did some flexion and extension exercises with me and I had no pain, a little stiff but not enough for meds, so then the collar went back on and the PT said I was gonna do fine because of my thick neck muscles. So I watched tv and with my sister the whole day and by sat day I was up in the shower and needed no soft collar. Dr. Clavel came in and removed the drain and had x rays taken and said that the placement was perfect and he expects a full recovery, I was discharged and told to come see him the following Thursday for a followup. So me and my sister did some sightseeing all week, we probably walked forty miles, Barcelona is beautiful.on the following Thursday we saw the doc and he removed the banddage and stitches and said I would be fine gave me all of my records and said if I had any questions to email him and he would get back to me asap.
So I'm 11 days post op and here's what's going on, my neck feels perfect, although I do have some weird sensations like before surgery with flexion of the neck and I have some residual numbness in my hand and ring and pinky fingers. So I'm thinking thy maybe when he cleaned out the c7/t1 disc that maybe the nerve root got irritated and it may take some time to calm down, and I also heard that I may be stuck with the numbness forever depending on the extent of the damage. But he said that the c7/t1 disc had reabsorbed somewhat, so I'm not sure and it's so soon after surgery that I'm just gonna wait at least a month to see what happens, then I'll email him, he's very cool and undestanding by the way, I loved his bedside manner. So well see.
So there you have it, I just wanted to say thank you to mark and the forum members for all the info and stories you all share for others to make an informed decision. Without you all I would not have known what to do or how to go about it, so thank you all so very much. My contribution will be to report my progress every month so that others can continue to get informed honest information on their options and to let them know they are not alone. If anyone has any specific questions please post them or pm me, also my email adress Is jalexander@gmx.com, you can feel free to email me questions also. Again thank you all so much.

God Bless, Jarrod

[Maria]

Jarrod,
wow that was a very good update! Well actually it sounds like you had an awesome surgery and recovery in the hands of a wonderfully skilled spine surgeon in one of the most beautiful and interesting cities in the world!

Walking 40miles in one week.. hmmm I wonder when the last time I've done that?! Guess if you didn't hurt after being that active then you're not going to hurt at all! A bit of numbness surely sounds like a good tradeoff even if it doesn't resolve tho I think your plan sounds very prudent waiting to see if there's any irritation around the nerve that will ease off w/time.

Look forward to your updates and if you get real busy with life that's ok too~ just let us know how you're doing from time to time whenever you're able!

take very good care and enjoy the holidays!

[dshobbies]

Jarrod,

What a fantastic recovery you're having. Good luck - keep it up but a word of warning. Please take it slow and don't rush it. I know you feel great but you still have a major surgery on your spine. Let it heal slowly.

And those little aches and pains from your nerves - will most likely subside over time, especially is you had them pre-surgery. Even if you're left with some residual numbness - it's better than pain.

Keep us posted and congrats, Dale

[mmglobal]

Jarrod... thanks so much for the updates. We look forward to your continued progress.

Isn't Barcelona great? I hope to meet Dr. Clavel some day... I'm sorry I didn't know about him when I was there earlier this year.

Did you get one of those bamboo whistles?

Mark

[Jarrod]

Mark,

Barcelona is amazing, so big and beautiful, you could stay a month and not see all it has to offer. By the way you were right c7/t1 was a hard one to get to, doc said once he got to it that the placement for the ADR went beautifully! Also emailed Dr. Clavel about some symptoms I was having 2 days ago, same type as pre surgery and he said that the nerves were irritated from the Forman being decompressed at c7/t1 and that usually takes 3 + months to calm down. He returned my email within 2 hours, I liked that alot. So thanks for the info.

Jarrod

[Jarrod]

Hello everyone,


Its been a while since i updated my post and recovery from my 3 level cervical ADR surgery in Barcelona, Spain with Dr. Clavel. I have had a roller coaster ride for recovery but things seem to be looking up.

To start Dr. Clavel is amazing and a very good surgeon with outstanding bedside manner. Also he has no problem responding to emails in a timely manner. As it stands now I have had spinal epidurals at levels c5/6, and c7/t1 with no improvement and also had an ulnar transposition surgery to move my ulnar nerve from behind the elbow. My hand dexterity is almost back to normal but yet my last three fingers still have numbness in varying degrees. This damn shoulder blade/ trap pain is still there but less intense as before. I noticed that it did not seem to matter what activities I did it would just come and go at will nothing really sets it off. I am back weight training but at a lesser degree than before. I do this because I dont hurt any more than just sitting around so why not be active.

My back ache pain has taken me to Dr. Robert Thompson (Thoracic Outlet Syndrome Specialist) to see if maybe my pain is due to my bracial plexus being impinged. He thinks that I have TOS and would like to operate when I am ready. Just not sure if I can do another surgery yet. Also I am going to St. Petersburg Fl. in August to get an MRI neurography scan of the nerves that make up the plexus to see where the impingement is before I commit to surgery.

Overall I am doing ok but life is different and i try not to get discouraged and keep trudging along until I find my pain culprit. I also must mention that I had a myleo ct done and everything looked ok, a little foraminal narrowing at c5/6 and c6/7 but nothing for alarm. C7/t1 looks great. I still feel very blessed to come out of a major surgery and live a somewhat normal life, but will never give up trying to get pain free.

Sorry for the delay in posting, but I had to get through the negative part of recovery before I could give any real advice. The United States is so far behind in terms of real patient care and the insurance and political bs is really holding up progress in our Great country. I have the spinal kinetics m6c which is made in CAliforina but not fda approved. It is the most widely implanted disc in Europe as we speak. Anyway i wish everyone I great and quick recovery. God Bless.

Sincerly, Jarrod