Going under.....

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May 19, 2003 | 03:48 PM

BobbyL

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Joined: Mar 2003

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From: Southwest

Going under.....

the knife that is. Now that I have my retirement straightened out I will be having major back surgery on 05JUN03 at 0900. I have a degenerative bone disease localized in my spine and my vertebrae and disc are collapsing. They're going to cut me open from neck to pelvis, pin and straighten my spine, put a cage around it and pack the cage full of cadaver bone marrow. This will fuse my spine from the shoulder blades down to where it joins my pelvis rendering my spine immobile. Ain't modern surgery grand? The freakiest part is that they want me walking again within 24 hours of the procedure. I'll be in the hospital 2 weeks and then I'll be heading home after that. Is this some far out freaky **** or what? Right now I have a tremendous amount of back pain but prescription Codeine washed down with a good German lager helps. Anybody else have major back surgery? What should I expect? How different will moving around with a fused spine be? The worst part I can think of is that the incision will go straight through my favorite tattoo.

May 19, 2003 | 04:20 PM

Karic

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Joined: Nov 2002

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From: Victoria Canada

Going under.....

Best of luck, Bobby.

Rick

May 19, 2003 | 04:47 PM

fatdaddy

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Joined: Sep 2001

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From: in the country

Going under.....

Hope you've got a significant "other" at home to help with the things like learning how to put on a pair of socks , etc. It looks to me that the hardest part of this whole ordeal is going to be learning how to work around your functional lack of mobility after the surgery. But, i guess you are already experiencing alot of that situation in your current condition. Lets hope that post surgery the pain factor will be much diminished as you will be in better shape after the surgery. I had a first cousin who had an ongoing back problem that they could never fix . They finally installed one of those morphine pumps that had an implanted reservoir in his back and it would inject "M" directly on the area of his problem. The problem is that after several years the pain killing effect begins to diminish AND the tissue around the injection point starts to deteroriate as time passes. Eventually , it wouldn't help and he just decided too put himself to sleep. Actually, it was the only choice that he could make that was going to give him any relief. But, that was 10 years ago and now they have all kinds of new technology to deal with problems that before were not solvable. Good luck to you Mr. B and we will hope and pray that all goes well and your life will get better after the surgery is completed.......fd

May 19, 2003 | 04:52 PM

jbalestri

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Joined: Dec 2002

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From: Billings MT

Going under.....

Best of luck.

I had a friend that had a rod in her back. I think it is exactly what you are going to have done. She couldn't bend, except at the waist, but other than that, she did everything else anyone else did. She didn't do a lot of heavy lifting (we used to crew for the same hot air balloon). She did do yoga though, which I never figured out.

My wife has had a herniated(sp??) disk fixed and I need to have one done also. She is doing great.

As fatdaddy said, hopefully you have someone to help with the mundane daily activities that we take for granted. I know my wife needed help for about a week.

Again, best of luck, and a speedy recovery.

May 19, 2003 | 05:12 PM

BobbyL

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Joined: Mar 2003

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From: Southwest

Going under.....

The orthopedic surgeon is going to pin my spine into my pelvis so I won't even be able to bend at the waist. I have a feeling I'm going to be moving like Mr. Roboto....