Cervical Posterior Foraminotomy: ANIMATED
(I have had two major cervical spine surgeries due to radiculopathy of the C-5, C-6, and C-7 nerve roots. If you have any questions regarding either a cervical spine fusion or a foraminotomy surgery (i.e. the recovery time, etc.) please don't hesitate to email me at jaibhakti@aol.com. There isn't much info on the web about radiculopathy; I will share whatever information I do have. --Bhakti)
When I got my new laptop, I made the mistake of thinking I was in my late teens and in art school, and began having marathon typing sessions in which I tried to get everything down on paper that had been stuck inside my head for the past six months. My mistake. I do this all the time: I get an idea in my head and I rush out of the starting gate like a race horse that hasn't peed in a year, just trying to achieve my goal. I don't know how to pace myself. Couple that with the fact that my pain levels have doubled since my last surgery--and that my hands have also been afflicted with two new physical conditions due to the surgery--and it's easy to see how I shot myself in the foot by typing as if I don’t have physical limitations.
I must confess, the first few days I had my laptop, I went a little overboard with the typing and didn't listen to my body when it let me know that I should stop and rest for awhile. I enjoyed my reentry into the blogosphere so much that I even created my Bhakti Love Poems blog. Then, the proverbial shit hit the fan and I began waking up unable to open my fingers (my hand clenched in fist position), and got sharp, lightning bolt pains down both sides of my back. Now, I get burning sensations from my neck down either side of my spine when I type too long --the same pain as in my left arm. It's quite painful. I know I am to blame for some of this because, as stated above, I didn't honor my body when it told me to stop typing (who can stop typing after a mere half hour when there are so many ideas waiting to come to fruition?), and, I must admit, I hadn't been sitting in the most ergonomically correct position while typing.
I'm telling you about this because I just found an animated version of the surgical procedure I had done on my spine this past November. After watching the video animation it became a little clearer to me why it is so important to hold my head up straight while typing--and throughout the day in general; my spine is, as my doctor says, "very unstable in the back of the neck."
Anyone who has been reading JAI BHAKTI since it’s inception knows that the front of my neck fell apart and is held together with a four inch plate and eight titanium screws, however I never actually understood what my neurosurgeon did to the back of my neck until I watched this animation.
CLICK HERE to watch an animated video illustrating what a cervical posterior foraminotomy looks like. I was enlightened; perhaps you will be too!
When I got my new laptop, I made the mistake of thinking I was in my late teens and in art school, and began having marathon typing sessions in which I tried to get everything down on paper that had been stuck inside my head for the past six months. My mistake. I do this all the time: I get an idea in my head and I rush out of the starting gate like a race horse that hasn't peed in a year, just trying to achieve my goal. I don't know how to pace myself. Couple that with the fact that my pain levels have doubled since my last surgery--and that my hands have also been afflicted with two new physical conditions due to the surgery--and it's easy to see how I shot myself in the foot by typing as if I don’t have physical limitations.
I must confess, the first few days I had my laptop, I went a little overboard with the typing and didn't listen to my body when it let me know that I should stop and rest for awhile. I enjoyed my reentry into the blogosphere so much that I even created my Bhakti Love Poems blog. Then, the proverbial shit hit the fan and I began waking up unable to open my fingers (my hand clenched in fist position), and got sharp, lightning bolt pains down both sides of my back. Now, I get burning sensations from my neck down either side of my spine when I type too long --the same pain as in my left arm. It's quite painful. I know I am to blame for some of this because, as stated above, I didn't honor my body when it told me to stop typing (who can stop typing after a mere half hour when there are so many ideas waiting to come to fruition?), and, I must admit, I hadn't been sitting in the most ergonomically correct position while typing.
I'm telling you about this because I just found an animated version of the surgical procedure I had done on my spine this past November. After watching the video animation it became a little clearer to me why it is so important to hold my head up straight while typing--and throughout the day in general; my spine is, as my doctor says, "very unstable in the back of the neck."
Anyone who has been reading JAI BHAKTI since it’s inception knows that the front of my neck fell apart and is held together with a four inch plate and eight titanium screws, however I never actually understood what my neurosurgeon did to the back of my neck until I watched this animation.
CLICK HERE to watch an animated video illustrating what a cervical posterior foraminotomy looks like. I was enlightened; perhaps you will be too!
Click here to see both x-rays of my neck.
Maybe now that I've seen the, cervical posterior foraminotomy animation I'll be a little easier on myself with regard to why I feel so much pain all of the time. On a physical level, I understand why I am in so much pain. On a spiritual level, I do not understand the 'why' of it at all; but it certainly has been one heck of a ride.
tags: Jaibhakti, Bhakti Brophy, foraminotomy, meditation, spinal surgery,
Labels: bhakti, Bhakti Brophy, cervical radiculopathy, foraminotomy, jaibhakti, meditation, radiculopathic pain, spinal surgery
posted by Unknown at 1:53 PM
8 Comments:
Have you looked into those programs that convert speech into text?
Hello Little Metal Guy--Yes, actually, my pain management psychologist uses one of those things in leau of typing up any notes he has to record regarding each patients' visit. He showed it to me--it's really cool! I think my parents are thinking about buying me one for my birthday, which is just around the corner. Can you believe I am going to be 38 years old?? You might have to refurbish my Avatar with some gray hair soon!
It's only a coincidence that my doctor just recommended that I get one of those 'type without typing' gismos; I thank you for bringing mentioning it to me.
I'll let you know if/when I get it.
Oh yeah, I meant to ask you something--in the event that my parents can't seem to get their hands on one of those cool twenty-first century gismos, do you think I could have your phone number? I was thinking that I would simply talk into your answering maching and then you, being a robot, could probably just hook up (or plug in) the answering machine (or cell phone) to your computer and simply push a button and have my post miraculously appear on my blog! If you don't have any built in robotware (or software) that can achieve that end, then perhaps you could just take a little time out of your busy (drawing) schedule and transcribe my posts for me. What do you think? Are you game?
(The Bhakti Love Poems blog is looking great since you taught me a little more HTML! Muchas graasyass!)
One more thingy, my Little Metal Guy-- I DO have a wireless mouse! Oh yeah! Cousin Chrissy's husband gave it to me when he hooked up my wireless router. (You might remember Cousin Chrissy from 'The Baked Potato' fame in the early months of this blog.) :)
I was very interested in that demo. I don't understand why you have more pain now than you did before.
Hi KENJU! You ask a terrific question: why do I have more pain now than before the surgery? That's actually a great question, and one that I actually knew the answer to before going into the surgery. You see, my neurosurgeon told me that the surgery would either instantaneously clear up most of the pain, or it would make the pain worse. Here's why:
A cervical posterior foraminotomy is a surgical procedure, as you saw in the visual animation, where the bones in the back part of the neck are sawed through until the nerve root (attached directly to the spinal cord) is showing. Normally, the doctor would look for a slipped disc at that level that is possibly impinging the nerve root; if a slipped disc is found to be impinging the nerve, it is simply cleared away. In this case, it would have most likely been the slipped disc material that was causing the severe burning-nerve pain because of the impingement. In my case, I already had a three-level fusion in the C-5, C-6, and C-7 levels, in which my discs were entirely cleared out and replaced with cadaver bone discs. (You can see the 'fake' discs in my neck if you click on the x-ray photo link and look at the other x-ray. You can tell the fake ones from my organic discs because the 'fake' ones are perfectly cut into a rectangle, whereas the ones that I have left in my neck are a bit squished, etc.)
Because there was most likely no chance of any disc material impinging my nerve roots (at all three levels mentioned above, as well at the T-1 level), my doctor went in there to see if a bone spur, or part of a bone was impinging one of the nerves. Again, if there was any impingment by a foreign object (piece of a disc or bone) the doctor would have cleared it away and my pain would have most likely disappeared, if not all of the way, at least to a level where it was more 'do-able' than it is now.
There was nothing impinging any of the four nerve roots that my doctor looked at. So, now we are talking about the part of the 50-50 chance where the pain could get worse. If there was no impingement upon the nerve roots, that meant that the inside of the nerve root itself was damaged when the original discs slipped out a year and a half ago.
The three discs that slipped out a year and a half ago literally damaged the nerves themselves. There is no impingement upon the nerves. They are internally messed up. Once a nerve is damaged, it keeps the memory of the damage and keeps firing--which, for me, translates into massive amounts of pain--every second of my life. There is no letting up. This condition is called 'radiculopathy'. My doctor told me that he's never seen a case this bad--with this much pain. In fact, I read somewhere that only 2% of the cases of radiculopathy cause severe pain. This doctural paper also said that the people who are in the 2 percentile have difficulty living with the pain because of its severity. (Yes, I have thought about suicide when the pain got unbearable. But, thank God, I have a terrific mother who takes incredible care of me, I have a wonderful cat, and I have my meditation practice. Without these things, I know I would have joined the 60% of people who live in severe chronic pain who try suicide as a solution. I have to report this because I know that people with chronic pain read this blog, and I want them to know that they are not alone in their feelings of despair. Forty percent of people who suffer from severe chronic pain do not attempt suicide: I'm one of them.)
Does that explain it for you Kenju?
The doctor simply discovered that the nerves themselves are damaged, and that nothing was impinging them. Oh yeah, I have more pain now because, as you saw in the animation, the doctor had to actually MOVE the nerve to see if there was anything impinging it. Anytime the nerve gets touched or moves, it fires more--thus creating more pain, and more memory of pain.
The 'nickname' for radiculopathy is 'The Burning Syndrome'; this is because whenever I move my head even just a couple of milimeters, the nerve fires down my arm and it feels as if someone is stabbing me with a butcher knife that has been heated over and open flame. If I hold my head up too long without the support of a chair or a wall==whatever, it starts to feel like the knife is being pulled down my entire arm, into my wrist.
It's not fun. But, I'm still here. And I'm trying with all of my might to keep my head above water.
My neurosurgeon, Dr. Jay Chun, is one of the leading stem cell researchers, and I KNOW that he will find a cure; and if not him, someone. When this is the case, the scientists will figure out how to harvest nerve roots replacements.
Wow, this is a long comment--I suppose it could have been another post!
Love to you, Kenju.
Bhakti
PS PLEASE disregard any typos--I am a bit tired right now, and I need to turn off the laptop and get some shut-eye. No time for copy editing. ;)
DO I WIN SOME KIND OF AWARD FOR THE LONGEST COMMENT EVER POSTED ON BLOGGER??????
I appreciated the long comment. I was wondering why the pain was worse too. Thank you for clarifying.
I'm praying for a cure with you.
TSHSMOM--I appreciate your prayers. And I really need them right now. I'm going through a particularly difficult time mentally right now--it's difficult to keep my head above water all of the time.
I have some good news for the future, though. I have found that I can't type as much as I thought I would be able to with the laptop (vs. my desktop where, of course, I would have to sit at the desk to type). My pain management psychologist got me some information on the computer program that converts speech into text (see above-- where my beloved Gyrobo mentions this device in his comment), and my parents have offered to buy it for me.
At first, the idea of speaking into a headset to write my blog, and the books I have in my mind seemed ridiculous: writer's are supposed to type! Plus, I LOVE typing! (Mavis Beacon is smiling as I type these letters!) I got over that mind-induced roadblock right quick--as soon as I found that my hands can't handle typing more than, say, twenty minutes at a time.
I'm hoping that some day soon I can get some kind of creative rhythm back into my life: I can't stand anymore setbacks. However, I realize that I HAVE to endure them: they are, for whatever reason, a part of my journey. (For better or for worse, I suppose.)
Foraminotomy is performed to enlarge the foramen or the small passageway through which the spinal nerve roots exit the spinal canal. During the procedure, the surgeon removes bone or tissue that causes obstruction in the passageway and pinches the nerve root. Thanks for sharing useful information. Keep posting.
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