Hi..discectomy on 1st Nov

And I forgot to add that having a positive attitude also helps to get by :D

Jules xx :D :D

Oh well, the latest is..... I tried driving in to work today, I got to about 45 minutes into my drive and then I felt it badly in my back, had to stop, got out, walked around, stretched and realised maybe I cant do a long journey in one go.... anyway, turned the car around as still had at least another half hour or so to drive, came home and worked from home again, depressed:evil: .

Not depressed coz of the ache/pain...that will pass, albeit in time, but I was looking forward to being with people again :lol: .... not that I dont enjoy my wifes company coz I do more than any other person int he world BUT would have been nice to be in work too.

So there u have it, I might start a daily blog on here, just to keep a record.....

Anyway, hope all are in some ways better and hope u all are having a happy and healthy new year

Russ

Hi Russ,

Well done for going 45 mins...that is amazing!!!! I know you didn't make it the whole way but it's still a big achievement. It may be that you'll need to build the driving time up gradually for your back & legs to get accustomed, but hey, you're half way there already :D . I'm finding that I ache badly when doing something for the first time in a while...today I took the lids to the park....I ran around with them...my poor leg muscles were like lead :shock: and on getting home did the ol' domestic goddess routine...making dinner tonight I was bending over because my back ached soooo much ( I know..no bending but couldn't help myself..lol :lol: ). It feels better now after some stretching and I know the earlier discomfort is a \"good pain\" rather that a \"bad pain\" if that makes sense..It seems that still, when we have a stab at normality, the recent past just come up and bites us on the behind!! Hang in there Russ, you'll be back at work very very soon...in the meantime come on here and chat with us :D

Take care,

Jules xx :D :D

hi ams

well i hurt my neck in work oct 2005, i went on sick for a month til the initail pain went (although still in pain) i, or the gp didnt know at this stage what was wrong.i continued to work god knows how! but continued to get tests done although it was 18 wks between them my first was a xray jan 2006, then that showed something so referred to a ortho doc(big mistake as was wrong doc to be referred to, as i needed a neuro surgeon) and of course by the time i saw him it was sept, then refferd for mri in feb 2007 and that said i had significant prolapse and compression with dispalcement of c5-6 and prolapse of c6-7, and due to the nature of my work(homecarer working with emi)my team leader arranged with my occy health for a meeting as i didnt want to go on sick leave, but the occy said SICK LEAVE and been on it since, i,am hoping to return feb 17, well thats my goal but of course will have to see the occy first. i have found out though that because i work for social services they cant lay me off due to my age and if i wont be able to continue doing homecare(sincerely hope so) then they will have to redeploy me to a suitable position. so all rests now with the occy. i get to see my gp jan 16 and will ask her what she thinks and go from there. my sick pay has run out so i need to get back to work asap as there is no way i can live on £72 a week ib. hope this helps a little. gail

Hi All,

Sorry I have written for a while. As you know after a false start (and cancelled operation on 27 November) I finally went in to King's and had an L5/S1 microdiscectomy on 4 December, but I had a dural tear which was missed during surgery and I ended up with a CSF leak and ended up being re-admitted a few days later. I was quite ill with the trademark CSF headache but when I left hospital the second time on 15 December after six days back at King's I was led to believe that I would be okay and the CSF leak had stopped. So I expected things to improve but over Christmas I just started feeling really ill. On 27 December, I blacked out and 'came back' on the floor. That was really scary afterwards....it's not like fainting and my head really hurt. Then on 28 December during the night I had a fit and was then semi conscious until morning. The next morning, I rang King's who were not interested and just like the last time tried to fob me off to my local A&E, but having learned the lesson when I was re-admitted on 10 December I decided to go back to King's A&E. I was re-admitted immediately, then given 2 MRI's and taken straight to theatre. There they surgically repaired the dural tear and also had to do a discectomy too. (I had a microdiscectomy before). I was then put on three days bed rest and treated for 5 days on IV antibiotics for menginitis. It turned out that I didn't have that after all when the lab results finally came back. I left hospital yesterday after 10 days.

Now I feel quite shattered. I was orginally planning on going back to work on 7 January, now of course it is going to be at least another month....all unpaid.

I ended up with three admissions and two operations in less than four weeks. If they hadn't made the dural tear during the op, if they had spotted it at the time, if my GP had just checked the wound instead of turning me away on 7 December, if King's had sorted it out the second time I went in...........if, if, if! The list goes on.

Having been admitted and discharged three times, I hope and pray that this is it now. It should have been a fairly straightforward op....a routine microdiscectomy. Human error I can deal with. Human incompetence and ignorance I cannot. i have been told that having had two surgeries at the same spot so close in time together it will take longer for the body to heal. Yesterday two groups of doctors/surgeons couldn't even agree how long this lot of stitches should stay in for...10 or 14. I have decided to split the difference and go for 12!

The main problem is that each time after being discharged Kings are not interested at all. It is a big black hole and GP staff don't have the experience. They have let me down by their ignorance completely and compromised my health. They give you a brochure on leaving saying if you have x,y and z to call this number. But either the bleep number doesn't get answered or they fob you off to your local A&E. But then they can't help because the surgery wasn't done at that hospital and they want you to go to King's! When you are sick/ill as a direct result of the surgery they should not be fobbing you off anyway they can.

I'm going to take it easy now and I'll catch up on all the posts and progress as I can. On the positive side I am not in much pain, reasonably mobile and I met a wonderful person in hospital that I'm sure I'll keep in touch with for a long, long time.

Best wishes

TFU

Hi ams,

I've also replied with Occy Health stuff under the \"angela\" thread...

Take care,

Jules xx :D :D

Hi I hope you have now seen an end to all of this and wish you all the very best for your recovery, take care and keep us posted.

Lorraine

Hi All,

Thanks for your words of support, where do I start?

I went into Hospital on Wednesday 2nd January 2008 at 7.30am to have a PLIF only to find they'd lost all my Medical Notes. (Great Start). I was 2nd on the list but as they still hadn't found my notes by 12 noon, the Anaethetist had to come up and take all my past Medical History again, I had to have even more Bloods taken. Finally at 1.20pm I was taken down to Theatre by this time I was a nervous wreck. They had trouble getting a Venflon into my hand after trying 3 times and my Blood Pressure shooting up to the roof, they finally gave me a Local Anaesthetic in my hand to numb it so they could put me to sleep with a General Anaesthetic.

Apparently I had trouble coming out of the Anaesthetic, they had to give me Steroids to bring me round quickly. I was sick when I eventually came round and my pain was excruitiating. I was put on a PAC Machine, which allows you to administer your own Morphine, after several injections to stop my sickness I was taken back to the Ward at 8.00 pm. My family were worried at how long I'd been down in Theatre.

I was told by the Doctor to stop taking all my medications I'd previously been on and was given Dihydrocodeine and Paracetamol. Obviously once the Morphine Pump had run out I was in agony again. When the Doctor came to see me at lunchtime he said I could go home later on when my Medication had come back and I'd had some more Bloods taken and 4 X-Rays.

I couldn't believe it I could go home not even 24 hours after Major Back Surgery. So I went home at 5.30pm on Thursday 3rd January. The pain got so severe that I took my tablets from previous. The next day after getting know sleep at all, I phoned my Doctor who came out to see me he was shocked that I was also out so quickly. He gave me Oramorph, Diclofenac, and told me to take my Tramadol and Amitryptlin until the pain had eased.

Later that day I got a phonecall from the Hospital asking me if I was feeling ok as my Blood Results had come back and my White Blood Count was double to what it should have been. I told them I'd had a Sore Throat and it hurt when I peed but I thought that was down to having a Catheter in and the tube down my throat. My Doctors been really good he's been over to see me a few times and has rang me most days. I'm still feeling sickly and my back's still painful. Hopefully my back might ease a little after they've taken the 26 staples out.

On the good side I have a little feeling back in my left foot and the sciatica has gone.

Hope everyone else's ok and they had a Good New Year.

Take it easy.

Angela

hi gail/jules

thanks :lol: your comments have really helped , think i was worrying over nothing it might be that occy/h can help me in some way or explain to the head how bad i am it's not all doom after all :wink: , i also spoke to my gp today about it and she said if there was any problems then she would speak to them and explain that i have been putting up with this for a long time as it all on my records when i was first diagnosed with oa/cs/disc prolapse

:sorry: to go on - she has also put me on different meds remedeine to see if that will help :roll: anyone ever used it before and the 1 million pound question is does it work even just a little :?

speak to you both soon

ams /Annemarie :magic:

Hi Angela

Everyone will be so pleased :lol: :magic: your back and on the way to recovery, can't believe they let you out so soon sounds a little scary.

think you have to take it easy ,26 staples sounds alot

not sure i will be as brave as you :? hope you have a speedy recovery

speak to you soon

take care

ams/Annemarie :magic:

Hi Angela

I have been trying to catch up on posts. The last I read, your op on 2.1 was cancelled and they were sending you to a different hospital!! I guess i'd better do some more catching up today.

At least you have now had the op. Incredible that they kicked you out in 24 hours. The first time I was in I was kicked out in under 48 hours. the first morning after the op they were trying to get me out of bed. As far as I could tell there were four main tests:-

1. Able to wee.

2. Able to walk a short distance, around ward.

3. Able to walk up and down half a flight of stairs.

4. Able to open your bowels. i hadn't done the fourth, so the nurse lied and told the doctors I had!!

It is quite shameful that people are sent out of hospital whilst they still need a high level of care. At least your GP is being helpful. Mine is awful. I feel truely let down by the whole system.

I too had a problem coming out of the anaesthetic, but I never found out why. I heard the HDU nurse say as I was thrashing around \"this is the worse I have seen anybody come out for years.\" After the first time in hospital I asked for a complete copy of ALL my hospital notes and those will hopefully come soon, although I guess the 2 further admissions may delay things. Then I am going to take advice on suing them. In the meantime I am going to hopefully recover now and there will be no more problems. I hope it ut I don't believe it!

Angela, get plenty of rest now and work slowly on your recovery. Are the family chipping in to help?

Best wishes

TFU

hi tfu

omg you have been through it havent you! when you mentioned blacking out the same happened to me the day after surgery, i fell off the commode but little was done except bed rest and put back on oxygen and drip , but thankfully i,m making a good recovery.

lets hope now that the bad stuff is behind you and look to the future, and a good fast recovery. i too was hoping to go back to work soon feb 17 im aiming for, but due to the nature of my work it may be a little longer but as my recovery is going so well im hopeful for feb.

you must take things easy now god knows im finding it very difficult, but like you i need to get back to work asap so the best way is to listen to the professonals and take their advise. i started my physio last week but its only gentle exercises for my hands and arms, but i can feel a difference even now so every day is a little better. good luck keep us posted on how your recovery is going. gail

hi ams

sorry not heard of that one cant help. gail

hi angela

good to have you back i cant believe how quick you people are discharged from hospital i was in 7 days ok a few hiccups but nothing major, i was on steroids for 4 days iv and oxygen then steroids tablet form for2 days before being discharged, i do think its way to early 24-48 hrs!!!! i too was in theatre a long time 4 hrs my hubby was so worried as they had told him around 2 hrs but think it was longer as they had to do the decompression slowly, i hope you make as quick a recovery as i am, oh also i had 10 staples in my neck (not a pleasant sight) no idea why they didnt use stiches but i suppose every doc is different. take it easy now but if like me i slept most of the first week being home even xmas has passed in a blur lol. you will find every day you,ll get a little stronger. best wishes. gail

Just been some of your postings. I have suffered for years with back pain due to a prolapsed disc when I was 19. Even after all the treatment they gave me and physio nothing seemed to help.

After all this time I had a coughing fit 3 days ago and couldnt move. The doctor came to see me at home and said I have a prolapsed disc that is pressing against my spinal nerves, which on turn is making my leg numb and have pins and needles, take these painkillers and you'll be fine in 7 days. I am in agony even with these stupid tablets and cant even bend my neck!! I cant walk properly, cant stand, cant sit and feel really fed up. I cant even sort my own kids out aged 10 and 3 and have limited help. My 10 year old even has to put on my pants and socks etc for me!! how embarrassing. Any one offer me any advice?

From a newcomer in agony.