Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Wild Ride!!!

Well, no: not even a mild walk yet. The doctor didn't even pretend that he liked my when-can-I-start-walking-again question today. He also told me that my only surgical option would be spinal fusion. But thanks to the Internet, I found the foloowing video at

http://www.spine-health.com/treatment/artificial-disc-replacement/lumbar-artificial-disc-surgery-chronic-back-pain

which shows actual disk replacement surgery and spinal fusion. They make it look so easy. Which one do you think I should choose?

5 comments:

Jessica said...

Dude! If you get spinal cord replacement discs would you fail a metal detector? Cause then you could carry all the guns and knives you want and say "Oh that's just my disc, wanna see the scar?" and they wouldn't say a thing!! You look too innocent and nice to shoot up people!

c said...

Dunno, but either way, the surgery might not be quite as severe as it sounds. My mom had spinal fusion last year in her neck, and it went waayy better than her knee replacement. I was shocked at how quickly the recovery progressed.

Patricia Murphy, a resident of said...

Yeah, but if you get spinal fusion you can't bend that part of your spine anymore because of what happens to the spinous processes as a result of the surgery. So if you get surgery in the lumbar region, you can't really use that region the way you used to.

Or as a "real" doctor put it:
By definition, spinal fusion causes permanent bonding or fusing of several vertebral segments. Mobility is decreased, causing increased stress on the areas above and below the fused segment.

Doesn't sound too cool to me. BTW, Missy's still farting.

Nick Gasparovich said...

DISCLAIMER: The statements following have not been reviewed by anyone in the medical field (or English field for that matter) and should not be judged as so:

If the surgery will put more stress on the areas above and below the fused segment, wouldn't that just cause more problems in different areas?

Nick Gasparovich said...

Also, as an English teacher, you may enjoy the video contained in this link:
http://cbs3.com/local/philadelphia.phillies.why.2.846381.html

He's from Delaware... so it makes sense.