Re: Being Pain Free....

"chefmcc" <chefmcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1180800888.178626.87540@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
.....was nice while it lasted. Some of you may recall last year I was
recovering from cervical spinal fusion surgery. It was a long process,
very difficult. I had a wedge of bone removed from my hip and inserted
between two vertabrae in my neck, then sealed up with a titanium plate
and a few screws. Well for the past year+ I have felt great! No
mobility problems, or strength or grip issues and best of all no pain.
Sometime last week, I don't know what I did, but now it seems to be
back to square one, o.k. maybe not that bad but it sure hurts. Feels
like a hot screwdriver was stuck into the area between my neck and
shoulder. I don't know if I blew out the disk below the fusion or
maybe just a bone spur or maybe I've got a screw loose, literally.
Just go to the Doc and get it checked out you say? Well I plan to,
just as soon as we get health insurance again. We were recently
dropped. Also I'm somewhat nervous as to what the finding will be, it
was a very difficult recovery from the last surgery and am not excited
about doing it again.
The whole thing is kinda depressing.

Can I have some cheese with that whine?

At least I'm not smokng, so I got that going for me, which is nice.
One of the things that made the recovery so difficult was that I
didn't quit smoking until the night before the surgery. What a true
junkie. And only then cause the Docs said my bones wouldn't fuse
properly if I kept smoking. Sheesh, gotta hit some folks over the head
I guess.

Oh well. Like Tony Soprano would say "whadya gonna do?"
Keep on keepin on, it may hurt but at least I can move which is more
than some folks
and it won't kill me, which I'm happy about as well.

In other news, sun is shining, my wife still loves me despite my
antisocial and crumudgeon like behavior, my brother continues his
fight with lung and liver cancer, (now there is something to complain
about, but he never does), dogs are happy, older dog Obie really happy
just to be here,
he had his brush with the grim reaper about a month ago, made an
amazing recovery at age 12+, and every time he wakes up from a nap he
seems to smile and wants to play. We should all be so happy to be
here.

Glad to be a part of this club.

have fun be brave
Paul


Whoa, Dude...

You don't know how much your styory sounds like mine. In 2000 I had an
accident the seems to have aggravated spinal stenosis. C4 through C7 were
fused, supposedly to aleviate pressure on my spinal chord and take away the
pain I was suffering.

The vertibrae were fused and the pain never went away. Pins and needles
from the middle of my chest to the tip of my toes. All this is on my right
side. When the weather changes the pain at times is an intense burnig
sensation. Lately some numbness has occured on the bottom of my left foot,
but hopefully that will be the extent of that.

Anyway, I haven't felt any improvement from being smokefree, but then again
it's only been 3 weeks (plus a few days).

Woodsy

Smorkeless since May 12, 2007



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