So, I had my consult with the spine doc today. Not as good as originally thought. Instead of two vertebrae there are actually 4 that will have to be addressed and fused, C4-C7. The official diagnosis are, cervical stenosis of spine (spinal canal is too small for the spinal cord), cervical radiculopathy (nerves are pinched where they branch from the spinal cord), cervical myelopathy (compression of the spinal cord), and hyperreflexia (hyper sensitive reflexes generally caused by a spinal cord injury).
The treatment is posterior cervical decompression and fusion.
They'll basically go in through an incision about 6" long on the back of my neck and remove a piece on the back of each vertebrae to make them horseshoe shaped instead of donut shaped. They will also clean up any other issues with the discs and bone spurs that need addressed. They will then put in the special titanium screws and rods to lock the vertebrae in place. After they finish with that they will take the pieces they removed and use them along with some donor material and bone marrow and stems cells that they will withdraw from my hip during the procedure. They will graft the bone along the sides of those vertebrae with using the donor material and my bone marrow and stems cells. They they close me up.
I'll have a drain in there for a day or two. They'll keep me in the hospital for 2.5 days. I'll be on bed rest for 1 week after surgery. They'll have me come in at one week post op to check the incision, adjust my meds or address anything else. Then I'll be on bed rest to light duty (working from home) for 2-3 weeks. I'll go back in after two weeks and have the sutures removed. after 3 weeks they will assess me for PT and if I'm tolerating pain ok then I can start 8-12 weeks of PT and rehab. I won't be able to lift over 5 lbs. until they tell me I can. I can't go up and down staircases. I can go up and down a couple of stairs to go in and out of the house.
I attached a couple of files that show the laminectomy steps and then one of a neck model that they showed me in the office when they were going over everything. The only difference is that the neck model still shows the vertebrae fully intact. They will actually remove the piece of bone between the screws.
At any rate, I still have some stuff to get done. They have to do a complete physical and some lab tests to make sure I'm in good enough shape to handle the surgery (they do that once you hit fifty). That should be no problem and then they have to get all the pre-approvals from my insurance company. Once all that is done THEN they will schedule me for the surgery. Probably looking at mid-late October. In the meantime I get to live with this lovely pain that ranges from a mild toothache to feeling like I've been stabbed with a pickaxe. And of course along with the pain I get random numbness and weakness in various body parts. My left thumb and index finger have been numb since this all started but I've had random numbness in my left pinky finger, my left forefinger, my left forearm, my left shoulder, the right side of my face, and weakness and loss of fine motor skills in my feet and legs.
I'm getting so used to sleeping with my neck and arm on ice I feel like a prize tuna in a Chinese fish market!
Oh well, one more step to getting it dealt with. The light at the end of the tunnel is still a ways off but I've made it this far, I suppose I can handle a few more days.
has his rabies tag, you don’t need anything else piled on top 
