my personal war story
IRONMAN, Idriver's experience reminded me of my own, a bit. I was working as a prison guard in Sacramento when I ruptured my disc between L5 and S1. Whatever spilled out must have pushed up against my spinal cord because I had terrible pain, both localized and radiating down my legs, with numbness on the bottoms of my feet.
I had never known that level of pain. I tried prescription pills and when that failed, I drank some cheap wine and kept frozen bags of peas pressed against my low back, while at the same time, I tried to relieve the presure (compression) by laying face down on my bed draped across three stacked sofa cushions. I looked like an upside down letter "U". When the booze wore off, and I would wake up in pain, I'd get more frozen peas and more cheap wine and repeat the treatment.
Despite being a state employee, I had questionable medical treatmeant. I was sent to a doctor from Pakistan who ended up shocking me while trying to do some sort of electrical stimulation. He quickly gave up and said I needed an operation. I said I rented a video by a Harvard Doctor who said epidural steroid injections can get good results. He responded by saying that was correct and if I wanted, I could try that. I went to another physician and tried the injections but the damage was too severe and it was not helpful.
I ended up being sent to a Doctor from the Sudan, who had some difficulty speaking english. I remember being in his examining room, while he placed an MRI on the wall and turned on a back light to let me see it clearly. He said he was scheduling me for an operation the next day, to remove all the stuff that had spilled out of the disc and to clean up the area. I seem to remember him calling it a laminectomy, but I've since been told it was more likely a discectomy. What was frightening was that as I left his examining room, he stopped me and asked; was that your right leg that was giving you all the trouble, or the left," as he flipped the x-ray picture over to reverse the image. It was like he had only a vague idea of what was going on.
The operation was called a success. Despite being in hospital overnight, I pulled a typical move for me, and when discharged to go home with my girlfriend, I actually walked out the front door and proceeded to walk the four blocks back to my house. I was moving in slow motion. Even the slightest slope of peoples driveways was enough to throw me off balance and send me moving downhill and off course.
I went to rehab to get a hot ultra-sound treatment to the scar tissue, and follow that up with ice. The rehab doctor confided in me and said despite being unprofessional, he shared with me that the Sudanese surgeon was nicknamed; "the butcher", and was being sued by a patient because he crippled them while performing a similar spinal surgery. Still, I asked for very agressive rehab treatment and began swimming and then running, while keeping my core muscles strong and keeping my weight down, so I would avoid further problems. I spent six months recovering and waiting to return to work. Maybe I was lucky, in a way, because my surgeon refused to allow me to return to duty as a prison guard, because of the risk that wrestling with inmates could cause worse damage to my spine. Also because it protected him from any lawsuit that might result from further related injuries. I'm not an attorney but that is what I was guessing was his motivation. My Captain took my badge away and I was made a receptionist. After six months, I was told I could continue receiving prison guards wages for as long as I stayed on as a receptionist or take a medical disability retirement, where I would receive 50% of my salary each year for the rest of my life, with full medical and dental and a 2% COLA each year. I left the job and California behind.
To answer your question about recovery, I would suggest at your age (I was 33 when I was injured) you will want to keep your weight as low as you can. I think that is going to be most important, along with doing abdominal strengthening exercises and low back exercises. Everyone recovers differently. I spent most of the folowing 14 years unable to sleep at night on either my side or my back. I would experience a gradual increase in presure in my low back that went from a dull pain to a slightly greater pain, just enough to wake me after about two hours of sleep, forcing me to stand and walk around for 30 minutes before the pain went away. Then I'd go back to sleep for a couple more hours. By accident, I discovered that if I laid on my back and placed 2-3 pillows under my shoulders and head, and another 6-8 pillows under my legs, to simulate one of those hospital beds, I was able to release the presure from my low spine, where the surgery left me with very little space between L5 and S1.
Buy yourself large quantities of vitamin I, Ibuprophen. You will use thousands of them over the years. Be prepared for setbacks. Twice I have reinjured my spine in the area of my surgery. Each time it took almost 9 weeks of laying down to recover. I walked like Frankenstein, unable to lower my chin to my chest without screming level 9 pain. I still push the limits of what my body can do by running and biking and even doing volunteer trail work, but I can sense when I'm getting my low back inflamed and back off and ice it and take Ibuprophen. I imagine I will have a lot of difficulty when I hit 60. I may regret being too active and stressing my back too much.
It's also good to know that many people who have had back surgery, end up having additional back surgeries. I have a pamphlet on the kitchen counter that explains advancements in implanting artificial discs. I fully expect to go down that road one day, knock on wood.
Also, since me back surgery in 1992, I've had my second knee surgery, a foot surgery, a second spinal surgery, in my neck, that required a plate and four screws to hold it all in place, and this year I developed tendonitus in my left knee. I take pills daily for allergies and a disorder of some sort (once diagnosed at eocinophilic esophogitus?) that causes food to get stuck in my esophogus and block off my airway, which can be quite exciting if you are sitting near me at a restaurant.
Best wishes to you IRONMAN. Live up to your name and you will get through this. I hope you are married and your better half can be there for you during this trial in your life. See you back out on the trails.
Felt I will never walk again "normally" or ever ride again..........:eekster: Went to a prosthesist today to measure my legs and see if I need a heel piece. he gave me a 1/2 inch heel lift and it seems to help a little bit.
