Stressing a bit.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

It's so good to hear this great news.

[lefty o]

good luck. i sure hope you get long lasting relief from the pain. i lived in it enough years to know it is no fun.

[45workhorse]

Prayers sent.

[smoked turkey]

Joe I am a bit late in wishing you well and praying for a good outcome on the surgery. However I can still offer up my prayers for a total and complete healing on your surgery, as well as a speedy recovery. Yes prayers work and I am so thankful for a God who is touched and has great love and concern for us. I am just across the state from you so it is the least a neighbor can do. I pray that you continue to progress in your healing.
Stan..aka smoked turkey

[lead-1]

Glad to see the surgery went well for you and continued Prayers for a full recovery. Don't over do it.

[David2011]

Just saw this. I’ll offer prayers for your continued healing and thanks to God for guiding the surgeon’s hand. Enjoy the new lease on life!

[curdog]

Praise God and I will pray for a full recovery for you. Thank You for your service...…………………………..curdog

[MrWolf]

Well folks I am happy to report that I am out of surgery and resting in my Hospital room. The Dr seemed to be pleased with everything, though he did have to do more work than he expected. I have already been on my feet taking a few steps. And soon they are going to walk me up and down the hall. I feel like I have been beaten with a baseball bat, but it was so nice to stand up and feel the floor beneath my feet an not have searing pain all over my legs. Thank you all for you prayers. I believe they helped. I will stay overnight because the Dr wants to make sure there is no infection. Tomorrow morning I will be home. No heavy lifting for a while just lots of walking. It looks like I will have plenty of time to try out my mosin negant mold and my 220 gr 308 mold for subsonic 300 BLK loads

That is great news. I will probably be undergoing a decompression surgery beginning of November. They will also be keeping me overnight to watch for infections. Waiting to find out which procedure insurance company will approve. Please keep us or even me in pm updated as I have been dealing with my issues for 25 years. I was told they can't fix my neck, thorasic, or lower back pain but he thinks he can help my leg pain.

[lightman]

Thats good news! Please take it easy and follow the Doctors orders. Guys are bad about pushing things. I know!

[shdwlkr]

Joe prayers for you and your doctor. I deal with arthritis in all my joints and yes some days life seems to be a real challenge, but I do what I can and live as best I can and realize that even with all my issues in life it is still a great life. Stay positive and lets see what develops.

[Boerrancher]

That is great news. I will probably be undergoing a decompression surgery beginning of November. They will also be keeping me overnight to watch for infections. Waiting to find out which procedure insurance company will approve. Please keep us or even me in pm updated as I have been dealing with my issues for 25 years. I was told they can't fix my neck, thorasic, or lower back pain but he thinks he can help my leg pain.

I am home and I will tell you personally that my leg pain is gone. The leg pain was so bad at times I begged God to let me die. It felt like a combination of fire and electricity in my legs all the time. The pain would get so bad my legs wouldn’t work or support me. I did get some pain relief through Alpha Stim. (Something you may want to check into). The Alpha Stim would totally eliminate my pain for several hours with just a 20 minute treatment, but I still had no feeling in my legs nor much control. It is hard to walk when you can’t feel how your feet are orientated to the ground.

The pain from the surgery is so much less than the pain I was experiencing that I have not taken any pain meds post op. They offered me Percocet and I told them I didn’t need it. Just taking a muscle relaxer to keep the back muscles relaxed because they are heavily bruised. I wish I could have gotten this done sooner, but I had to go through all the VA red tape, and then be outsourced which was great because I got to research and choose my Dr. I got in under the wire because the 30th is his last day. He is going to take a pay cut and go to Cheyenne Wyo and work there, because they have no Neurological services. It is a bittersweet thing for me because I developed an excellent relationship with him and looked forward to having him around to do this again for me when my other disks go, but having family in Wyoming who have had to travel to Denver to get treatment, they as well as the rest of the folks there will be getting a truly gifted Doctor.

[Huskerguy]

It is hard to make a blanket statement on all these back surgeries. My wife has been having back issues, stenosis and bulging disc in L5 for a couple years now. We know the neurosurgeon well as he goes to our church so he talks pretty straight forward to us. There are several levels or procedures to most back surgeries, for simplicity, I will keep it at two for now.

The first level they can leave most of the bone, add a piece to stabilize the spine, clean things up and there is no fusion. The second is more intense, more recovery time, more bone removed, more hardware installed and there is fusion. They showed us two different models with the hardware and coming from a former auto collision guy, it was quite impressive for the major category # 2 model.

To be certain, there are horror stories galore on back surgeries and also many successful ones as noted here. Some of it is due to the timing of the surgery, did things go too long before seeking help and there are many better products these days to insert into your back. It seems to us (wife and I) that being in generally good shape, get yourself as strong as possible and do the work they ask will go a long ways to recovery. Just making the spine better without getting stronger all around it doesn't always help.

Take care of yourself and I am going to offer some prayers for you as soon as I hit send. Blessings

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Joe, I am praying that the medical help you receive will have you up and walking soon with no pain or medication.

[DIRT Farmer]

Brother Joe may the hand of the Lord rest on you and yours.
Alan

[bedbugbilly]

So glad to hear the surgery went well and you finally have relief. Continued prayers your way for continued improvement - take it easy and heal.

I'mnot a vet but have many friends who are and the VA "red tape" is something that hold never be. I'll give President Trump a lot of credit for the help he has given the VA but there is much more work to be done to get rid of the "dead wood" and improve the service to you men and women who served.

Glad you are feeling better and home . . . let us know how it's going.

[Boerrancher]

It is hard to make a blanket statement on all these back surgeries. My wife has been having back issues, stenosis and bulging disc in L5 for a couple years now. We know the neurosurgeon well as he goes to our church so he talks pretty straight forward to us. There are several levels or procedures to most back surgeries, for simplicity, I will keep it at two for now.

The first level they can leave most of the bone, add a piece to stabilize the spine, clean things up and there is no fusion. The second is more intense, more recovery time, more bone removed, more hardware installed and there is fusion. They showed us two different models with the hardware and coming from a former auto collision guy, it was quite impressive for the major category # 2 model.

To be certain, there are horror stories galore on back surgeries and also many successful ones as noted here. Some of it is due to the timing of the surgery, did things go too long before seeking help and there are many better products these days to insert into your back. It seems to us (wife and I) that being in generally good shape, get yourself as strong as possible and do the work they ask will go a long ways to recovery. Just making the spine better without getting stronger all around it doesn't always help.

Take care of yourself and I am going to offer some prayers for you as soon as I hit send. Blessings

I wanted to respond to this yesterday but didn’t have the time due to being discharged and the long trip home.

First off, not to denigrate the neurosurgeon at your church but not all neurosurgeons and facilities that have them are created equal. The problem you describe with your wife, is very similar to what I had, in the exact same location only mine was worse. My disk had fully ruptured pinching the spinal chord. To make matters worse, years ago I fractured my L5 vertebrae and due to my other injuries they didn’t discover the fracture until it had healed improperly. This fracture lead to excess bone build up, which caused the two nerves branching off at the L5 to be pinched off as well, and lastly, the main ligament that holds the multiple vertebrae together had thickened in that same area and had to be thinned as well. Needless to say a lot more work than repairing a bulging disk.

The first type of surgery you describe is an older outdated method of dealing with stenosis caused by a bulging disk. The new process is called the X-stop procedure and is done as outpatient. Because mine had ruptured I was not a candidate for the X-stop, not to mention the other issues I described above that were discovered once I was opened up. Then there is the fusion which you cover pretty well.

The reason I bring all this up, is because I spent at least 40 hours or more researching the different Neurosurgeons and the facilities they work at in my state and the surrounding ones, as well as the different procedures used to treat my condition as described by the MRI report. It was scary as hell at some of the outdated practices still being used. Medical technology has made huge leaps and bounds in the last couple years in regards to spinal surgery, and if your surgeon is not spending half of his time continuing his education, and the facilities he works at are not buying the latest equipment, you are dealing with lower quality care and can expect lower quality results. Once again not trying to disparage your doctor, but research has taught me that they are not all created equal.

[Char-Gar]

It is hard to explain how good I feel. I haven’t taken any pain meds. The pain I do have from the surgery is so minor compared to the pain I was experiencing, it is insignificant. The night nurse just came in and offered me Percaset and I turned it down. A mild muscle relaxer and a couple of Tylenol will be fine.

I can’t thank you all enough for the prayers. I was expecting so much more pain and discomfort. Now maybe I can once again enjoy life with the grandchildren and the wife.

I wish you could have seen the broad grin on my face when I read this post. God is good!

[Boerrancher]

I wish you could have seen the broad grin on my face when I read this post. God is good!

Yesterday evening was a bit rough, as was this morning. The Dr told me days 3-5 would be a Bear as far as muscular discomfort. I also ran a bit of a fever last night but it was gone by mid morning. My granddaughter was out this afternoon, and we spent about 30 minutes walking around the yard picking wild flowers growing at the edge of the yard. The only reason we went back in was because my legs got tired. Not using ones legs much for 7months has taken a toll on my endurance which I was assured would come back the more I walked. All in all I am really surprised at how well I am doing. Thank you all again for the prayers.

[MrWolf]

You are making my decision a bit easier. Got my son to agree to take a day or two from work and come out here and take me in for surgery and pick me up from the hospital the next day. I live alone and am planning it so my girlfriend would be out the afternoon my son leaves and she would stay overnight. Sounds like you have no real limitations. Glad you are doing so well.
Ron

[Naphtali]

PM sent.

For those of you who don’t know much about me, I tend to be very resolute, self reliant, and extremely independent. Many of the old timers around know my story when it comes to my physical condition and how my last tour of duty left me with major spinal issues. Even with everything I still had more good days than bad. Six months ago that changed and I became almost helpless more days than not, requiring assistance with many of the activities of daily life.

To make a long story short, after being passed around the VA system for 6 months like a bad penny, I finally got into see a neurosurgeon on the private healthcare system, and am scheduled for spinal surgery tomorrow. I have multiple ruptured disks, and multiple areas of stenosis due to arthritis. I know a lot has changed in the last 10 years, but my father walked in for nearly the same surgical procedure and never walked again. Needless to say I am a bit stressed.

The Doctor assures me that I will be walking and have feeling again in my legs a couple hours after the surgery. If true, it will be a great improvement over what I have now. Walking across a small room is an excruciating endeavor at the moment, and often times the pain is intense enough that I black out and fall. I have been living like this for over half a year but I am still walking. According to all the research I have done the greatest risk is infection with this procedure, and 100% of all patients experience some if not total relief. Still it is hard for me to get past the fact that a similar procedure destroyed and eventually ended my father’s life.

For those of you who are of the praying type, keep me and Dr Matz in your thoughts and prayers tonight and tomorrow. I don’t usually ask for things because if I can’t make it happen on my own then it wasn’t meant to be, but this time I feel the need to ask, because I dont want to end up like my father. My walking isn’t that great but I still force myself to do it.

Thank you in advance,

Joe