New Member
 

Greetings:

I discovered this site yesterday after coming home from yet another visit to my current spinal surgeon who has been trying his best to take wonderful care of me.

I am a 48 year old gay man on disability since 2005 from a near death experience with community acquired MRSA (Staph Infection), at which time it was discovered I had both lungs full of infection, right buttocks had a cyst, left testicle had a cyst, right thigh had a cyst, and spinal cord had a large cyst attached in the lumbar region. Emergency laminectomy performed to remove cyst, and a 6 week hospital stay followed on constant IV drip vancomycin.

Fast forward to 2011. I experienced severe shoulder blade and arm pain upon waking one November morning. Three months later and the pain finally subsided. I should make you aware this was near Thanksgiving time (onset of cold weather). When the pain subsided it was beginning to warm up outside.

December 2012 the pain returned one morning upon waking. I finally sought medical care three weeks later and discovered by means of MRI abnormally large herniated cervical disk C-6, C-7. Had a surgical consult and was prescribed 18 sessions of physical therapy, a cervical epidural and a prednisone dose pak. I could not afford the $40 co-pay per PT session so once again toughed the pain out and once again it began to subside to a more tolerable level once warmer weather returned.

November 2013, third verse same as the second and first. Severe pain right shoulder, arm down to the finger tips. Classical radiculopathy aka shooting pain down the arm...stabbing, burning and pins and needles. This time I waited only three weeks and went to see a family MD who prescribed a large quantity of prednisone (three weeks of dosage) and narcotic pain pills, and referred me to spinal surgeon. Spinal surgeon ordered epidural. Two weeks later a second epidural to no avail. New MRI ordered which I had Monday. Bulge has moved and is significantly larger, pain is intolerable and cannot be treated conservatively so we are in the process of getting permission from artificial disk manufacturer for my usage of their product as well as insurance approval for the surgery. Pain is so unbearable and nothing helps and family members offer little understanding nor support so I am turning to this forum in hopes of meeting some good sympathetic new friends who may actually understand what I am going through.

Thanks so much for listening to me vent.

-SD

3nigma,

Sorry your here regarding your pain. Sounds like the pain is from your neck. I'm a lumbar post op patient but there are many cervical post op patients here, I'm sure they will be willing to help based upon their experience.

SD,

Condolences on your miserable story!

First, let me congratulate you on surviving a severe MRSA infection. In 2005 an acquaintance died from a double plural MRSA infection, as did a friend's wife just last week. I'm guessing that at the time that you were otherwise in very good health?

I had four rounds of those ESI's, all of which were very helpful. The C6/7 herniation was bad enough that I began developing myelopathy at that level and had to rush into surgery (within a month). I would encourage you to keep a close eye on your condition as it follows to reason that a disc bulge that is "significantly larger" than it was when it was "abnormally large" might be predisposed to causing a spinal cord pathology. That was my experience.

While ADR is usually preferable to fusion, if it comes to a fusion, even a hasty one, it's not the end of the world. When I had just one fusion, there was no noticeable loss of motion and in your case you will very likely to have an immediate relief of symptoms. Of course the down side is that you'll predispose yourself to needing another fusion within the next several years.

Hoping for quick relief (from an ADR).

Good luck, Jeff

Thanks....
 

Thanks for the reply and the heads up, and sorry to hear of the problems in your case. I must admit though the reason I looked up this forum is hearing that your not alone in these situations is like a drink of water in the desert.

I joined a similar forum for MRSA patients when I was going through all that and found it to be an invaluable tool and perhaps the only thing that gave me the strength to carry on and survive the ordeal.

Yes I was healthy up to the morning I awoke with the "flu" and three weeks later could not get out of bed, but that is another story even if not entirely off topic as previous spinal disease can indeed be a contributing factor to spinal stenosis issues.

We are keeping a very close eye on things in fact I am in near daily contact with my surgeon. I have many other issues in both my cervical and lumbar, and due to the diseased vertebrae adjacent to the Prodisc-C implantation site we are currently awaiting permission from the device manufacturer as well as insurance approval and hope to have the go ahead from both within a week, from that point we are looking at scheduled implantation before the end of this current month. I hope things are still going well for you post-procedural and thanks again for the words of encouragement and caution it truly is of immense help.

Warmest Regards,

-SD

SD,

Sorry about your myriad challenges. I am personally and professionally involved in researching and addressing bacterial infections. I am particularly interested in the role of microbes in causing degenerative disc disease. There are literally thousands of research abstracts documenting their causative role in spinal disease! BTW, did they do ANY diagnostics on the lumbar cyst? If they did...I bet they didn't do it properly. Or tell you the results. That's the unacceptable norm.

Why I am so frenetically motivated on these medical issues:

Story | WhyAmIStillSick.com

The myriad scientific abstracts that document the role of microbes in spinal disease and degeneration:

http://www.adrsupport.org/forums/f44...l-causes-9218/ (please note multiple pages -- scroll thru pages)

I hope this is of some value. If nothing else, you have my sympathies, interest and support.

Harrison -
Thanks for your reply and sharing of your personal story. What a wondererful thing you have done and are continuing to do with your work to support other spinal disease victims. I do not know if anything was done in regards to the spinal cyst. I do know biosipies were done on some of the infections although in 2005 it was still early in the game for community acquired MRSA and I was so near death that I am surprised I know as much as I do. I was treated at Dallas Presbyterian in Dallas, Texas and am very lucky to still be alive. I honestly was not aware of the correlation between the previous microbes and disc degeneration until my current surgeon mentioned it and I did slight research afterward. How very interesting. I think I will be having a normal discectomy and fusion, am scheduled for Jan 23rd.

Ironically I found pain relief from an unlikely source and have had some good sleep the past couple days over the weekend. In preparation for the upcoming procedure I began taking Chhantix to stop smoking and it put me to sleep and I awoke relatively pain free how ironic. I am still looking forward to the surgery and moving forward from there!

Thanks again,
-SD

SD,

Good luck on the 23rd. I hope you'll holler back and let us know how it went. I know you'll do great.

Good luck, Jeff

Prodisç-C
 

Well the 23rd has come and gone had my procedure at ten am awoke in recovery around six pm with a prodisc-C implanted at C6-C7. Tremendous pain relief nice to be able to use my right arm again. Have been up moving around in the room although I had to request to do so and the nurses really did not seem to like it much. Now we will see how things go from here, but at this point I am just happy to have had the ADR as opposed to the ACDF w\metal plate and feel relieved to be fixes up!! :))

-SD

SD,

Congratulations on a successful surgery! Isn't it something to feel better when you wake up than you did when they put you out? For most the cervical ADR recovery is not too difficult. Wishing you an uneventful and smooth recovery.

Good luck, Jeff

Congrats, may your healing go well!