Adventures in Medicine
The actual result of the MRI is bone spurs, but sadly enough they're growing inside of my spinal column, and pressing against my spinal cord. Sucks to be me. On the bright side, when you're told that first thing in the morning, you can figure that the entire rest of the day will go better than your visit to the doctor did.
If it comes to surgery, the average failure rate (death or paralysis) is between 3% and 5%. Fortunately, the guy I'm going to (Dr. Todd) has done some 800 of these, with never a failure. He's substantially above average, sitting on several boards of neurosurgery, and recognized and praised by every doctor I've spoken to so far.
He doesn't look that impressive. He's got this ratty little office, and his model of the human spine is broken (the skull keeps falling off) and has magic marker on it. :)
Surgery itself consists of opening up my neck from the front (I have this picture in my mind of me lying there looking like I'd swallowed a blasting cap), removing the front of the spinal column, reshaping it, then putting it back together with hardware. This is something I'd like to avoid.
Counterintuitively, he says that physical therapy has a good prospect in cases like this, and cited examples. I'm going to see the therapist he recommends on Thursday, and we'll see how it goes from there. I would never in my life have guessed that physical therapy would help something like that. On the bright side, it's better than it was a few weeks ago, so there is positive change taking place with nothing but pain pills and anti-spastics, so things can move in the correct direction. I would really, really like to avoid having my spine disassembled and reamed out.
If it comes to surgery, the average failure rate (death or paralysis) is between 3% and 5%. Fortunately, the guy I'm going to (Dr. Todd) has done some 800 of these, with never a failure. He's substantially above average, sitting on several boards of neurosurgery, and recognized and praised by every doctor I've spoken to so far.
He doesn't look that impressive. He's got this ratty little office, and his model of the human spine is broken (the skull keeps falling off) and has magic marker on it. :)
Surgery itself consists of opening up my neck from the front (I have this picture in my mind of me lying there looking like I'd swallowed a blasting cap), removing the front of the spinal column, reshaping it, then putting it back together with hardware. This is something I'd like to avoid.
Counterintuitively, he says that physical therapy has a good prospect in cases like this, and cited examples. I'm going to see the therapist he recommends on Thursday, and we'll see how it goes from there. I would never in my life have guessed that physical therapy would help something like that. On the bright side, it's better than it was a few weeks ago, so there is positive change taking place with nothing but pain pills and anti-spastics, so things can move in the correct direction. I would really, really like to avoid having my spine disassembled and reamed out.