{"id":1016,"date":"2024-03-12T02:37:38","date_gmt":"2024-03-12T02:37:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lp21.uk\/?page_id=1016"},"modified":"2024-09-22T16:47:55","modified_gmt":"2024-09-22T16:47:55","slug":"spinal-surgery","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/lp21.uk\/?page_id=1016","title":{"rendered":"Spinal surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2024 started off bad, I had recently (late 2023) been treated with steroid injections and nerve desensitisation treatments to help relieve the pain in my right shoulder. I fell a few years previously, unknown at the time completely destroyed the rotator cuff muscles but lived through the pain. NHS scans said it was fine. Eventually when I went for private medical help, I was told it was too late, there is nothing left to repair, the muscles had degenerated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was also experiencing severe muscle wastage in my left arm, constant pins and needles in my left hand and sought advice.

I went through so many scans, tests, nerve conductivity studies (again NHS showed different to private tests)

Eventually a spinal surgeon said that they had checked everything and the only option now was spinal surgery. The MRI showed cervical spinal compression on the left side between C2-C7. I understand why they checked everything else first, spinal surgery was the last option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have lost count of the amount of surgery I have had, but the thought of spinal surgery feared me the most (even more than leg amputations)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foraminotomy C5\/C6 & C6\/C7 (January 2024)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Foraminotomy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had 5 \u2018spaces\u2019 between cervical vertebrae that needed fixing. I was told that privately they can only do 2 of them at a time. To have all 5 done in one go I would have to go through the NHS, he could put me on the priority list but there was still a long wait. I decided to go privately knowing that I may have to go through this at least twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agreed on C5\/6\/7 to fix the constant pins and needles in my left hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had the surgery and the following morning I was almost paralysed. Probably not my best move but I fought against it and after several hours, I was able to move again. It was my back muscles going into spasm. However this scared the crap out of me. I thought something had gone wrong in surgery. This happened for several days even after I had been discharged from hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully this resolved itself and I started to recover. The pins and needles stopped after a while and a few months later all is good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foraminotomy C3\/C4 & C4\/C5 (September 2024)<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Back to see the same surgeon, very quick appointment, he had already seen the MRI scans from before. We agreed that C3\/4\/5 still needed to be done. This should then help me to rebuild the muscle wastage in my left arm and resolve the numbness.

C2\/3 was mentioned but he doesn\u2019t think this one is as bad and I wouldn\u2019t get a great benefit from it. He will have a look during the surgery, but I have decided I wont be going back for a third round of spinal surgery if this is not done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know more what to expect and if I get the \u2018temporary paralysis\u2019 again, hopefully I wont panic so much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foraminotomy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

TBC<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2024 started off bad, I had recently (late 2023) been treated with steroid injections and nerve desensitisation treatments to help relieve the pain in my right shoulder. I fell a few years previously, unknown at the time completely destroyed the rotator cuff muscles but lived through the pain. NHS scans said it was fine. Eventually … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Spinal surgery”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":58,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1016","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lp21.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lp21.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lp21.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lp21.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lp21.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1016"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/lp21.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1040,"href":"https:\/\/lp21.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1016\/revisions\/1040"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lp21.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/58"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lp21.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}