… for the next six weeks; the cervical collar.
They put a flexible breathing tube all the way down into my lungs, laid my throat open, and pulled my esophagus and wind pipe off to the side to expose the front of my spine. They cut out chunks of discs out from between each of the vertebrae 4, 5, 6, and 7, inserted spacers to line everything back up like it’s supposed to be and inserted bone grafts (partly from cadavers and partly bits from my own spinal bones they had to shave off). (They use bits of my bone spurs to seed new growth, kind of like building a new coral reef.) Then they screwed 2mm thick metal plates (with countersunk screws) across the fused vertebrae to keep it all in place.
For the medically minded, here is a link to illustrations.
http://www.understandspinesurgery.com/doctors/template/animations.asp?d=indresano&
Under Spine Conditions, I’m the Stenosis: Cervical.
Under Spine Procedures, I’m the Anterior Cervical Discectomy, Fusion - Instrumented.
So how amazing is this? I go in for surgery Tuesday morning. They open me up and work on me for 4 hours to rebuild my neck. They close me back up, keep me for one night, and I’m home Wednesday afternoon. I’m on the same pain medication I was on before I went in: Tylenol 4 times a day; and I’m more comfortable right now than I was before the surgery! (I feel kind of cheated. I thought I was going to get big narcotics but it turned out I didn’t need them.) I was walking laps around the hospital floor this morning and realized I was carrying my coffee cup in my right hand. I haven’t been able to lift a coffee cup with my right hand in months! It will take up to a year to regenerate the nerves to my extremities that have been squeezed for so long, but there is a remarkable level of immediate improvement as well. It’s an amazing and wonderful time we live in!
Stopped at the Starr County Rest Stop on the way home.
Got a Pine Warbler.
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