Surgery

[king atlantis]

Well, after haveing extensive back surgery, i decided to make this thread for all those who are going to have surgery, or have had it.
this will be the place to:
A) share experiences
B) help others who are about to have surgery
C) let others know information/s/

MY SURGERY STORY:

I had a genetic disorder called Scheuermann's disease, its similar to scoliosis except for the spine curves from the side, not the back. its more similar to osteoperosis, however, and extremey serious...being that im 17 and had a 90 degree curvature.
since i was 13, it appeared that i had bad posture, so everyone would say 'stand straight' etc- it started looking realy bad about 2 years ago, and causing discomfort. i hid it fairly well, however, by wearing 'flowing' type shirts that were a bit to large.
people noticed some, but, again, just figured i had poor posture.it got to the point when i would never take off my shirt (so no swimming for me...)
well, turned out it had nothing to do with posture, and everything to do with a random genetic disorder.
and it was worse than most had figured...i had a x-ray taken, and it all went very fast from their...
MRI's, then surgery planning, 2nd and 3rd opinions, etc---all in the course of two months over this summer.
see, turns out that my curve was way worse than most. they acctually recomend surgery for anyone with a 74+degree curveture. i had a 90 degree with a completly fused (in the wrong place, i may add) spine.
on top of all that, it forced my body to comfensate by changing my center of gravity, thus putting allot of pressure on my lower spine.

so, i had surgery on the 21st of august.

they had to take out a rib for bone graphs, and the surgery lasted 8 1/2 hours.
i now have a normal curvature of the spine- a mear 35/45 degree curve.
im in the middle of recover right now, being 4 weeks after the fact- but i had some major complications concerning GI and 'stretch' problems that made my stay in the hospital go from '5 to 7 days' to 3 weeks.
...and, apparently, i had allergic hallucinating reactions to some of the drugs- not nearly as fun as i thought hallucinating would be.
more...scary.

in anycase, thats my story. i also have to say that prayers are THE reason i made it through what i did. i hope this may help someone who is going to have surgery, and, if not- that those people may ask questions.
ive learned allot.

any other experiences, comments, and questions welcomed!
~King

[agasfas]

Wow, sounds painful. The only surgeries I've had have been on my ear- ear tubes and a right tymanoplasty.

Last December I had a right tymanoplasty done. I have had a perforated ear drum with a somewhat large hole in it. Since my ear drum would not naturally heal itself, the doctor had to reconstruct the tympanic membrane/ear drum. The surgeon took a graft from the tissues under my ear and used it to reconstruct the eardrum. The surgery took about 45min.

The surgery went well, although only about 90% of the graft took. So unfortunately I may have to get another surgery as a follow up.

[king atlantis]

was your ear drum naturally that way, or did you somehow damage it?

[AsianBlossom]

I had my appendix out when I was six, and I had my wisdom teeth removed when I was 16.

Not too much to say, and I don't think I could say much on the first one because it was so long ago, and I wouldn't have much advice to offer. *shrugs*

And the advice I have to offer on the wisdom teeth I've already said, but I'll make another post in here later with more detailed information...it's a little too late in the evening for me to go into a mega-detail post.

[Roy Mustang]

Do you want the short hand file of my surgery history or the full file of my surgery history.


[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[xblack_x_rosesx]

I had a genetic disorder called Scheuermann's disease, its similar to scoliosis except for the spine curves from the side, not the back. its more similar to osteoperosis, however, and extremey serious...being that im 17 and had a 90 degree curvature.

--

Oh wow!
I'm, in some way, similar.
I have kyphosis, which is really similar to that, but its not a random genetic disease. Last I went in to the hospital, a couple years back (i hate doctors) my spine had a 69 degree curve or something.
They wanted me to wear a brace, but I refused, so their like "to heck with you"
I started going to the chiropractor, and its been helping a ton.

But ya, just wanted to say I know what you've been through (i'm 17 too)
And I'm really glad the surgery went well for you ^^ Speedy recovery mate!

..
only surgery I've had was wisdom teeth removal. And I don't know if that counts as surgery... I hallucinated a lot actually, I had weird reactions to the codein, which I've done before, but this one was weird...
I kept having super vivid dreams about the world being destroyed, or people trying to murder me, then I'd wake up and think it was actually happening around me for like, 15 minutes.
It was weird o.o
bout all lol.

[agasfas]

was your ear drum naturally that way, or did you somehow damage it?

I actually damaged it somehow. It's weird because I do not even remember exactly how my ear drum became damaged. I think it may have been when I had an ear infection a while back ago and decided to stick a q-tip down my ear to clean it... Not entirely sure... It's not exactly my smartest idea. ^_^

[Roy Mustang]

Well, the first surgery, I don't remember anything about, I got the scars to show for it.

I had heart surgery at three days old. I was born as a blue baby and have congenital heart disease. They did the surgery to keep me alive untill I was a little older to have major heart surgery.


At 16 months old, I had open heart surgery and made it. I had a blood transfusion for both the minor and then the major heart surgery. I had a very large amount of blood giving to me for my open heart surgery and at the time, it wasn't screen and some of it had HIV-1 in it.

I had my nose fix and sinuses surgery. They broke my nose, when they had to put a tube in my nose, when I had my open heart surgery. My nose work, but the bone was off, do to them putting the tube in my nose. They couldn't do anything about it untill I got older and when they did the surgery, they thought that my sinuses problems would go away. I got sick a lot and when they went and saw that everything was fine, they started to do tests and found out that I had the AIDS virus.

I then had central venous catheter surgery a few times. The first time surgery was a failed. They were trying to put in my arm, but they couldn't find a vain and kept pulling it in and out over and over again. I was awake ofr this and they quit after I was in so much pain. The reaoson why I was going to have a central venous catheter put in as because I had germ that I was fighting at the same time that I was fighting the AIDS virus. One of the meds to fight the germ was in a shot form and had to be giving in my thigh every day. So that I wouldn't have to deal with any shots anymore, we tired the catheter surgery.

After that failed, they went and put the central venous catheter in my chest and I was put to asleep for that. After I got over the germ that I was fighting and didn't have to take any of the meds anymore. I had it taken out and I was awake for that, since it was a day surgery and there was not much to it. They numb me in the chest area and Wee, it came out. It did feel like I was a doll with a pull string that doesn't snap back.

A few days before Christmas of 1994, I had a thymus transplant. I was the first of three children/teen with AIDS to be giving this kind of transplants in the US. I was the only one that made it after having the surgery and my t cells did come up a bit, before I could get on better AIDS meds. They thought that maybe the thymus transplant could be used to fight aids and babies or kids that were born without a immune system.

The thymus is an organ located in the upper anterior portion of the chest cavity just behind the sternum. It is the organ that does the production and maturation of the T cells.

I only had half of my thymus from the start. When they did the open heart surgery, they have to remove some of it to get to the heart, so lucky me!

Then in 2001, I had to have surgery on one of my artery, because scar tissue from my open heart surgery (your starting to see a pattern here with this) had form in one of my artery. They went in with a catheter first to see where it was and then they use the catheter to cut it out of my artery.

I also have had pacemaker surgery, one in 1998, which was a single chamber pacemaker and it work for a bit. They did start to find a problem as it wasn't doing its job right, so they put a dual chamber pacemaker in 2001 and did it the same time that I had my surgery on one of my artery to remove the scar tissue.


And that's all the surgeries that I have had for now.


[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[AsianBlossom]

O.O

Wow. Just...wow.

[king atlantis]

xblack-
Scheuermann's disease is the same as kyposis except it cant be treated by braceing/chiropratic/exercises. but, its pretty much the same thing, but more of the osteoperosis mixings and the spine is litterally fused. glad to hear its been working for you!

agasfas-
oh, ok lol.
i use q-tips to clean my ears all the time...ewww wax >_>

roy-
wow. just, wow. willyou need any more surgerys (at this point?) or do they think they pretty much have everything fixed? i know that my Poppop (Grandfather) had a whole sleugh of heart surgerys over a ten-year period before they stoped....

[Etoh*the*Greato]

I'm really in the same boat as Roy. More surgeries than I have the ability or care to remember. Hehe. If you're in for a lot of them, learn to take comfort in what you can, savor what you must. Me? I found that I liked the gentle throbbing noise that builds up in your ears when the Anesthetic starts to kick in, and I absolutely adored the hot blankets they'd lay on you when you were coming out. Find the silver lining and it will make the whole experience that much easier.

[Roy Mustang]

[B][U]roy-
wow. just, wow. willyou need any more surgerys (at this point?) or do they think they pretty much have everything fixed? i know that my Poppop (Grandfather) had a whole sleugh of heart surgerys over a ten-year period before they stoped....

No more surgeries for me. When they did the open heart surgery, when I was 16 months old, they fix what they could. At the time, the surgery was the best they could do and they had to make the side that really doesn't do the pumping of the blood to do just that. The side that would have been doing the pumping, never has work and never will, since it was shot from the get go. So, only one half of my heart works and more or less.

I was in the hospital last Sept for heart failure and it was, because my body was taking fluids and not flushing the rest of it out.

I do have a lady friend that her and me were born around the sametime and she goes to the same heart doctor that I go to. She ran into problems this summer with her heart as it was leaking blood into her lungs. They were able to fix it and she doing fine.

So, if something was to come out, they could try surgery on me.

Now for now, my heart is doing fine and I just have to watch what I eat and how much fluids that I take in.

What I have to deal with since age 13 is the aids virus, but I'm doing fine with that, so no biggie.


[font="Arial Narrow"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang [/color][/font]

[Warrior4Christ]

see, turns out that my curve was way worse than most. they acctually recomend surgery for anyone with a 74+degree curveture. i had a 90 degree with a completly fused (in the wrong place, i may add) spine.

I'm having difficulty imagining a 90 degree curve in a spine... can you expand on that?

It's good that's on the way to recovery though!

[Doubleshadow]

All my surgeries have been minor and tied to the weird teeth on my dad's side of the family. I had oral surgery to have five teeth removed when I was in the third grade or so, all but one with the full root, and as a consequence I had only one canine tooth for over ten years. Made eating pizza interesting, and I wonder if it is part of why I stopped eating meat.
Then I had my wisdom teeth cut out. I had three but none of them were in anything like the right location and couldn't even come through, and all had to be dug out my slicing into my mouth. That was the day of my Federal Loan class and the start of the fair. Nothing like walking around fair food when your can't move your jaws.
I think I'm missing one...

[Sheenar]

I've had a few.

Tubes in my ears twice when I was really young. Don't remember much except that the hospital promised me a balloon and I never got it. XD

I was deprived of oxygen at birth and developed cerebral palsy. So my balance is not so good and my muscles are very spastic.

I had knee surgery in May 2006 because I fell in a store and tore the meniscus in my knee (a piece of cartilage in the knee). My orthopedic surgeon goes to my church and is amazing. I had to use a walker for a few weeks --I increased the amount I walked each day until I was strong enough to walk without it. This was before I got Pebbles and was an integral part of the evidence I presented to show that I needed a service dog.

I had all 4 wisdom teeth out in December 2006. I was awake, but heavily sedated. Felt nothing. Pretty sure I said some weird things to my roommate --I remember having such a hard time trying to think of the words to ask for a glass of water. (See what drugs do to you? XD) No post-op problems and very little pain.

My next surgery was this past January (2008) when I had my Achilles tendon lengthened in my left foot. It was an extremely difficult and painful recovery--filled with 2 months of cast changes (and using a sweet electric wheelchair that went fast) and 6 weeks in an air cast-- (and I would not do it again), but I am glad that I went through with the surgery. I have never been able to walk with my heel on the ground and now I can. I was having a lot of pain due to arthritis developing due to walking on my toes for over 20 years. And now (after recovery) the pain is pretty much gone and I can go for walks again. (I had the same problem with my right foot, but I fell and twisted my ankle when I was 17 and since then I've been able to walk normally on that foot.)

For my surgeries (not wisdom teeth), I had them done at the surgery center in town. Since I have a great fear of IV needles (due to bad experiences), the anesthesiologist put a gas mask on me to make me sleep before they stuck me. He was so kind. And the staff at the surgery center are absolutely wonderful.

My advice for surgery? Develop a relationship with your surgeon. Get to know them. Don't be afraid to ask questions or to share concerns. Most surgeons are more than willing to talk with you and help you understand what's going on.
Also, remember that even if you are in a lot of pain, remember the reason you had the surgery and what you are trying to accomplish. That is what got me through the recovery of the Achilles tendon surgery. I remembered that I wanted to be able to walk with my heel on the ground and without pain --and I would strive to walk a bit more each day. Take things one day at a time and don't push yourself too much too soon. "I took 3 steps today. I will try for 4-5 tomorrow", etc.


Etoh, I loved the blankets too! Oh, I wanted to go back to sleep! XD

[king atlantis]

I'm having difficulty imagining a 90 degree curve in a spine... can you expand on that?

It's good that's on the way to recovery though!

http://www.spineuniverse.com/displaygraphic.php/3404/bridwell_scheuermanns_2a1-BB.jpg
http://www.spineuniverse.com/displaygraphic.php/3403/bridwell_scheuermanns_11-BB.jpg

strangly, if you dont bend over/take of your shirt, its easy enough to hide...although my curve NOW is between 30 and 35%

btw, update for me, on vicodin, but am down to about 2000mgs or so a day...so im taking about half now. also going to school for almost 5 hours. rainy days make my back/shoulders ace bad though :p