A message about necks.
 

Take good care of your neck I'm basicly immobile for a few days due to one of my four herniated discs is having a party with my nerve root. I always have pain but I threw this one out by jerking hard moving from a swarm of bee's I found power washing a house.

I can sympathize with you. 7 months after surgery, my neck seems to be bascially back to normal although there really is no cure to neck/back problems.

I checked the surgery that you had out and once again they say that mine is too far gone for anything short of disc replacement. The tech is moving along pretty fast so I should be getting some relief in the next couple years, if i can make it that long. I'm going to Cleveland Clinic again next month.

It sure does make me grouchy.

Sorry about your predicament MM. Hope it clears up quickly. Neck and back ailments are not nice and most people don't realize how complex a machine the back is. I bought a Bowflex a few years back and try to keep the muscles around my back in tone so that they can properly support it. Wife and I haven't had any back problems recently, so it might be working.

Wes

Oh yeah. I didn't know that bees pressure-washed houses. I need to pressure wahs and oil my log cabin. Wonder if they're still available..........

You're probably familiar with adrsupport.org but if not, there are lots of people with artificial discs on that list. Most of them are lumbar patients but there are a few cervical. I met one person who had been been in the orthopedic field for years, he owns a company called Ortho-Knowledge I think--at least that's the name of their publication. He had neck problems that were causing serious neurological deficits--he was falling down because his legs weren't functioning. He went to Switzerland and got an artificial disc. I talked to him on the phone for a long time. He had seriously considered designing his own disc but decided to go with the ????(Bryan?). He was very happy with the results 2 or 3 years later although he had never fully recovered complete function--he still can't run. But regaining function is never certain irregardless of the kind of surgery. There are about 3 or 4 different cervical discs available at the moment. The French just came out with an updated version that seems to provide more range of movement.
You probably also know that cervical discs are still in the clinical trials phase in the US, even though they've been implanted for years in Europe. I found a local Denver surgeon who was part of the trials but he had used up his quota of discs.

Aw hell, MM was probably trying to Shanghai them bees to pressure wash one of his properties. He shoulda just offered some nectar instead.

Haha....the bees made a summer long home in the shutters.

My discs are basicly mush, I'm very lucky that I can still live a normal life it suprises everyone once they see my MRI's. I had an MRI at the VA center last spring and I overheard the radiologist say "Holy Shi-- I thought that guy looked normal when he walked in but jeeeesh I wonder how he gets out of bed on his own.

The docs don't want me doing any exercise because it will degrade the discs further, in a nutshell replacement is the only option. I have access to the best medical care in the world.

My sympathies, too. Herniated 2 disks in my L back in May and while recovered it will never be the same. Damaged my upper back over a year ago and it still plagues me. I’ve gone to using a music stand when reading to keep the book elevated without having to strain my arms, neck/back. Have acquired a serious collection of heating pads. Those have become my closest friends.

Can you do isometrics, stetching or core exercises?

ee


Haha, the pw does do the trick on those suckers, I was washing a shutter and felt something on my leg and when I released the trigger I had a swarm of bees on my ass. I only got stung a couple times and given the number of yellow jackets I consider myself lucky. But now that my neck is jerked out I realize that i may have won the battle but they won the war.

Hows the shoulder BTW? I had lunch with your doctor last week and he asked about you.

Very low impact only, I squeeze tennis balls and use the elliptical and have kept my muscle mass but any type of pulling or pushing is out of the question. Like zero I was down for week when I pulled on a stuck door.

Wow. I’m not supposed to lift more than 20 lbs. I’ve found this somewhere between annoying and impossible. But I know that continuing to do so will more than likely land me in a wheel chair.

Ron recently made a very good observation about the difference between living a life and learning hard lessons. Or perhaps i should say living a life in spite of learning hard lessons. This is a great example of the distinction and related difficulties. It’s very hard to heed the advice when the mandates of life don’t let it happen. Being a guy makes it more difficult as we’re taught to be self-empowered and physically strong almost from the cradle. So the question is how to heed the lesson without abandoning one of the basic elements of a lifetime? Worse how to stop doing many things one knows how to do both instinctivly and effortlessly? Sure you can do it for a while, but like your pressure washing and my lifting, the activities of daily life opens the door to serious consequences when you're already injured.

BTW how do you like the ellipitical trainer? A couple of folks in the same boat as me swear by them.

I love it, its easy and best of all quiet. I watch Discovery HD when I'm on it and imagine I'm running through the mountains.

And I know it hurts the pride but take it easy, hire a kid to do your lifting if you explain your broke they'll understand and won't give you a hard time for not doing the hard work.

Avoid getting your neck stretched by not attending a "necktie party"

Disc "replacement"? I would think that the typical procedure would be a diskectomy and fusion with bone from hip or cadaver.