Erika's Spine II: Fusion Bugaloo

[Erika]

So I figured I'd put an update here that won't take up too much space on the main page and all.

I have a herniated disc, which has also, I have learned, degenerated. It's dead. kaput. It's an ex-disc. The fix for this is surgery, and unfortunately I got the news I had been dreading since finding out I was broken again: I need a fusion. The last time I had surgery it was a quick, same day thing, and I was in class two days later. It still took a few weeks to start feeling more normal and I was on painkillers for awhile, but overall, not too bad. This time, not so much.

This time I'll be in the hospital for about three days at the end of December. The initial recovery time is two weeks: doctor said that I'm going to feel like a bus hit me and probably not engaging in complicated maneuvers like "sitting up" much. The next stage is six weeks of no twisting, bending, reaching, or lifting anything heavier than 5-10#. After that I can kinda start living again, and the total recovery time is about 6 months.

The bad and scary part is the whole scooping out my old disc and putting rods and screws and stuff in. I'm a little terrified. The fun part is that they'll be using cadaver bone to fill up the space, which means having dead people bones in me.

What does this mean for you guys? Hopefully, not too much. Obviously it's been a crummy fall for updates around here, and for that we apologize. The unfortunate thing is that this madness coincided with the time of year that we usually have a contest so that we can post the winners during November and have our yearly break, and instead you've been stuck with filler and missed posts. We're sorry. Honest. Our hope is that we can get back to normal soon so that there will at least be a few comics before I'm incapacitated again.

I AM feeling better right now. My medicine is working and so are the injections I've had. A big huge thank you to everyone who sent me well-wishes. I really do appreciate them. They make me feel better. The recovery from surgery is going to be long and painful and people sending their good thoughts helps stave off the mental strain that stuff can cause. Also, we have had not a single angry comment or email about the fillers and missed updates, and considering, you know, the internet, I think that says we have a pretty great bunch of readers.

So thanks for your continued patience, and you can ask any questions you want here.

[Twitch]

...whoa, just whoa. I don't have any good response. Since this is written response I have time to think before I hit send, so I've scrapped several replies before this one. Gushing celebration, 'cadaver' jokes, or warnings about depression/medication usage just don't have the right tone...

How'd this disc business get started in the first place? Mind sharing the backstory?

[tarmagon]

Well, in an attempt to make you feel better, my wife's been through that exact surgery, and she's doing fine. The recovery isn't a lot of fun, but it is totally worth the temporary inconvenience and discomfort for the long term gain. Let me know if you have questions about what to expect.

[Erika]

(backstory coming tomorrow, as I have comic to finish right now)

My bad disc is L5-S1. If your wife's is the same, I would be interested to know how much more limited her range of motion is in her lower back. It's the prospect of joint that never moves again that is probably the most intimidating.

[Maxilu]

I'm imagining a villain who's basically a walking skeleton, who, as it deteriorates, swaps out it's cadaver bones for healthy human bones, thus leading to massive amounts of pain to citizens, like our beloved Erika.

[tarmagon]

Okay, let's see. Her disc was L4, so not exactly the same one, but close enough I'd believe. Before I get too far in, let me say my wife's an ex-marine, so that might have influenced her recovery a bit. Her implants consisted of spiral cages screwed in the space where her disc was removed, and filled with bone chips harvested from her hip. On a 1-10 scale of discomfort, her first recovery week was a 7, (pain pills were her friends) but the pain gradually dropped off over the next few weeks. The doctors had her walking within an hour or so after she woke up from the anesthesia. She was home 2 days after, and doing LIGHT housework within a week. (She's not the type to sit still well.) As for mobility, she hasn't noticed any loss whatsoever. There are a few things you just don't want to do after, things that involve heavy spinal shocks, but she walks, runs, does farm work, to include heavy lifting, gardening, etc. We've been rafting, hiking, etc. Once your recovery time is done, you shouldn't notice any loss, just massive gains. It cured her sciatica, which was caused by the damaged disc impinging on her nerves, so double win. Best of luck, and if you have any more questions drop me a line.

[Erika]

A) that'd be a cool villain.
B) That's a relief. My surgeon did say that I should be able to live a normal life as long as I'm not doing high impact stuff. No bungee jumping, for example. Or Jack-hammering. But I don't have any high impact hobbies anyway. It does mean not ever getting back into TKD, at least with sparring, but I really wasn't planning to. Really I was worried that there would be a noticeable difference in my bendability performing routine tasks.

So that backstory. It is not tragic, and I am not now, nor was I ever, an orphan.

When I was a teenager I first hurt myself trying to get a horse up off the ground. I thought I pulled my hamstring, and it led to tightness in that leg for a long time afterwards. I also couldn't bend over while seated without having to kind of go AROUND the pain, rather than just bend straight. Tried physical therapy, and the pain went back when the PT stopped. But when I started TKD for the first time, and got myself stronger and more limber, the pain went away and didn't come back. UNTIL...

I was still working at the Caribou. In late 2010 I had a bunch of lower back pain, stemming mainly from being hugged way too hard. Yeah. It eventually turned into sciatica, which would be present after I worked a long day, then sat down. Ever sit down after a long day on your feet, and then when you get up again realize how much your feet hurt? It was that, but with my buttock and leg. I would limp the first few steps after getting up, and there were certain positions I couldn't lie in in bed. Like I couldn't lie flat on my back unless that leg was bent and out to the side. It was aggravating but not rehabilitating. Eventually I went to a chiropractor, and by late 2011 the pain went away. UNTIL...

January 29th, 2012. Three things happened that day. I lost my Caribou job. I brought Pixel home from the adoption place. And my back started to hurt. Not much at first. But over the weeks it got worse and worse, and nothing helped. not resting, heat, stretching, nothing. Sciatica soon followed, but not like it was before. Instead of a little pain when I first got up, it was agony. I had to bend over and hold the back of the chair. No position lying down was comfortable. Sometimes I slept propped up on a big pillow. I tried the chiropractor again, but it didn't help. My friend, a massage therapist, worked on me two or three times for over and hour, which felt really good, but ultimately didn't help. I had no insurance, so I put off the doctor's office. Eventually, the chiro sent me for an MRI at a place that would do a big cash discount, and found the fragmented disc. Well, boo. Got painkillers from my doctor and made an appointment, three months out, to see a surgeon.

Once the painkillers kicked in, I felt fine. I could live completely normally. Good times. I started school. funny bit: the teacher of my nutrition class gave us our emergency contact form and it asked if there was anything going on with us that might impact our success in the class. I wrote that I was on a lot of painkillers and to please not feel offended if I nodded off during class. the class was right after lunchtime, and my lunchtime meds dose. the large coffee I brought every day was just not enough to keep me conscious. And thus I had a completely polite excuse for nodding off during the most boring class I have ever known.

Once I got my surgery consult, things went very fast. He said I needed a microdiscectomy to clear the debris away from my nerve, and boom, I would be better. Ok, I said. How bout next week? He said. buh? I said. So there goes a week of whirlwind getting prep stuff done and getting financial stuff squared with the hospital. I had my surgery on Monday morning, was released from the hospital at three pm. Literally 48 hours later I was in class.

This time was different. TBC

[Erika]

Part II: This Time

I did a round of PT this summer because I was having back pain. I also got a job that involved a lot of standing and bending for a long time, as well as a pretty slippery floor, so I was generally holding myself pretty tense. My feet and back would be killing me when I got home, but I put it down to simply that it had been a long time since I worked and I just wasn't used to it.

Then one morning I reached into the dryer for my work clothes and the pain shot down my leg. Oh, joy. I know what that is! I worked through the pain that day, and it was bad, but not crippling. Next day I hobbled through class. Bad, not crippling. The next day was crippling. I was in so much pain, I could barely move, and I was weeping in the doctor's office. She gave me some drugs (though the painkiller wasn't potent enough) and sent me to a physiatrist. He gave me a better painkiller and a script for an MRI. Two weeks later I'd had the MRI, which showed a herniated disc, and he recommended injections and then see how they go before sugery.

Now, all along, the pain medication had been doing very little for me. The day before that appointment, I was in bed literally the whole day. That day I could barely walk into the office. That night I was in the ER because I just couldn't take it anymore. Also, I, and my parents, were hoping that someone might feel the need to expedite this weeks on weeks of waiting process if they saw me. That didn't happen, and the ER visit is a rant for another time, but the treatment I got DID work, so that my medicine brought my pain to a manageable level.

One of the hard parts about this process is that since I am on a government HMO, there are a lot of hoops to jump through to get treatment, and it's hard to find doctors that accept the plan. So the next week I go see the injection doctor. He is upbeat, encouraging, and says that he thinks that the injections will help me a lot. SOME people can even get by without surgery. He didn't feel that was necessarily the case with me, but that rather his job was to make me comfortable and functional until I could get the surgery done. This was the really important part to me, because I needed to get through the rest of the semester before I could be laid up. The next day I had a consult with a surgeon, who the insurance company found. He walked into the office and said, in a nutshell, "Injections won't help you. You need surgery, you need a fusion. Especially since you're overweight. Sorry, but it's true. I'm retired and don't do surgery. We'll make you an appointment for a month from now with someone else in the group." YEAH. That happened.

Twoish weeks later I got my first injection, and it helped A LOT. Great! Now, of course, I have a stomach bug that turned into some other stomach hurty thing that lingered for a month. Boo. But my leg and back felt a lot better. Two weeks after that, I had another injection, and an appointment with a different surgeon (one that I found online, rather than the dude the other guy tried to send me to.) This guy did say I needed a fusion, but actually took the time to explain why, and everything that was really wrong with my disc, and how it would work. He was also very encouraging in that he is confidant that I will recover well and be able to live normally, although back pain is going to basically be a constant thing now.

So that's basically it. Surgery is set for December 29th and all that jazz mentioned in the original post.

Long backstory is long.

[Twitch]

This is a prime example of why I hate doctors and ER visits. Nothing makes pain worse than horrible bedside manners and insurance stress.

[Erika]

Leaving for the hospital in 5 hours. Almost spine-time!

[Erika]

I'm home now! Actually I got home Wednesday afternoon. and let me tell you, a nap in your very own bed with your very own cat (who is very pleased to see you return) is a grand and glorious thing. I've been improving rapidly in the last few days, from Tuesday morning's weeping because I had to try to get out of the bed to being able to get up and walk around unaided. I do still hurt quite a lot. My back hurts, and I'm also having a lot of pain and stiffness in my hips. But that's also starting to fade a bit.

I have my first follow up with the surgeon on Tuesday. He and his PA in the hospital expressed a lot of satisfaction over how well the procedure went and how much better I should feel once all this pain goes away. Apparently I had a LOT of chunky disc goo in there to clear out.

The weird bit? my hand was asleep for almost two days! Yeah, weird, right? Like, sat on it funny pins and needles asleep. Apparently this is something that is not uncommon and largely results from the weird positions they put your body in during surgery. All the feeling is back now, though, and thats good, cuz it's my arting hand.

We're still definitely taking a few weeks off for the good of my resting, and the good of showing off some pretty rocking contest entries.

[Twitch]

*Happy Dance*

[Kashiro]

Yay~

[Erika]

More updates for those who are interested in such things.

Feeling remarkably better as of a couple of days ago. I still hurt, and I will for a long time, but I'm slowly getting back to being a fully functioning human again. I had my first follow up with the surgeon and he says I'm doing very well. I'll post my X-rays with my shiny new hardware when I get around to scanning them.

We still have a few more contest entries to post, which are not only for the benefit of my back, (and to show off you fine people's artings) but also to let us get going on a few projects that should be coming to fruition later this spring. They are exciting. Oh yes.