Neck Surgery

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species8472
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Neck Surgery

Post by species8472 »

There are two main reasons for this post. First, is to thank Sparky for giving me information about a type of neck surgery that is done with a small incision and a scope (called minimally invasive surgery) instead of the traditional surgery requiring a number of plates, screws and fusing of about four vertebrae. Secondly, is to make more people aware that there is such an option for many neck and back problems.

To start with I want to say if you or anyone you know might need surgery on their back or neck please check out the places I will be listing below. All three of the places I have looked into have reviewed my MRIs for free. You can't beat that. NONE of the local doctors or other medical personnel I have been seeing recently have heard about these procedures. The procedures may be good or may be bad but having more knowledge never is a bad thing. The people here sound very interested and look at me as a guinea pig.

For the last nearly two years I have been on the disabled list for playing Unreal and pretty much most things in the real world because of severe pain in my neck and shoulder. It has kept me in bed about 90% of the time. I live in the country in NW, PA and have put 400 miles on my car since mid June. Most of the miles have came from travilg to medical appointments or the pharmacy. Sparky knew of this and emailed me an address, Laser Spine Institute, which does a surgery with a scope that removes disc herniations and bone spurs among other things. This surgery can be done on the neck or lower back. It is done there on an outpatient basis with many people returning to work in 1-4 weeks depending on the type of work.

The Laser Spine Inst. is in Tampa and about 1000 miles from where I live. They accept most insurance but I would not have had any coverage there. The price is a flat $30,000 and they can do two different levels at the same time. So I did a little more research and found several other places that do similar procedures. Bonati was one which is also in Tampa and they only do one level at a time and their price is $22,000. The other place I found is Dr. Jho at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, http://www.drjho.com . Pittsburgh is about 90 miles from my house and they will accept the coverage I have. Once they said that I never found out what it would have cost otherwise.

I have had too many surgeries in the past and most have caused lasting problems afterward. Ten years ago I had the traditional back surgery to remove part of a disc pushing on a nerve causing back and leg pain. It helped the leg pain and actually made the back worse. A few months later the leg pain started coming back from scar tissue building up from the surgery. Another time I had an operation on a cyst at the base of my spine which was caused from an epidural. The recovery time was supposed to be 4-6 weeks. After two years of misery, no sitting in regular chairs and 40-50 trips to the local wound center I had to have a second surgery to repair the first one because of scar tissue again. This is why I would have almost wanted to die before I let someone else cut on my neck. With all of the hardware that would be inserted and the attempt to fuse the bones together is not something you get more than one chance to get right.

So for the last two years I have tried every conservative option available. I have been being treated by the local pain center which is excellent for conservative treatments. They have tried two epidurals, a radio frequency nerve ablation (where several needles are inserted then radio waves are used to burn off nerves causing the pain in the neck), countless trips to physical therapy, even a neuro-muscular specialist and a large number of meds. None of them have made a real difference. This is why when I received Sparky's information I was given some realistic hope for the first time in quite a while.

It did take a long time to get to the point I am currently at where the surgery is scheduled for Jan. 6. It was summertime when I started getting info and a newer MRI for Allegheny Gen. Finally, I got to see the doctor Dec. 17. That is when he told me that his procedure should be able to relieve the pain by removing the herniated material and bone spurs pushing on the nerve. He said it would mean about a pen-sized opening for the tube and the hole through the bone is about 5mm or .197 inch. He also said that any other doctor would have wanted to do the traditional open surgery with the fusing and a recovery time of several months or more. He said the procedure takes about one hour and will require me to stay one night.

Things can go bad with any type of procedure. From some info I have read the regular procedures have no more than a 50/50 chance of working and a good chance of it causing more problems. The procedure done with a scope, called the Jho Procedure in Pittsburgh, has a much higher success rate and an almost nonexistent rate of causing worse problems.

As of right now it is about five days until the surgery. I am not really nervous about them doing the actual procedure but I am somewhat concerned that it will help the pain. Because of all of the health problems I have had in the past two decades, about 500 medical appointments total, I have not been able to get out much so most of my family and friends don't bother with me anymore. This has caused problems with things as simple as getting a ride to the hospital and then home the next day. I am more worried about getting there and back home than I am about the operation.

Here are the three places I researched about my neck problems. All of them will read your MRIs for free and they all treat backs, too.
1. Laser Spine Institute - Tampa - http://www.laserspineinstitute.com/
2. Bonati Institute - Tampa - http://www.bonati.com/
3. Dr. Jho - Allegheny General in Pittsburgh - http://www.drjho.com/

All three treat more than just the neck and back. Dr. Jho does brain surgeries using a similar technique. He even does a procedure on brain tumors they call band-aid surgery because it requires such a small incision and they enter through your nose. Ever since Sparky first told me about this I have been trying to spread the word. I hope it does help me but even if it doesn't I would like others to know that the option is there. When I was getting the pre-surgery EKG the girl there showed me a huge scar on her neck where she had just had the traditional neck surgery done earlier this year. It took her 3 months to return to work and with one of the minimally invasive procedures she could have been back in a week. When I explained what I was going to have done she actually looked sick because she realized she could have had the same thing done if she had only known about it a year sooner. I do not want anyone else to feel like she did. These procedures will not be right for everyone but it cannot hurt to look into them. Personally, I like to read about the advances in the medical field so I would suggest anyone with a similar interest read about how these procedures are done compared to what most surgeons would do to a patient now. The difference is HUGE. They can even remove old hardware from previous surgeries.

Sorry, if I rambled too much but I really want to get the word out about these cutting edge procedures (pun intended).

And again a thanks goes out to Sparky (or as I call him - The Wise One).

Whether it helps or not it has set me on a totally different path from where I would have been. It has given me a lot of hope which I had just about ran out of. If something does go wrong I will not blame anyone (unless they were in the operating room drunk or such) and I have left instructions to tell them I thank them for at least trying to give me back some type of normal life.

If it does help I hope to be back fragging in a month or so. I miss it a ton and probably at least as much as any of you would if you had to stop playing for medical reasons. There is another big reason to get back playing. For the last month the local cable company has been stringing wires across the road from the house and I think it will be up and running before long. I have always had one of the slowest connections of all Unreal players with my 26,400 kps dial-up. Now cable may be just around the corner.

I will try to have someone send Sparky an email to say how the surgery went next Tuesday. Maybe he will post the info here.

Even though I have not posted much I still consider Unreal my online home and everyone here connected with it as one of my friends. I have not abandoned Unreal and I have not played or loaded another game. Unreal is and will be my first love when it comes to games.

If anyone has any questions about any of this I welcome all questions. My email - three_titans@yahoo.com . I do not get spam there so please do not pass the address around unnecessarily.

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone

species8472
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Re: Neck Surgery

Post by Little Daisy Sunshine »

:-)

Let us know when you back to being shot at. 8)
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Re: Neck Surgery

Post by OoiGooEE »

Best of luck. We'll be thinking of you. Take care.

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species8472
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Re: Neck Surgery

Post by species8472 »

First of all, thanks for the good thoughts and prayers I have received.

I have made it home from the surgery. It went well and I was home about 24 hours after it was finished. The pain from the surgery has not been too bad but the original pain in my shoulder has been terrible and this was the first real chance I have had to post. It will take some time to know if the pain will be decreased from the surgery. There were a lot of bone spurs removed from between two vertebra in my neck. They had been creating a fair amount of pressure on several nerves. The decompression of those nerves should help the pain but healing does take time. I will post again when I can sit here easier.

If anyone reading this ever hears of someone going to have surgery on the lower back or cervical regions please be sure to check out the new types of minimally invasive surgeries. They are decades ahead of the traditional surgeries for the same types of problems.

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Re: Neck Surgery

Post by wever.nl-(DOG)- »

Good to hear it went well :)

I understand that the healing is a long process, i hope for u it goes as fast as it can go.

Take it easy !
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Re: Neck Surgery

Post by Little Daisy Sunshine »

ahhhhhh good news Species. Some of the pain may be related to the decompression on the nerves. That
is not unccomon. I will pray for endurance and love from the Lord for you.
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