More Spine Issues

We are back in the doctor's office to discuss surgery. Before I get into that, we discuss the cervical MRI. Again, I can easily see right smack in the middle of the image is a missing disc with surrounding vertebrae that do not line up nicely, they are pushed in towards my nerves. The doctor asks if I want to get some PT for it right away and I say no, one thing at at time. I would rather put this in the back of my mind and just concentrate on the surgery at hand.

So the doctor starts the discussion. It is a lengthy conversation about how the procedure will go.  It is a two-day surgery. On the first day they do an incision in the abdomen to expose the front of the spine and put in the spacers that will become my new discs. It is a 2 and a half hour procedure, barring no complications. On the second day, they enter the spine from the back and remove the damaged bone, replace with cadaver bone and attach the bone to the discs put in place the day before.  After the doctor was satisfied that we understood the entire thing, he left us with his PA who got out a model of the spine and actually demonstrated what the replacement would look like.  I liked the visual demonstration, and at the same time the whole thing made me somewhat queasy.

My husband drove me home and we were both pretty immersed in worry and relief at the same time, knowing that once the surgery was all over I could have a better quality of life, considering I have been in terrible pain and distress for a very long time.