Family

Hardest Hour

Originally posted 2022-04-28 11:16:59.

I had the an appointment with the cranial surgeon yesterday.

It was to discuss the changes that have occurred since starting physical therapy.

Well more like what happened after seeing the therapist one time.

I explained to the surgeon how when I am horizontal it doesn’t seem be nearly as bad.

But when I am vertical, that’s when it seems to get worse. It pain and burning sensations seem to crawl up the back of my neck and in my head.

The pain can kind of be like a mohawk with head sideburns not facial sideburns.

Yeah I know I describe it in some weird ways but I wouldn’t be me if I did it any other way.

The surgeon then told me that when gravity sets in after I get up (become vertical) my eight pound head is pressing down on the nerves. As the day goes on the more pressure and that’s why my head hurts more and more.

I drove myself yesterday, along with my son.

The drive is almost an hour long there. By the time I got there my headache had worsened.

I was pacing back and forth in the office waiting to be seen.

After leaving I knew I needing to try and relax or something to try and help ease the pain.
I stopped at a Dunkin Donuts a couple miles away from the surgeons office.

After ordering some donuts and a well deserved cup of coffee (with 3 espresso shots) we sat down.

I was hoping just sitting there sipping the coffee and maybe relaxing would ease it some so I could drive back home.

NOPE… not one bit. I knew I wanted to try and leave before afternoon rush hour commenced.

I bit the bullet and left and tried my best driving back home.

I have never had a harder time driving than I did yesterday.

I truly don’t know how to best describe the pain.

About half way home I wanted to just pull off the side of the road and sit there and cry.

But I knew I had my son in the car and we were in a semi-rural area.

I kept on but at a much slower pace. I know the people behind me were wondering what the hell was wrong with me.

I kept a speed of maybe 40 miles per hour in a 55 mph zone. Granted there wasn’t much traffic.

Which was good because I couldn’t keep up.

As I sit here typing this the weight of the headache is getting heavier and heavier.

Now.. I have to have what’s called a Anterior Cervical Discectomy with Fusion and Plate.

I think this video demonstrates one level fusion but I am have at this point two levels done.

https://www.spine-health.com/video/anterior-cervical-discectomy-and-fusion-acdf-video

He explained to be that he will clean out the damaged discs and kind of put spacer like devices in between the vertebra and then use this bracket looking thing to fuse my vertebra together.

Normally they would either use cadaver bone, bone taken from my hip or a synthetic material to fill in the spaces… but he won’t be using either on me.

So now I play the waiting game. We have to wait until they do the usual contacting insurance companies for approval, etc. Then contact hospital, ya da ya da ya…

The surgery will be between now and the first week of June. I’d rather get it done sooner rather than later.

If I could sit here and work on my computer horizontally then everything would be dandy.. but since that’s not possible I won’t be getting as much work done than is needed.

I feel like a revolving door in this recliner. Up…down…up…down…all day long.

CBD to heating pad to ice pack to medication.

Mind you none of it touches the headache/neck pain so why do I even bother.

Nevertheless … I will sit here and at the very least try… So if I have typos or misspelled words in this post you know why.

I will update when I know more.

Please keep your fingers crossed this goes smoothly.

I m going to try and lean back and relax for a little bit.

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