So this is what they are going to stick into my back. As far as I can tell its a piece of PVC pipe with a big gnarly stainless screw in it. There will actually be 2 more screws too. One going up and two going down. Just like toe-nailing a rib on a ramp or something. This little do-hickey will take the place of the disc they are taking out and lock the to adjacent vertabrae in place. 6 more days till surgery day so not much going on with me. Finally got the mountain bike that Giant sent me rolling so I can ride that for a bit since its nice and squishy with full suspension. However, after surgery the docs tell me I’m not supposed to lift anything over 10 pounds for three whole months!!! I’m sure there is a great joke here I’m missing. I was thinking, maybe if I use all the lightest parts with lots of holes drilled in them I could maybe get a bike together that is light enough for me to ride without breaking doctors orders??

I guess in whatever is going with Ride’s blog reformating I lost a few of the most recent posts, so here they are again. I’m so sick of writing about this fusion surgery stuff, but I figure maybe someone somewhere will go through the same thing someday and perhaps find some of this a helpful reference.

From June 18 2009

Jamie Bestwick was kind enough to set me up to talk to his doctor about spine surgeries. Dr Gregory Bailey did the fusion surgery that Jamie had done a little while ago and had him riding again in 5 weeks. Dr Bailey confirmed that based on my symptoms and MRI surgery did seem to be the right path. He also made me feel pretty confident about my surgeons. Definitely nice to get a good second opinion. He also restated that a six month recovery time is to be expected with the type of surgery I’ll get. Dr Bailey is cool, if you need back help in PA I would highly recommend going to see him.

I’m sick of talking about backs and ready to get this done. And sick of being a zombie on pain meds.

From June 15 2009

Not really too much to report about the back right now except that I met with the Cardio-Vascular surgeon and got a date for surgery. July 9th they slice me up. He described in detail how they will make an incision from my belly button straight down about 4 inches. Then he pushes all the intestines and stuff out of the way making a hole visible all the way to my spine. The really dangerous part is that he then must move my aorta blood vessel out of the way by gently flexing it to one side. While he was telling me it really started to make me a little bit queazy. Usually that stuff doesn’t bother me, but for some reason it felt like I could feel what he was doing inside of me. It reminded me of the time I was telling my friend Jared the details of my splenectomy. I was explaining how they chop you open and then empty all of your intestines out of your body into a bowl so they can wash the blood off them and stop the bleeding of the exploded spleen. He suddenly went green and puked! It was only later that he told me it was because everything was especially realistic to him since he had been drinking magic mushroom beer.

I’m running out of dogs for the back related post thumbnails. Here’s Digger and Bobby from Ray’s.
Just back from the doctors and just went over my MRI results. Heavy news for me. Looks like we are going to do the fusion surgery of L5-S1. Surgery won’t take place for almost a month, but when it does Its only like a 2 day stay in the hospital, but it means that after surgery no activity for 3 months and no riding for real for 6 months! Yikes. I didn’t really expect it to take that long to heal.

That disc is not supposed to be doing that. It should be like the ones above and staying flush with the spine.
I have a pretty substantial rupture in my the disc between L5-S1. The treatments range for this kind of thing, but after a good talk my doctor and I have settled on the fusion surgery. The options though are as follows:

-Cortizone epidural shots like Tom Stober had to bring down the swelling but not actually fixing the disc. This can make you feel better because it relieves pressure, but it can last as little as a few days, or in some cases less serious then mine it can relieve the entire problem.

-There’s also a procedure to clip the part of the disc that is distended. Sounds like this is what Ben Ward was saying that Rich Hirsch had. My doctor said that usually when the disc between L5-S1 is herniated and putting pressure on the nerves it causes leg pain and shooting feelings radiating downwards. If that is the case then clipping the protuding disc usually solves the problem. I don’t have that at all, I only have pain in my lower back. My legs feel a bit week, but mainly its my back muscles that are unable to function. Doc says that clipping the disc very possibly may not relieve this problem since it may have more to do with the joints pressure on the nerves. Its interesting to see what functions of the body are “typically” impacted by disc damage at different levels. Each level has its own characteristics.

-We could possible do an artificial disc replacement. Unfortunately, this extremely expensive procedure is considered “experimental” by my insurance company and so I’m not covered for it. The up side is that at this level in the spine there’s not really that much movement, or at least, higher up would be much more crucial. A fusion at this level should not really be too much of an issue for flexibility for me. However, if in 6 months from now you see me just starting to ride again and I’m all stiff we can just blame that.

-So, we settled on the fusion surgery. Its what Ruben was describing last post. The crazy part is they go in through the front of your abdomen to do the surgery. Its a relatively small incision, but two surgeons are present. One to do the actual screw and plate and bone graft surgery, and one to monitor and control the extremely vital arteries that run right in front of the spine. Basically they screw and plate the vertebrae together so they can’t move, and then fill the area where the disc used to be with bone grafts that will fill it in so the damaged disc can no longer put pressure on the spine. I think…. I’ll get more and more precise with exactly what is going on as I learn more.

To be honest I was so rocked by the idea that I wouldn’t be able to ride for 6 MONTHS that I kind of stopped being able to think straight. Heavy news for me today.

Next step is to meet with the Vascular Surgeon to go over his procedures in the surgery and check to see if my splenectomy scars are going to be an issue for this surgery. After meeting with him I’ll be able to schedule a surgery date. The earliest possible time being between 3 and 4 weeks from now.

I’m pretty freaked out by all this, and dreading being laid up for so long, but at the same time I’m really itching to get this taken care of. Guess I’m staying in Austin for a while to deal with all of this.