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Good to see you back here! How did your spine surgery go? Are you doing alright painwise? Are you going to be fully functional again? Question question question I know, you don't have to answer any if they're too personal of course, but good to see you none the less!
Thanks, Gandalf. Yep, I'm back and doing fine. The pain was almost non-existent. Which I finally realized is becase, to access the area of my vertebrae the surgeon had to work on and fuse together/clean up, he had to sever nerve/pain fibers on the way in. This has truly been the easiest surgery I ever had. There's been some swelling, trouble swallowing, and hoarseness, and I hate wearing a cervical collar, but the pain itself has been almost non-existent. The most painful thing is having my wings clippped. I'm not allowed to drive, ride in a car, sit and lie in certain ways, etc. So I'm entertaining myself with DVDs, books, and this place (and a couple of other fun distractions). I never before appreciated how much I enjoyed doing pretty much exactly what I wanted to do precisely when I wanted to do it. I will from now on, though.
Wait wait wait.... they can sever pain nerves!?!? Well thanks very much for a new thing to ask my doc about:D
I'm glad you're not pain, I was worried after a back surgery you'd be in massive pain.
Oh and see if someone can look in a healthfood store for some stuff called "recovery". It helps you heal a lot faster and seems to work for me, and pretty much everybody else I know who's used it. They don't seem to have a website unfortunately. You also might want to take some Vitamin-C (I'd suggest 4G a day), a B-Vitamin complex, and some Vitamin-E. Though I wouldn't be surprised if you knew this already lol.
Nerves can be severed just lke blood vessels or ligaments or other anatomic structures, Gandalf. But identifying them, particularly specific ones that are causing pain, is another matter entirely, because, obviously, a patient who's having surgery is asleep and anyone who was having nerves surgically severed would need to be. In my case, I'm sure it was an inadvertent part of the surgery but one that had a positive outcome.
I want to see what FBR has to say on the idea of nerve-cutting for deliberate pain relief. My impression is that docs are more likely to use nerve-blocking injections, sometimes electrical currents, or Botox or something like that to tweak pain- or problem-causing nerves. And that's only when they can identify the nerves from the outside and know where to aim those medicines or techniques.
Welcome back birdgirl. Ive missed your awesome mod skills lol. Good to hear your not in pain.:)
What are you afraid of, 002? Cervical spondylosis/spinal stenosis, you mean? What I had surgery for?
It's a disease of aging. You don't have to worry about it for a long, long time, I suspect. And most people make it through their entire lives without such problems. I just drew the short straw on that one.