I Have Real Tears Today

[thetoothfairy]

Comeptition? ROFLMAO! We're talking about recovery from surgery to remove a herniated cervical disk. It does sound sort of kinky though.

Yeah it does sound a little kinky! LOL and I sure wish it would have been like that instead of what I am going through!!!!

This is a long thing to go through! I have never had such a stiff neck so long in my life! And forget about sleeping through the hole night.... haven't been able to do that in so long! But I have been trying to sleep in bed and boy its tough getting up and out of it in the morning.... and my neck hurts so bad in the morning or when I lay down.....

But after the doc gets the cd with the xrays on it then we will see what is next.... I am excited to know what he will say and I hope this is healed enough by now.... three months in this brace I feel is to long...

[bruinsrme]

I feel for you. I was in the same situation 7 years ago. I temporarily lost most of the function in my left hand while waiting for surgery.

Find a good neurosurgeon, not an orthopedic surgeon. Have the surgery. I woke up from surgery and could raise my left arm for teh first time in a few months. I had a titanium plate put on the fusion also no need for long term neck brace. 2 weeks in a hard brace, 2 weeks in a soft collar. Then 4 weeks of physical therapy. Within 3 months I felt nearly 100 %.

YES NEURO definitely not Ortho.

Is the C6-C7 herniated toward the spine or away from the spine.
Luckily mine blew outward but still suffered the tingling in the left arm and hand.
To this day I still snowboard, play ice hockey, mountain bike, ride my 77MPH jetski, and other things. Can't say I am pain free but now where near couch bound. Since there is some nerve damage I had to switch my mountain bike brakes around to the front brake on the right side. I sometimes have trouble detemining how tight I was squeezing the front brake. Got tired of flying over the handlebars. LOL

It's not the end and after the surgery it will feel like a new beginning
**** a tree just hitmyhouse

[bhz1]

YES NEURO definitely not Ortho.

Is the C6-C7 herniated toward the spine or away from the spine.
Luckily mine blew outward but still suffered the tingling in the left arm and hand.
To this day I still snowboard, play ice hockey, mountain bike, ride my 77MPH jetski, and other things. Can't say I am pain free but now where near couch bound. Since there is some nerve damage I had to switch my mountain bike brakes around to the front brake on the right side. I sometimes have trouble detemining how tight I was squeezing the front brake. Got tired of flying over the handlebars. LOL

It's not the end and after the surgery it will feel like a new beginning
**** a tree just hitmyhouse

It was herniated towards the spine. My surgeon described it like it was a tube of toothpaste that someone stomped on and all the junk was impinging on my spinal cord and nerves. I had the surgery in jan 2002 and by April I was driving my race car again and doing pretty much everything. I climb up a ladder to my roof detail cars, painted rooms, including ceilings (actually did three rooms while I was still in the neck brace), went skiing (was on the slopes 3 weeks after my surgery wearing the hard brace hidden with a scarf- I did stick to the bunny slope though but it was good to be OUT!). I've learned to recognize signs i am overdoing things and will use ice packs and massage therapy to prevent problems in the remaining vertabrae.

Thetoothfairy had surgery a few months ago and for her particular case, she needed to be in a brace a lot longer than I was. Its been a long road for her. It sure is exciting to see the light at the end of the tunnel though.

Bruins : hope your house is OK!

Toothfairy: it must be difficult sleeping with that brace. I was allowed to sleep in the soft collar from day one because I had the plate. I only wore the hard collar when i was out of bed. I hope you can get the green light!

[thetoothfairy]

It was herniated towards the spine. My surgeon described it like it was a tube of toothpaste that someone stomped on and all the junk was impinging on my spinal cord and nerves. I had the surgery in jan 2002 and by April I was driving my race car again and doing pretty much everything. I climb up a ladder to my roof detail cars, painted rooms, including ceilings (actually did three rooms while I was still in the neck brace), went skiing (was on the slopes 3 weeks after my surgery wearing the hard brace hidden with a scarf- I did stick to the bunny slope though but it was good to be OUT!). I've learned to recognize signs i am overdoing things and will use ice packs and massage therapy to prevent problems in the remaining vertabrae.

Thetoothfairy had surgery a few months ago and for her particular case, she needed to be in a brace a lot longer than I was. Its been a long road for her. It sure is exciting to see the light at the end of the tunnel though.

Bruins : hope your house is OK!

Toothfairy: it must be difficult sleeping with that brace. I was allowed to sleep in the soft collar from day one because I had the plate. I only wore the hard collar when i was out of bed. I hope you can get the green light!

DIFFICULT!!!! isn't the word.... the brace = had to sleep with it, shower with it, everything with it... it has because part of my body..... really.. I don't know how in the h*** I am going to get my neck back..... LOL I have never felt like such a gimp! And yes it has been really hard sleeping with it..... I don't get much sleep at all....

[Sullivan0930]

I stated that I was in the contest but the last couple days I could not take my neck pain anymore....

and was trying to keep going with the contest but just couldn't the last few days...

ook not competition, but what kind of contest?

[thetoothfairy]

good to heAr that! wish I had a pool....and the weather to go with it

get well soon!

Thank You! And yes the weather in Florida is a lot better here than in Michigan where I live during the Summer time right now.... I have been told that we have about 12 inches of snow up there already... sure glad I am down here!

ook not competition, but what kind of contest?

This forum had a contest to help educate anyone that uses it.... there was certain area's that one could post in only... the area's that were posted in had to give good information about the topic and a link to where you found the information as well.....

one1 was the first place winner and I was the second place winner.... can't remember who was third....

The contest was back in September....

[thetoothfairy]

Update

So far I have been able to start to wean myself off the hard neck brace..... I have been weaning myself off from it and only wear it when things get tuff which is once and awhile now.... what a long road this has been... it feels so nice not to wear it! But I can not move my neck and I walk like Frankenstein at this time because I can't move it yet.... now I have to rest it without the brace until the end of Feb beginning of March then I start therapy. I guess I have to wait because he wants it to loosen up on its own a bit before I start the therapy.

I do get burning in the back of it and bad headaches as well.... and trying to sleep at night it still hard.... and the surgery has healed well and the cage is solid in its place....

So now I get to wait to start therapy next..... )

[bteamer]

Sounds fun. glad to hear its better.

[thetoothfairy]

Sounds fun. glad to hear its better.

Yes it is so nice to be able to get out of that neck brace.... I am so happy and things should keep getting better as time goes on.... (keeping my fingers crossed)