View Single Post
  #16  
Old 09-25-2017, 01:37 AM
RedLava RedLava is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 12
Default

Well this sucks and I think I'm reaching a breaking point. I'm flaring up again with the same symptoms that started this whole thing just a lot less than the original rupture. Left scapular area is burning and when I look up for more than a few seconds it burns worse. The stretches I've been doing for 2 weeks without problems are just inflaming it worse at this point.

I'm getting some mild intermittent numbness and tingling down the left pinky finger side of my hand. I think the cortisone shot I got a few weeks ago is wearing off fast and I got off the prednisone that was also controlling it 2 weeks ago. My GP told me I can't live on prednisone. I'm completely torn but thinking I may call the surgical scheduler tomorrow. It's been almost a year since this started and I don't think this damn C6-C7 disc is ever going to truly heal. I feel like I'm nuts to have surgery when I'm not in horrible pain or dysfunctional but at the same time I can't imagine just living like this for the rest of my life either. It burns when I sit down without leaning back, or drive for more than 30 minutes, it burns when I look upward, it burns when I do various physical activities and even worse when I stop. I can't even swim because my "frog-stroke" involves looking up while floating and it burns then too.

I described it to my wife today it's like having a permanent bad sunburn. By that I mean it doesn't feel so horrible that I can't function or do what I want but at the same time everything I want to do I have to gauge it against how bad it's going to make me feel. If anyone is reading this, I know surgery is my own personal decision but do any of you who have had surgery for far worse symptoms think I would be nuts to roll the dice on the surgical route with a one level mobi-C for just these symptoms?

It's not so much the severity as the length of time that I've been dealing with this. I feel like regardless I'm going to end up on the surgery table at some point anyway I may as well do it before it is truly wrecking my life or causing the same unlivable symptoms I dealt with for a month back in December. I still haven't regained all the strength in my left tricep, maybe 80% but it's stuck there. I don't know what to do. My wife sees me running occasionally, she sees me grappling/BJJ a few times a week, she sees me lifting weights a few times a week because I don't want to lose whatever fitness level I worked so hard to get, but I get the feeling she figures if I can do that, it must not be that bad and thinks I should take a long time off as if it would heal in that time but I did that for over 3 months already and while it did get better it never went completely away and now it's back again.

I'm trying so hard not to make a selfish decision that would put my family at risk if I had a bad outcome but I feel like I'm running out of options. Ugh, I'm a complete mess. A part of me almost wishes it would just get so bad that if I risk the surgical route I can know with certainty that I simply had no other choice. Otherwise, if it does go south with a surgery I'll always wonder if I could have just sat on a couch for 6 months and not have needed to do it.
__________________
- 10/16 C6-C7 ruptured disc and C5-C6 moderately bulging disc confirmed on MRI in 12/16.
- Cancelled C5-C7 fusion surgery 02/17 due to near complete symptom improvement.
- Flare-ups of C6-C7 began again in 07/17.
- Considering C6-C7 Mobi-C replacement.

Last edited by Harrison; 09-25-2017 at 09:11 PM. Reason: added format breaks
Reply With Quote