Having neck surgery monday

[12secondv6]

Yup..... it is finally happening.

Back ground - jack@ss careless driver in SUV hit me and caused 3 herniated/ torn disc's.

So, I go in monday morning at 6 AM to saint joe's in paterson.... surgery is scheduled for 7:30. I'm the first patient of the day. I will probably stay at least 1 night.... hopefully not more than that.

They plan on going through the front of my neck. They will remove the old metal plate n 4 screws (from a previous careless driver). Then they will remove all the damaged disc's. They replace the damaged disc's with cedaver bones. Then they install a much larger metal plate to stretch from my C4 to C7 vertabrea. I'll have a total of 8 screws put in. They will also investigate the possibility of doing the C3 to C4 vertabrae but that depends on what they find/ can do when they are in there...... so the metal plate could be even longer like C3 to C7....and maybe a couple more screws.

Surgery is 2-2.5 hours

I should wake up in a hard neck immobilizer/ cast. I'll wear that for a couple weeks. Then I progress to a soft collar for a couple weeks.

Recovery time for me to just get back to "normal" life (get back to my job) is 3-4 months. It takes up to 1 year for the spinal fusion to fuse completely.... so I got a long road ahead of me.

I will loose between 40 and 50% of my ability to look left, right, up down etc.



I have explored countless other options and had several second opinions. All previous treatments were unsuccessful so that is why we are at where we are. Trust me.... this is not what I want...... but it is what I need to regain my life back. I am in pain every single minute of the day.... even with being on oxycodone, vicoden, muscle relaxers, nerve inhibitors etc.

So....... yay?

[GrandmasterCow]

oh wow, i hope things work out for ya man ! have a safe recovery !

[BigRocsFirebird]

hope all goes well and for a fast recovery

[enRo]

My co-worker had the same neck surgery last year. They used an artificial disc instead of a cadaver one. It took him a couple weeks to get his full voice back cuz they had to move his esophogus n **** out of the way to get to the disc in the neck. Hope all goes well. The surgeon told him he was going to lose alot of motion in his neck. But a year later, he's got full function back so maybe you will have the same luck. Feel better.

[Anti_Rice_Guy]

Good luck, I hope it turns out well for you like it did for Noah's friend!

[baddest434]

best of luck james

[BonzoHansen]

Good luck man.

[chrisfrom nj]

hope all goes well and for a fast recovery

[Frosty]

I hope this one works for you man. I've never met you or anything but just hearing all the BS you've gone through makes me feel bad...hopefully this is the last surgery for you.

[79CamaroDiva]

Good luck James! I also hope this is it for you and your luck will change soon. It's a good thing you have a great wifey to take care of you! :)

[V]

good luck man, we'll all be praying for ya, and if you guys ever need anything, you know just just need to ask and njfboa will provide lol

[91chevywt]

Good luck with the surgery, hope you have a quick recovery

[edpontiac91]

OUCH:rofl:, just reading about this gives me the willies! LOL for a safe recovery.

[Savage_Messiah]

Damn James, good luck, hoping for a quick and full recovery!

[maroman88]

good luck dude!

[BonzoHansen]

If the donor parts come from a lady does that make you a he-she?

[twokss]

good luck man

[Tru2Chevy]

Sucks that it came to this James, here's hoping everything goes well!

- Justin

[12secondv6]

If the donor parts come from a lady does that make you a he-she?

:rofl:

Hmmmmm..... I gotta ask the doctor that one.... :rofl:

Thank you everyone!

It's a good thing I'm not racing the firebird anymore.... cause all this metal in my neck is horrible for weight reduction!

[Tru2Chevy]

It's a good thing I'm not racing the firebird anymore.... cause all this metal in my neck is horrible for weight reduction!

Forget the cadaver parts. Have some made from carbon fiber to offset the weight of the plates & screws :)

- Justin

[CrAsH]

good luck, hope it all works out alright

[BigAls87Z28]

Hopefully they also include some sort of body-air bags for you in the future. Just get you a suit, where upon impending impact, your suit turns into a giant bubble.

[bandit88]

quick and fast recovery love!

[BonzoHansen]

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/prototype-this/slide-show/images/prototype-this-06-airbag.jpg

[edpontiac91]

Kool item, but everytime you moved about 6 dozen of those bubbles would pop and drive you nuts. Plus all your friends would want to pop some too. What if you really had to fart, it would sound like a BOMB EXPLODED! :shock:

[The Fixer]

Best of luck James, I hope you have a safe surgery and healthy recovery!!

[thunder]

Good luck man. hope it goes as well as possible

[T69SS]

I hope everything goes well and you have a speedy recovery!

[qwikz28]

updates? Is Genie around to keep us informed?

[ShitOnWheels]

Hey guys. Surgery went well. He's still in the hospital. He's in a lot of pain, and pain killers really aren't helping. But overall went well. Hopefully he'll be home tomorrow, but not sure at this point.

[Tru2Chevy]

Thanks for the update hun.

Tell the old man that we're hoping he feels better!

- Justin

[Frosty]

Glad to hear it went well.

[79CamaroDiva]

you might want to think about childproofing your home BEFORE you have kids... for the accident prone parents ;)

glad to hear it went well, hopefully the pain will go away soon

[LS1Hawk]

I wish you nothing but the best and a fast recovery.

[ShitOnWheels]

Thanks everyone. He is home now. We came home last night. He's still in A LOT of pain, and the huge hard neck collar is really difficult to get comfortable in, but he's managing as best he can. I think he's going to go out and shovel soon! (jk)

Thanks again for everyone's thoughts. Will keep you updated as best I can. I'm sure he'll eventually be able to log in himself at some point and update everything.

[V]

Any updates? maybe i missed it if it was another post, but im sure a few of us are curious as to how james is doing.

[12secondv6]

Thanks everyone.

Update time.

Well, I have a new metal plate and 8 screws in my neck. When they were doing the surgery they found that the damage was worse than expected. When they removed the damaged disc's, they just fell apart.

They did not do the C3 to C4 fusion as of yet - it is a very high risk surgery so time will tell. That disc is still torn and herniated - maybe I'll be lucky and the body will heal it on its own. If I develop back/ neck problems then they will do that fusion through the back of my neck.

A couple weeks ago (as the pain in my neck/ upper back became less) the pain in my lower back became worse. I ended up collapsing a couple times due to pain. Went back to the doctor and got an x ray. As soon as I saw the x ray I was sick to my stomach - it was all curved and completely out of allignment. My doc got me into an mri immediately.

I have another bad herniated disc (L4 to L5). Also, for almost 2 years I have had back/ neck pain and my body has been compensating. I have been walking crooked/ bad posture etc because of the pain and damage so my spine is all messed up - it will take alot of difficult physical therapy to fix.

On friday morning I go in for injections into the spine - its a mixture of pain killers and steriods. The goal is to give the body some relief and let it heal on its own.

If it doesn't work then I'm going back in for surgery to have another spinal fusion. We should have that decision in the next couple weeks.

I am walking around with a damn cane and I have to use one of those extend o claws for things out of my reach. I feel like I am an 80 year old - especially with the cane/ claw.

I now have 2 fun scars on my neck - one bigger than the other.
I am finally out of the damn neck collars.
I am not in physical therapy yet - we gotta let my neck heal up some more.

I truly hate careless drivers - I have a lawyer.... I hope something comes out of it but money doesn't make loosing 2 years of my life worth it... and I'm still not even 100% (potentially 2 more surgeries).

Well, I am spending my days watching tv, icing my neck, playing ps3, putting heat on my neck, tons o pain killers n muscle relaxers.....and bored outta my mind.

Blah

[enRo]

I have another bad herniated disc (L4 to L5). Also, for almost 2 years I have had back/ neck pain and my body has been compensating. I have been walking crooked/ bad posture etc because of the pain and damage so my spine is all messed up - it will take alot of difficult physical therapy to fix.


In the same boat as ya man. Was told Monday I herniated my L4-5. Although mine is very mild, the doctor said that disc degeneration I have caused it to herniate. He said that with the right exercises and therapy, the degenerative disc will heal itself and the herniation will be a thing of the past.

Im just amazed that you had an MRI done with metal screws and plates in your neck???? Thats very dangerous. Otherwise, glad to hear from ya. Hope all goes well.

[Anti_Rice_Guy]

Wow, I thought it sounded a lot more positive before :(

On a side note, if you ever feel like you would like to do some homework to pass the time, most of Seton Hall's stuff is on the computer :lol:

[12secondv6]

In the same boat as ya man. Was told Monday I herniated my L4-5. Although mine is very mild, the doctor said that disc degeneration I have caused it to herniate. He said that with the right exercises and therapy, the degenerative disc will heal itself and the herniation will be a thing of the past.

Im just amazed that you had an MRI done with metal screws and plates in your neck???? Thats very dangerous. Otherwise, glad to hear from ya. Hope all goes well.

Sorry to hear about your back problems - I can really sympathise.

As for the mri....I think they must switch to a different setting for people with metal in them. But it was really funny because during the last mri I noticed that at times my wedding ring was vibrating/ slight pull but I felt nothing in my neck/back/ knees (got metal in the knees too).

[BonzoHansen]

Is your last name Murphy?

http://img.wonkette.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/robocop.jpg