Tag: life

When last we met…

Today has been two weeks since surgery. As I mentioned in the last post my nerve pain is gone. It’s been amazing. I have my life back. A little back pain, but it’s manageable. Ibuprofen it all I take now.

I saw the doctor yesterday (and thanked them profusely) and we discussed my progress (good!) and the surgery (eww?) and things are all positive. The cyst was removed along with about piece of my spine about 9mm wide. No worries, I still have plenty of spine left.

There is a chance the cyst could return, and if that happens a fusion may be needed, but we’ll deal with that if it happens. I’m not too worried right now, just focusing on healing.

I’m still somewhat restricted on activities, but I can drive now. I can’t lift heavy objects, and have some PT coming up along with another checkup in a month.

No bike riding yet, but can try in a week or two, taking it easy, seeing how it feels. I can’t pull my Trek off the hanging hook in the garage yet, as it’s too heavy for me to lift. My Aventon is on the floor, but if it were to fall over… it’s too heavy for me to lift. So I am taking it easy for now.

The good news is, by the end of July I should be okay to ride along in the Riverwest 24 a bit and then hopefully start biking to work again.

You might want to see the previous update… Okay? Good.

Here’s the good news. I had surgery last week Tuesday. It is now the following Tuesday. I am doing better. I am, of course, cautiously optimistic, but I believe the surgery has solved my problem.

This is big. This is huge! Remember when I got the injections in April and… they did not work. The reason is due to the synovial cyst on my spine that was discovered later.

It’s been a week and the pain I felt is gone. Gone. I do not have the pain I had. That cyst pressing on my nerve was hell. It was hell for five months (and an annoyance for two months before that).

So now comes recovery. I am on limited activity. I cannot bike, or drive, or BLT. BLT? Yeah, I cannot Bend, Lift, or Twist. I’m off work right now and not doing much around the house. I’m a person who likes to keep busy so it’s been boring. I made a joke that I’ve read every post, watched every video, and commented on every comment on the Internet now.

The first few days was basically lying flat in bed (not sitting up) and then standing, walking around the house to get at least some activity. I can only sit for 30 minutes at a time. Car rides? Limited to 20 minutes. No lifting anything over 10 pounds.

Lots of drugs the first few days. I also could not turn over in bed. I mean I could not physically turn over without screaming in pain. I had to “log roll” into and out of bed. I’m still doing the log roll move but I can turn over without too much pain now.

I’m still not 100% there… and probably not even close. I get exhausted easily. I did a 30 minute walk this morning (the longest yet!) and by 1pm I had to take a nap, slept a few hours, woke up exhausted still. I did get 6 hours of sleep last night, which is a good amount for me, but I was up before 4am and could not sleep again, and my body just needs more rest that usual.

I see my doctor next week Monday and we’ll see how I am doing then. I may need to do some PT in the future, which is good, because I love my Physical Therapist. I am really hoping to be able to ride my bike by the end of July if possible, and of course get back to biking to work. I’ve read that 6 weeks is reasonable to start doing “normal” activities after this kind of surgery.

Okay! Thanks for reading, see you next time!

Previously, in pain, and so on…

Remember when I said:

The surgery could get moved up if I start to lose control of my bladder and bowel…

And then I also said:

I’ve already gone over 120 days in pain, what’s another 70 or so?

Well the good news is, I did not lose control of my bladder and bowel… and I do not have to wait 70 whatever more days! The bad news is, my pain did start to worsen. There was also a scheduling conflict with the original surgery date, and we looked at pushing it back even further, like into August (ugh!) but instead it got moved up to next week!

I’ve already covered the details of the procedure and general situation in the previous post, so hopefully the next post will be about recovery.

Of course with any surgery there are risks, and there is a chance I don’t make it, so this might be the last blog post I publish.

If that is the case I just want to say thank you to all the great people I met along the way. This world can be rough, but having good friends and family (and cats!) to help you through it certainly makes things easier.

Signing off for now. I hope to post again next week. Cheers, and thanks for all the fish.

Since last time (and this) I figured it was time for an update.

I saw the pain management doctor (who gave me the injections) and he said I needed to have part of my spine widened since the injections did not work. The “spine hole widening” is a surgical procedure, so he suggested I see a surgeon. So I did.

The surgeon looked at my MRI and said “You’ve got a senovial cyst!” So yeah, there is a cyst on my spine pressing against the nerve that runs down my right leg, hence the terrible horrible pain in my right leg.

If you want to get technical I need a Laminotomy which is the opening of the space around the nerve, in this case by removing the cyst. (A Laminectomy on the other hand, is removal of part of the spine. Luckily a Laminotomy is a somewhat less invasive procedure.)

It seems plenty of (older) people get these cysts but never even know it because they do not cause any pain. Lucky me!

Other fun things from the diagnosis: “severe lumbar spinal canal stenosis” and “multilevel cervical spondylosis neural foraminal narrowing” and of course “degenerative disc disease” for good measure.

So the good news is I am scheduled for surgery. The bad news is I need to wait for three months after the injection, which would mean the first week of July. The other bad news is that due to my work schedule I can’t take off for the surgery until the last week of July. So as I am typing this it’s over 70 days until my surgery.

The surgery could get moved up if I start to lose control of my bladder and bowel, so that’s fun.

Otherwise I figure I’ve already gone over 120 days in pain, what’s another 70 or so? Are there days I wake up (in pain) and scream in agony? Yes. But hopefully we’ve got a solution to this nightmare.

Fingers Crossed and all that!

I awake
3am, 4am, maybe 5am
it’s not enough
the pain begins
will it be a few hours
or all day
I never know
time disappears
so many hours
in pain
lost time
a lost year

I take the pills
it was 1, then 2, the 3
four… five…
and it’s still not enough
to dull the pain
the pain
persists

so much I want to do
so much I cannot do
while the pain is in command

sometimes I feel alright
but it doesn’t last
the pain returns
each morning
or it creeps up
anytime
during the day
when unexpected
when unwanted

a broken man
waiting to be fixed
fighting against time
fighting against the pain
sadness visits
darkness lurks
but we keep going

what else can we do?

~