10 Days post-op Posterior Cervical Foraminotomy/Discectomy

Today I had my 10-day post-op follow-up doctor's visit. 
He pulled the sutures and the staple and said it looked really good. 
I don't need the hard brace any longer, but have a soft one, for another week or so. 
I can start driving, but haven't given i a try just yet. I think I will start slow/short distances. 
Though, Tuesday I need to drive down to South Denver, so that will be the first "test"- leaving early to make sure :)

I will be able to start PT in a week, so I will call Monday to maybe get my first appointment set for Friday. From there, I will slowly ease back into more strenuous activities. 
I have been walking 5-10km/day so far and will up it to 20-30km/day this coming week.
I am trying to walk sub 10min/km. I've been around 10:30-11min/km which is fine, but I feel good. Adding in some air squats and lunges as well. 

Also, today I did not have any notable pain in my arm or shoulder and the doctor reassured me that my nerves had plenty of room now, and were just irritated from the procedure. So, once the swelling goes down, I should be as good as new, and obviously, the muscles in my neck need to heal up.

At least I can say I am off pain meds, that is narcotics and muscles relaxants, and only need ibuprofen or bromelain every now and then.
So, all in all, everything went well and I am doing good. 

I am SO ready to go back to lifting. 
I know the first couple of months will be tough... and I will have a battle scar, but in a few years I am sure even this will be gone.

Here, is a picture of what my scar looks like Day 1 post-op versus day 10 post-op. 

1 day post-op

10 days post-op

Recovery from Foraminotomy: Week 1

One week ago, I had cervical foraminotomy to hopefully cure my left arm and shoulder radiculopathy.

Right now, I feel like retrospectively reflecting on surgery and the first week post-op, so here we go! 

The procedure: 

Unilateral cervical foraminotomy at c5/c6 was performerd. 4 bone chips and the protruded disk material were removed. I was put in a halo, so besides the 2inch long incision I have staples in the sides of my head that will be removed 10 days post-op. The surgery took about 2 hours. 

The day of surgery:

I quit eating by 8pm the night before and had my last glass of water around 11pm. We left the house at 5.30am and arrived shortly after 6am at the hospital. I only waited a few minutes in the pre-surgery waiting room and was taken to vitals and checks promptly around 6.30. 

My weight was around 150# and I had a hard time giving my urine sample. Information you surely needed.

I changed into a rope and the nurse tried to place an IV in my right hand/arm. She blew two veins and I started to get a bit anxious. This was probably the most painful of it all. She tried twice on my right hand and wrist and completely messed up. Then, she tried my left hand and left me with a pretty big bruise...

My anaesthesiologist came in, locally numbed my hand/wrist and finally got the IV to work! Phew! 

The neuromonitoring guy came I hook me up to his thing and he my doc came to answer final questions and make sure everything was ready to go. 

I was ready to be taken down to the operation room and I think all I talked about were my big dogs and my cat. Then I was in some white room with bright lights. I think there were other patients on their beds around me but I may have been imagining all this! I think I was out shortly after. 

Crazy! 

I woke up in a different room with two nurses circling around me. I tried to move but couldn't and I tried to open my eyes or keep them open but couldn't! Crazy again! 

One nurse then fed me pudding and I know I really liked the pudding! Had it for every meal after that! Tried chocolate, too, but vanilla was way better!

Anyway, my throat hurt from the breathing tube. Since I was on my tummy during the procedure they had to put in a tube. My head hurt a bit - staples. Other than that I was just really tired. 

I was brought back into my room and my husband and his mom showed up quickly after. I needed to use the bathroom and got up around 11am. I felt fine, just a bit shaky. 

I saw a PT and OT to learn how to move and do things but I was up and walking "rounds" by the afternoon. Climbed the cute set up stairs as well. I didn't see any problems come up. 

Yet, we decided to stay a night to make sure. The hospital food wasn't all that bad either. And I liked the pudding! 

At night, my alarm went off several times because my pulse fell below 45 and 40 so, again to be safe they put me on the oxygen. 

I was able to be discharged around 11am the next day. 

Complication and problems post surgery: 

Low blood pressure and pulse. While it's relatively normal for me to have a sub 40 pulse at rest, in the hospital they found it necessary to put me on the oxygen tank and monitor me at night. 

Dizziness and blackouts. Most likely a side effect of meds and my low blood pressure. I passed out in the shower on day 4 post-op. Already the second shower was a bit shaky but I managed to sit down in time. Learned the hard way that a chair in the shower is very helpful; when I passed out and found myself lying on the shower floor crying, I did get scared a bit. I don't think I reinsured though. 

Constipation. All the meds caused some irregularities, that is, no movement. Miralax helped the most. I improved within 48hours of taking it. 

Nausea. Also, a side effect from meds. I quit taking my meds every 6 hours/day on day 6 post-op because I started feeling sick. Only when I actually feel increased pain or muscle spasms, am I taking oxycodone or a muscle relaxer. I have used Ibuprofen and Bromelain for pain/inflammation now and it's working so-so. 

Headaches. Positioning, the hard brace and meds also caused some bad headaches on day 5 and 6. The doctor suggested to try the soft brace and I am wearing it for sleeping or when I am lying down. This, in combination with going down on meds, headaches have improved 100%!

Arm pain. I am a bit concerned that my pain is returning. I haven't had that kind of nerve pain anymore prior to surgery so I am not sure what to think. Did I overdo it? For the most part, I have muscle spasms in my wrist, elbow and upper arm.

Improvement post-op (so far):

As I said, I currently have occasional pain in my shoulder and upper arm but my surgeon said it should go away. He called it residual pain that was caused by inflammation and regeneration of the nerves. After all, I had surgery and it wasn't just a magic trick! Yet, no numbness or tingling have reoccurred. 

I feel like my range of motion has already improved, but I cannot really tell since I am not doing any crazy overhead moves. 

With the incision healing up and me trying to keep up good nutritional and recovery habits, I am sure I will be back to normal before I know it. Then, I will have to focus on rebuilding strength and muscle.

I am now wearing a soft brace about half the time and the incision looks good. The hair they had to shave is starting to grow back and I feel stronger every day.

First week post-op tips:

Eat. Have people cook for you or prepare a lot and freeze it. You will just not feel up to much of anything but you will need to eat.

Take miralax. Kick start bowl movement right away.

Set up your bed. Get a wedge for your bed and plenty of pillows (soft-hard) to adjust your lying position for any occasion.

Chair in shower. Get a shower chair and if at all possible have somebody at you side when you shower.

No overhead. Try not to reach overhead and get clothes ready that are easy to change.

Move slowly but move. Go for short walks, and get up often. Make slow and controlled movements. This helps circulation, healing and your mind. 

Call your doctor. With any questions or problems. I have asked every little thing and was happy to get response within 24hrs very time. 

Avoid heat. Interaction with meds or simply the impact of changes in temperature can impact you more than you would think shortly after surgery, even if you feel great! 

Know your meds! What they do to help you, but also what thy can do I harm you. If you understand your meds you can much better adjust and work around it all. Also, don't become addicted! 

Call friends! Let people know what you are going through and let them help you, even if it's just a phone call! It's helpful to know people are thinking about you. 

Stay positive!  Listen to your body and be careful!

Outlook

I'm looking forward to  start doing slow airsquats and increase my daily walks. Hopefully in a week from today I can drive and start PT! 

Stop blaming CrossFit for my Injury - my take on my herniated disk

With my neck in a cervical brace, I have heard several people suggest to me that I should reconsider my choice of sport. That is when they knew I was (am) doing CrossFit. Then, my injury was clearly a consequence of CrossFit.

I find the idea of "reconsidering one's sport of choice" as a consequence of an injury very interesting. Especially, when there are options and ways of recovering from that injury.

In terms of the cause of my herniated disc, I cannot clearly say that CrossFit was the culprit. Did strenuous workouts and heavy lifts add to the problem? Probably. 
In anticipation for surgery I have read medical, research-based and non-research-based articles as well as personal stories and anecdotes - in my case specifically about disc problems: from lumbar to thoracic to cervical. I reached out to friends and family with similar problems and found it to be true that herniated discs simply happen. Being only 30 and suffering a disk herniation may be less common but funny enough, the cases in younger people that you do get to read about are those about people who use their bodies actively, athletes for example. It's not a new disease that was brought about by CrossFit. 

Yet, I think I would agree to say CrossFitters may encounter these problems more commonly because of their level of activity. 
And here is a shocker:  If you are using your body you consequently will feel your body. If you don't use it, a lot of issues may simply not show up. Other problems, however, might.

Luckily, disc problems are not a new problem, well-documented, and researched. It's something that can be taken care of surigically as well as non-surgically. The main reasons or risks for disk herniations to happen that I found were covered in most sources were (1) being overweight and inactive, (2) being engaged in contact or high impact sports (from football to skiing, and yes, including CrossFit) and (3) genetics. In the end, the choice of treatment depends on a persons lifestyle and occupation. 

But back to the suggestion of reconsidering my sport of choice. 

Let me ask you: Are you reconsidering playing soccer on your co-ed team because you have knee problems?  

Are you reconsidering kickboxing because you strained or broke your foot during practice? 

Are you reconsidering cycling because you overlooked a rock, fell, and broke your arm?

Maybe you do, and that is certainly fine, it's your decision, not mine. I hope you found something else instead. 

When I was a toddler, my babysitter accidentally dropped me and I suffered a neck injury. Ouch. An accident. And no, my babysitter was not sued and sent to jail. She may have become more careful with little children, or at least I hope so. 

But no one suggested to me to be unsupervised during my toddler years. 

When I was in elementary school, I ended up in a neck brace after jumping twist ropes. A wrong twist or turn and my neck was stiff. I don't think I quit jumping twist ropes after I recovered. Why would you take away such a fun and harmless activity from a child, right? 

When I was about 15 I passed out when cleanig my room because I turned or twisted my neck wrong and must have pinched a nerve. Did I quit cleaning my room after this? Nope. Alhough, I am sure I would have highly welcomed such a suggestion. 

When I was 19, I was rearended on the Autobahn in Germany. Several days post accident, I had headaches, stiffness and didn't feel quite right. Whiplash. Untreated. But no one suggested to reconsider driving as my choice of transportation.  

There would be more anecdotal stories of my life that could illustrate that for me, my disk herniation has a history, and my body decided that it was enough, and I needed to know something was actually wrong. On the contrary, I am grateful CrossFit gave me the ability to tune into my body, and feel the pain I was feeling when I was hanging of a pull-up bar or when I tried to bench press.

So, if we would have to reconsider our sport (or X) of choice whenever an injury happens, then we are ignoring something more crucial. Living life. 

I'm not saying "jump off a bridge and see what happens," but I am saying that if you do what you like, pay attention to the ways you are doing them and listen to your body and your body's response, then you can be happy, and yes, sure enough, you can also get hurt. 

Injuries happen. Injuries can be teachful, too. But I would never allow injuries to stop me from living my life in a way that I enjoy it. 

Just imagine what it would mean if we allowed every injury, sickness, or unfortunate consequence to gain such power over us. I feel like it would trigger a lot of anxiety. On top, it sounds exhausting. 

Instead, I rather spend my energy on accepting the things I cannot control, while listening to my body and being observant of the choices I make so that I can implement changes and prevent harm. 

In my experience, I have learned most from failures and mistakes; luckily, most of these moments offered a chance for me to build on and improve the things that I possibly did incorrectly or without enough thought. We all are learning constantly. 

But if every little set-back would stop us from reengaging with something we enjoy, I believe we all would end up in a pretty dark and desperate place. We would not allow ourselves to even learn anything anymore. We would be creatures with experiences that lead to nothing and that are unfulfilling.

In fact, we would turn ourselves and our autonomy in, and take away any sense of responsibility and self-determination from our actions. In my current state, I would turn myself into a victim of my spine injury. And, I don't want to be a victim. Injuries happen. 

My herniated disc would have happened with or without CrossFit. Maybe sooner, maybe later... potentially I would not have noticed it until it got way worse than it was now. Yes, without CrossFit I probably would have not chosen to undergo surgery. But I probably would be overweight, depressed, and unhappy. 

Opting for surgery was a conscious choice I made, it not only cost money but I paid a temporary price in quitting swimming, running, jumping, playing around with my 100-150# dogs. Things I chose to do. Things I enjoyed. Things that kept me sane. But, I am hopeful I can return to all of these activities again. 

In fact, I never fully had to stop CrossFit. I modified every workout and kept my body and fitness where I could while being injured.

Therefore, telling me to reconsider the choice of my sport makes me... Sad.

It misses the point.

If I would do that I would be miserable. More miserable than wearing this neck brace. Yes, there may be movements in CrossFit that after recovery won't be easy or that I may not even be able to do again, but I will simply need to relearn or find a new way of doing them. After all, it's CrossFit. Everything can be modified. Everything!

The question I need to ask myself is, what is it that my body can do and make sure I do it right. 

Finding something to blame for an injury does not make injury go away. It just creates misery.

In fact, it's more effective for me to find something that I can blame for getting better after injury.  I have a feeling, when I am cleared to work out again, that it's going to be the sport of my choice: CrossFit. 

#ifyoucanttoneittanit

Surgery done: Cervical Foraminotomy

KFirst of all, sorry for all potential typos. I am using my phone and I am on Percocet :), Valium, some anti inflammatory and have the oxygen cord in my nose :)

I wanted to give y'all a brief summary on my surgery that I had yesterday: 

My surgeon cut posteriorly and scraped out the disc material that protruded into the left foramen and pushed on my nerve roots at C5/c6. He also removed 4 bone chips that were floating around. 

Everything went very well, he said, and The anesthesiologist told my husband it was definitely a necessary procedure. (I had doubts I really needed it because I was feeling much better since Auguat).

Now a bit about my experience and the pain: 

I got up at 5am yesterday and arrived at the hospital at 6am, checked in and everything just happened smoothly. My vitals were checked and then the first nurse tried to do my IV. She tried 3 times but then gave up. She blew my veins Which was so far probably the worst pain. My anesthesiologist then came in at 7 and took over. She numbed the area if my left hand (since my right was poked a bit ;) ), and  had no problem putting the IV in. My surgeon and neuro-monitoring guy came in to check on me and share positive words, and I signed my consent. While rolling through the halls  to the surgery area I was talking about my giant dogs and crazy cat, I rember getting in and out an elevator and having a hard time keeping my eyes open in what seemed to be a surgical "waiting room"- I think there were other people too so I don't know if that's where surgery was or not - don't think so but it was bright and white :)   - that's all I remember. 

I was out. Then I remember waking up in the wake-up area. My legs were shaking and I felt some pain all over, but most of all in my throat from the breathing tube. 

I was givien some pudding and Percocet and slowly woke up. Then I was brought to my room. 

I was very sleepy and it was hard to keep my eyes open. 

My hard brace was pushing in the back of my neck a bit and I had some trouble finding a comfortable position at first. Taking Percocet with pudding every 6 hours worked well. I have also been given anti inflammatories and antibiotics through the IV. And Valium later the day. I have not been nauseous and even got up to pee around 11am the first time, then walked on my floor and took five stair steps with the  PT. The OT said my strength was normal. 

I took another few laps  with my husband around 5 and before bed - actually felt not too bad - just slow, but helped done if the pain. Speaking if pain the worst pain I felt was on the right side if my head from the staples they put in for the halo. I had read about this before so it didn't shock me. 

Dinner was pretty good and more manageable than lunch (hummus with pita). I had Chicken Parmesan, spinach and whipped potatoes. And an edible flower - lol

In sum, my pain has decreased from 9 right after surgery to about a 7, occasionally a 6. I have been able to sleep 2 hours before my nurse came in at 12:30am this morning/night to give me more pain meds and check vitals. My heart rate has been stable but in the low end at 98/55 and my pulse occasionally fell under 40 which is why she plugged in oxygen tubes. Just in case. I am an athlete though so my pulse is ba rurally low. 

Then I slept till 4:15 and went to the bathroom, had another vitals check and got anti inflammatories. More Percocet at 6m. I had the option to leave yesterday but believe it was better to stay one night just in case. 

I should be home around noon today. 

I'm going to make it a point to walk every hour and need to be more careful with not twisting and turning. I'm pretty stiff right now and hope it will get better soon, 

Here is a pic of me from yesterday around 11am

From here it will only get better :)