That felt great. It did, it really felt good. A lot of anticipation.
I was miserable, absolutely miserable. I gave up golf, I gave up hunting, I gave up working
around the house, I was paying people to mow my lawn and shovel my sidewalk.
It was 1995 when I actually ruptured the disc or caused the disc to bulge. I was riding
on that side nerve and giving me a lot of pain.
I asked my family physician to give me a referral to a surgeon and he referred me to Dr. Lennarson
and I was very at ease the minute I met him. Obviously, he knew exactly what he was talking
about. He gave me the options of how they could perform the surgery.
For other traditional surgeries where we want to remove that disc and fuse the spine, it’s
frequently done making an abdominal incision, which does create a lot more pain initially
and also a longer recovery.
In this procedure, we take advantage of the natural space between the abdominal cavity
where all the bowels are and the spine itself. And we can navigate that really without disrupting
much of anything, get to the spine and then do the work we need all through an incision
about an inch long, which really speeds recovery. In this procedure, even though we’re working
on the front of the spine, the patient is on their stomach for the entire procedure
and through the small incision down here by the tailbone, we navigate up in front of the
spine and end up creating a channel through the front of the spine into that disc. And
then, just through a very small tube, end up initially putting our bone graph into where
that disc used to be and then are able to pass one of these threaded rods up through
that area where the disc was to firmly fix those bones together. So that’s what this
looks like on an x-ray.
The surgery was an absolute success. I think I knew the minute I woke up and I was only
in the hospital for a couple days. I was up walking later the same day.
This wouldn’t fit everybody’s problem, even if it looks like it might be a good procedure
for a particular problem, you also have to consider the anatomy and other factors that
relate more to safety of the procedure. It really does need to be planned carefully and
make sure that all of the different pieces fall into place to make it a safe and effective
treatment.
My last appointment with Dr. Lennarson; the x-rays have shown the bone growth and everything,
and basically told me I was pretty much good to try anything I wanted and I brought up
the mention of golf and he said, “Well, I’m not going to tell you no, but the twisting
is probably the most stressful thing.” And he told me it’d be 9-to-12 months before
the bone fully grew in and everything. And I thought, wow, I’ve basically given it
up for two years; what’s a few more months? So I figured I would wait. March 31st will
be the anniversary of the surgery, so April 1st I will be on the course.
Well, my farness was good. My towardness was off.
Just to be able to get out and do this. I’ve played a lot of golf in the past, so to be
able to get back to that. It’s really one of my main hobbies.