10-26-2019, 07:12 PM
to be back in my shop after 5 weeks recovering from surgery to replace 3 disks in my neck with plastic and titanium to hold it all together until the bones fuse over the next year. Occasionally my hands would go numb, my shoulders and neck ached, and I lost a lot of strength in my arms sometimes. My dad had the same problem later in life, so I knew the symptoms and knew I needed to see a good neurosurgeon. Fortunately, one was recommended to me and it didn't take long before I trusted him to do the surgery. This actually started about 18 months ago and the first MRI showed where the problem was. But the symptoms (temporary numbness in one hand) went away in a few days so we decided to just wait. A year on it came back, plus the other stuff I mentioned above, and a new MRI showed the degradation was a lot worse. Waiting longer didn't seem like a good option because some really bad things can happen so I decided to have the surgery. The surgeon told my wife afterwards that it was even "crummier" in there than the MRI indicated but he was happy with how it turned out. I was happy when I woke up and my hands and legs all worked and the symptoms I had before surgery were gone.
Wearing a neck brace 24/7 for 4 weeks was the worst part of the recovery. Not much pain, none in my neck actually, and nothing that Tylenol couldn't handle. No way I was going to take opioids if I didn't really need them. It wasn't all smooth sailing after surgery, though. I couldn't tolerate lying down in bed so I had to sleep in a recliner. Since I've never been able to sleep on an airplane it was only after I was completely exhausted that I finally learned how. I could hardly swallow anything for the first 3 or 4 days after surgery and it's still not as easy as before. Ever try to swallow water and have it shoot out your nose? After two weeks, just as I started to feel pretty good, I developed phlebitis in one leg and that led to a quick trip to the hospital for a doppler test to make sure I didn't have any blood clots. Thankfully, there were none, but it's taken quite awhile for it to subside; not completely gone yet but much better.
I celebrated my 65th birthday in that darn neck brace. While I was wearing it I wasn't allowed to drive or lift more than 1 lb, so that meant no woodworking, or much else for that matter besides walking. Fortunately, a can of beer or glass of wine both weigh less than a pound. Otherwise, I would have used a straw.
My month in purgatory ended about 10 days ago and every week I'm allowed to lift 10 additional pounds, so I'm up to about 20 lbs now. Today was my first day back in the shop. It felt so good to be able to really do something again, even if still light duty. I'm so lucky and grateful that medicine has evolved enough that problems like what I had can be fixed. Even just 50 years ago the future probably would not have looked so good.
John
Wearing a neck brace 24/7 for 4 weeks was the worst part of the recovery. Not much pain, none in my neck actually, and nothing that Tylenol couldn't handle. No way I was going to take opioids if I didn't really need them. It wasn't all smooth sailing after surgery, though. I couldn't tolerate lying down in bed so I had to sleep in a recliner. Since I've never been able to sleep on an airplane it was only after I was completely exhausted that I finally learned how. I could hardly swallow anything for the first 3 or 4 days after surgery and it's still not as easy as before. Ever try to swallow water and have it shoot out your nose? After two weeks, just as I started to feel pretty good, I developed phlebitis in one leg and that led to a quick trip to the hospital for a doppler test to make sure I didn't have any blood clots. Thankfully, there were none, but it's taken quite awhile for it to subside; not completely gone yet but much better.
I celebrated my 65th birthday in that darn neck brace. While I was wearing it I wasn't allowed to drive or lift more than 1 lb, so that meant no woodworking, or much else for that matter besides walking. Fortunately, a can of beer or glass of wine both weigh less than a pound. Otherwise, I would have used a straw.
My month in purgatory ended about 10 days ago and every week I'm allowed to lift 10 additional pounds, so I'm up to about 20 lbs now. Today was my first day back in the shop. It felt so good to be able to really do something again, even if still light duty. I'm so lucky and grateful that medicine has evolved enough that problems like what I had can be fixed. Even just 50 years ago the future probably would not have looked so good.
John