Back Surgery - Success... "New Subframe"... :)

Ok, not really WR related but my back surgery was a success.
They actually found two broken bone fragments "swimming around in there" that didn't appear on 2 MRI scans or a CAT scan. They said I was lucky the fragments weren't closer to the spinal canal where they might have done some nerve damage, but they sure understood why I had bouts of pain so bad I couldn't walk.

So, the bad disc is gone, replaced by ground up cadaver bone and those bone fragments of mine, surrounded by a "protien cage" of some sort holding it in place, and the two vertebrae supported by two titanium rods and screws until the bone hardens completely at which point they will just stay there until the end of time. The pains I had when I tilted my hips or tried to stand up straight are already gone (the surgery was 1 week ago) and now I just have the ache of the operation itself, but I can tell that the wieght of my upper torso is no longer causing me any pain.

Amazing. This was the same doctor who saved the life of the sole survivor of the Anaheim Angel's pitcher Nick Adenhardt crash a while ago, actually reattaching an internal decapitation, so my surgery probably was as easy as chewing gum for him. I'm grateful for his skill.

So if you're out there, with lower back pain, don't just deal with it. It really takes a lot of life's enjoyment away, and you "get used" to it, your body changes the way it moves to reduce the pain, etc. I was that way for a year until I finally had a day where I couldn't put any wieght on my right foot without collapsing. I got the steroid injections into the spine, but those didn't help for more than a few weeks. Your back doctor will make you go through those, however, as the insurance won't approve a surgery like mine until you've tried some less extreme options.

The only bad news is, i can't have any impacts until about 6-7 weeks out, and that of course includes riding my bike, my quad, wakeboarding, scuba diving, rock climbing, even driving my boat out on the ocean where I might pound into a big wave. But I am SO looking forward to getting back into shape without pain, without contortions, without drugs.

Oh, and that's another thing, if you have this surgery, don't do what I did and quit the drugs cold turkey. I hate taking meds, so as soon as I thought the pain was tolerable I quit taking them. Man, I've never felt so nasty in my life. Now I unserstand the whole rehab thing, I would sweat all night and shiver and shake, tired as hell, no appetite, everything was just wrong. My doctor told me I had to wean myself off the percocet by taking half tabs at the recommended times, and then spread them out further and further, and as soon as I took that first "hit" again everything felt better. I just never realized what "addiction" really meant. I don't want the pills, I don't want to stay on them, but I have to slowly come off them or my body gets pissed.

Oh well, hope this maybe helps some of you out there looking at back surgery. It's really worth it. Or it will be when I post up more pictures of my fabulously sexy black WR on here in August... :)

Here's the MRI taken just before the surgery:



If I get a picture of the Xray from after I'll post it up.

got a torn disc between l2-l3. always hurts and sometimes runs down the right leg. they tell me they cannot do anything at this time. did you get 2-3 dr. to look into this or one good one ?

1 good one.
He's the Chief of Orthopedic Surgery at UC Irvine medical center. His name is Dr. Bhatia.

But like I said, first I got an MRI, then as CAT scan, and then I got sent to a pain management doctor, who did 2 injections into the area while I was knocked out and using a flouroscope.

But when that only lasted a short while, I went back to the main doctor and said "look, I'm 40, not 90. I want 99% improvement, not 30% improvement" and that set the ball rolling towards the ultimate response, namely the spinal fusion surgery.

As an added benefit, this will keep L4-L5 disc healthy for much longer (the one directly above the damaged disc between L5 and S1, my tailbone) since it doesn't have to deal with all the odd angles I was putting it through to stay out of pain. What that means is basically the sooner you fix it, the better it is for the rest of the back. Seems to apply to bikes too...

Glad to hear your surgery went good for you..I know it sucks when you can look at your bike in the garage but you can't ride it. About 2 1/2 years ago I had both of my hips replaced and I definetly know what your talking about with the pain meds, One of the reasons I ended up with a WRR is because my 1984 klr600 was kick start only.I was getting to the point where kick starting that thing was painfull,in fact everything was painfull. sometimes I would have to ask my riding buddy to kickstart my bike for me. I was looking for a bike with electric start and lighter for off road.I was going to get a DRZ400 but ended up with the WRR instead,which I'm glad about. I bought my WRR a month before my operation and I put on 1000 miles on it,,I did about 70 miles the day before my op. I'm at 12,000 now.The next day at the hospital a nurse was asking me a bunch of pre-op questions and one of them was something about have I fallen down in the past 48 hours..I think the question was more for a senior citizen, not a 37 yearold. I told her that the day before I was riding my dirtbike and fell off on my left hip trying to cross a stream with big rocks..She just rolled her eyes and went on to the next question.one of the reasons I bought my WRR right before my operation was so I would have something to look foward to while I was recovering.I spent 4 days in the hospital and 7 days in a nursing/rehab center.That part sucked.. I don't ride as fast as I used to off road but I'm just glad to be out there....good luck with your recovery and don't get on the bike too soon as tempting as it will be..............Jason

Wow...glad you are going to be back in the swing of things, Gus! My dad's going to go in on the 6th, he suffers from peripheral neuropathy. He's real skeptical about it because he's already had one back surgery that was botched...that led to what he's suffering from now. Hopefully his outcome will be as good as yours.