Wow, it's been a while since I've posted on here. I've had good intentions but life has just kept me busy. Anyway... I'm writing now because I've had another back surgery. The TLIF last year was successful, however I had some issues that continued after that surgery that I, hopefully, have finally remedied.
Prior to the TLIF my pain went through my lower back and all the way down my left leg. That was corrected immediately. I had a pain in my right hip while still in the hospital, but we thought it may be from the uncomfortable hospital bed. The pain in my right hip continued over time, steadily getting worse. It kind of moved around and at one time we thought it might be my SI joints. The doc said it was common after a TLIF for the SI joints to be stressed. So we tried bilateral SI injections. Then we followed that with another one on just the right side. Time passed... more x-rays... more pain... more questions.
The pain increased and started going down my right leg eventually to my knee. But... the biggest problem was that I started getting these random jolts / shocks through my lower back going into the right hip and down the leg. Intense ones... like being hit with a cattle prod. We thought maybe it was the hardware causing some issues and the doc suggested removing some of it...but I had to wait until it had been in for a year. So I dealt with it.
Then this past January (2018) I returned to the doctor because the pain and shocks just continued to get worse. We tried an epidural - no affect at all. MRI done...then CT Scan. Nothing conclusive but images were difficult to read because of the blur caused by hardware. The doc talked to me some about possibly implanting a spinal cord stimulator, but I wasn't ready to go that route without knowing for sure if the hardware was causing a problem or not. So we opted for hardware removal and fusion exploration with decompression of any nerve if needed.
So back into surgery I went on April 4. This one wasn't near as difficult as the TLIF so I was able to have it on an outpatient basis at Northwest Florida Surgery Center. The doc removed some of the hardware but not all. Obviously the artificial disc stayed in place. He also left the screw that is in diagonal from L4-L5. While he was in there he discovered that the bone graft was growing around a nerve. He took care of this and hopefully that was the problem. At least I know I'm not crazy, well, not about this anyway.
I was able to go home after a few hours in recovery... and a horrible time throwing up. Man that anesthesia messes with me. It was good to go home though. It's so much more comfortable at home than in a hospital bed.
Just like with the TLIF, I decided to NOT sleep in the bed. I didn't even bother trying this time. Since last year we have got a sectional with a recliner on the end. I decided to sleep in the recliner. I just can imagine having Ron or Diesel bump my back. 😲 Not sure how long I will stay in the recliner... possibly up to when the staples are removed (in two weeks). We shall see.
And so the back journey continues....
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