Well so life goes on...meh. Mine is sucking big time again as usual. After all the big neck surgeries of last year and then the mysterious Aspergillous chest infection (that I am constantly being re-checked for) I was again admittted to hospital for a serious chest infection, they were taking precautions because of the seriousness of the recent aspergillous infection. But anyway, I was due to see one of the Orthopedic Docs re my ongoing neck and shoulder pain issue since all my ops.

I am sure many of you will recall this pic of the insides of my neck. Not a pretty sight at the best of times.

http://www.users.on.net/~dwegner/Pics/neck.JPG

Anyway while I am in the Wesley getting my chest sorted, my Orthopedic guy visits me again and tells me that the recent x-ray doesn't give him any idea as to why I am complaining so much about all this pain in the neck and shoulder area. Well I tell him I am in intense pain and its not a figment of my imagination. Reluctantly he asks me to take of my shirt (bearing in ming he did this about 4 weeks prior) and whilst he is behind me, I hear him say, "Oh dear"

Now that is NOT something you want your surgeon to say behind your back.

I ask him, "Whats the problem"

He does the usual surgeon stuff.."hmmm, uh-huh, hmmm, oh dear"....AND THEN..."My god thats bad"

I finally say, "hey WTF going on??!"

He finally comes clean and tells me I have to have a s*** load more test, MRIs , needles stuck in me by a Neurologits ect..ect.. He explains that most of my left shoulder has wasted away (the supraspinatus and Infraspinatus) are almost completely gone and that he suspects that I have a dead nerve in my neck/spine causing this.

Anyways aftwr a lot of test involving needles, crying, and pain, he decided to operate on me last Thursday to relieve at compressed suprascapular nerve in the shoulder. It was my 4th operation in 7 months and my 10th anesthetic in the same period. (going for a record here folks)

Bottom line was he told me I had nothing to lose, at the moment I cant lift a 3litre milk bottle with my left arm. The doc said he had to do the op as there was a real danger of me losing the use of the left shouler all together. He also covered himself to say that the main cause may still lie within my neck between the two main pieces of hardware I have at the c5/c6 level as this is where this nerve originates from. But he did say when he sliced the tendon away from the bone strangling the nerve in the shoulder it spat fat at him and he could easily see that it was not happy under the compression. He then re-pinned the tendon to the bone. OH happy days.

So it sucks to be me again as usual, and I will know more on the 6th of Feb when I see the shoulder and the neck guy again..not real keen as the latest MRI of my neck reads like a "whos who" of whats wrong with a cervical spine.

But hey, I have some serious Morhpine based pain killers and I am not nearly as sick (nor as brave) as some on this forum and I will get thru this for sure,

Admittedly I wont ever play tennis at Wimbledon again but hey as long as I can strafe and change weapons with my left hand I'm laughin.

:P


doh, sorry about the pic being so big.

hey as long as I can strafe and change weapons with my left hand I'm laughin.

Just as well you have everything in perspective :)

gl on the 6th.

man we could have had a lan at the wesley dude, I've been in there for the last 6 or so days getting a piece of my spine removed from a compressed nerve as well (laminectomey + some other word which starts with disc)

Ouch mate that's harsh.
Best of luck to ya, hopefully something works out well.

u f***ers didnt say hi to me... Granted thurs/fri was my day off.. u still didn't say hi!

Never fear psycho and space ninja... least you're not the 8 year old girl who just had 2 or so foot of magical metal inserted into her spine to quell her severly curved spine troubles...

Both through dr labrom??

hey Space Ninja, who is your spinal doc?

The nurses on the Orthopedic ward rock. Sadly though I feel I may be seeing them again far too soon, even though they are lovley ladies.

heh Boxhead I actually thought of you but f*** me if I know you by any other name, I dunno if the girls on the ward would know 'a Mr boxhead':0)

...yeh Dr Lebrom is my neck guy and Dr Davies is my shoulder guy.

Both are gurus, both have their work cut out for them with me thats for sure. The nerve guy is really interested in me as what I had is 'rare' aparently, like every other bloody thing thats gone wrong with me this year.

:P

last edited by Psycho! at 02:36:15 29/Jan/06

that does suck. hopefully the night is darkest before the dawn?

so um how did ur neck get this f***ed up in the first place?

get some more metal into ya and youll be a cyborg!

last edited by ravn0s at 02:36:12 29/Jan/06

Hah i'd be afraid if the ward girls did know me :)

I'm strictly working in the theatre complex atm... so wherever Dr labrom wanted you positioned, i'd have been responsible for lugging your asleep ass to the right position :p (if i'd have been working :p )

If you're back (which you hopefully won't be.. ) ask for Conor and i'll come say hi!

so um how did ur neck get this f***ed up in the first place?

get some more metal into ya and youll be a cyborg!

Degenerative disease, stenosis ect..ect.. I had a Professor of Spinal surgery tell me that motorbike riding every day for like 5hrs plus for 7 or so years did NO favours to my neck but they can't be accurate as to the cause of 'Spondylosis'

Could be genetic, diet or just piss poor aging. :)

Yeh, at the mo it's looking like c5/c6 is rats*** and even c3/c4 is f***ed as well. I may actually end up with a completely Titanium neck. Terminator style, bring it on!

The lack of strength/mobility in the left arm is the most worrying at the mo. Luckily I drink stubbies with my right hand.

:P

If you're back (which you hopefully won't be.. ) ask for Conor and i'll come say hi!

heh I will do that now of course I do remeber its Conor. doh is me.

Last Thursday I went into the new Op theatres, the ones with the windows looking outside..Man are they nice or what. I was commenting on how nice and bright and airy they were just as some f***er knocked me out!!

:)

Man, sorry to hear about all this bad s*** going down Psycho. Hopefully everything works out but it's never a good sign when critical parts of your body start f***ing up.

On a lighter night, I see why you never post your age, you old bastard. *looks at top left corner of xray*

8-)

*looks at top left corner of xray*

yes I am an old prick...but young padawan...I am a wise old prick.

:P

Well, you are an officer of the law so I would never intentionally offend you. You prolly know people.

8-)

Boxhead - I tried to contact you a few days before I went in to see if I could see you, but you weren't online or any of the times I tried. Infact, maybe it was just the f***ing hardcore drugs I was on before they knocked me out but I could have sworn I saw you in my theater box - I even said uhh boxhead before I passed out (haha I'm a nerd) but then again I dunno if it was you, I went in last Tuesday at around 4pm for the Op.

My spinal doctor was Dr Dickinson - pretty awesome bloke, explained everything and kind of rushed me in - was a bit wierd, had a CT scan last monday, had an MRI on saturday, saw the surgeon (second visit) on monday, he said ok tuesday lets go so there I was

I unfortunately wasn't in the Orthepedic wing, I was in the Urology wing - they were going to transfer me down (or up or whatever) on Thursday but my doc rocked along and said go home so I was pretty happy with that. Suffice it to say, I don't have much love for any of the nurses from the Urology ward.

He explains that most of my left shoulder has wasted away (the supraspinatus and Infraspinatus) are almost completely gone and that he suspects that I have a dead nerve in my neck/spine causing this.

So what would have caused that? Surely you would have been having regular check ups that should have detected something as bad as that? You said he had checked you 4 weeks prior, so did he miss something back then or is this so severe that 4 weeks is all it takes to occur?

Anyways best of luck and I hope that it all turns out well in the end.

The nurses on the Orthopedic ward rock.

I have this mental image of you madly fragging away on a bed, with several young knock-out nurses waiting on your every whim...

All the best dude :(

bloody hell, sounds crazy!

Hope Psycho! and Space Ninja get better asap

Must have been the week for it, I was down in Royal Prince Alfred last Wednesday - seeing a professor about my dodgy heart, stupid thing - looks like I need an op fairly soon :/

bad luck dude, best wishes etc - it's never good to see this kinda thing happen to anyone

Luckily I drink stubbies with my right hand.

haha thats the spirit!! :D
best of luck guys

Hospital Fun!
At least you get to look and sometimes play with expensive machines :D

Good luck on your results Psycho and hope you and Mechanical Space Ninja recover well.

Psycho - Wow, that's big. I can't imagine what it is like and hopefully I will never have to *skulls her milk and takes her calcuim sups*

I know condolences and encouragement from people who barely know you are kind of hollow but for what it's worth I hope things get better for you guys in the near future.

qgl is a big family, one of the ones where all the kids and mum are wearing faded seconded hand clothes, mums wearing a bumbag and every 3 minutes or so yells as loud as possible at the kids while trying to hit em all on the ass because most of the kids have ADHD and wont stop running around hitting each other and yelling and the father has a mullet.

so much love

So what would have caused that? Surely you would have been having regular check ups that should have detected something as bad as that? You said he had checked you 4 weeks prior, so did he miss something back then or is this so severe that 4 weeks is all it takes to occur?

Yeh exactly my words, but apparently where it was compressed can happen quickly because the tendon that holds it in place thickens up real fast, its just the loss of strength that has given me the s***s. Nearly dropped a saucepan of boiling water on myslef about two weeks ago. You pick something up in you hand and then your arm suddenly informs you that its not going to hold this weight. The shouder guy also told me that if I was still getting aching down the arm after his op then it was looking more and more like the neck area is also squashing the nerve at it origin. Arm is still aching like a bitch so its not looking good toto. :P

Thanks to all for their encuragement and I hope the others with ailments here all do well too, but as I said in the scheme of things (when you give a thought for guys like Grunt) my probs are small in comparison.

nG! get well soon champ! gotta keep up the old guy massive here on qgl ;]

Holy s*** doode :( Good luck with everything, you'll pull through this!.