The following is an exchange I had with someone who visited my website....
I've visited your website regarding your slipped disc problem, and your successful recovery. Guess what? I am now faced with similar problem as yours, except that its is in multiple levels - C3/C4, C4/C5, and C5/C6. The more serious 2 discs which are grabbing my spinal cord is C3/C4 and C5/C6. Neurosurgeons who examined me commented that I have the following options:Wow.... your case is definitely more serious than mine.a. Complete fusion of all levels from C3 to C6. This will obviously leave me with a very stiff neck. Do you experience any stiff neck? What about limitation of your neck rotation? Any incident of trying to "crack" your neck (as you usually do in the past), and realise that you have a fused vertebrea now?
b. Use artificial disc to replace all 3 ruptured discs. This means I will have 3 out of 6 discs within my cervical spine as artificial. Physhologically this is not very good feeling - wonder if you have any idea or comment on artificial discs.
c. Use artificial discs for C3/C4, and C5/C6. As for the middle C4/C5, use fusion. This way, there is a combination of both
In terms of my recovery, after completing physio, I'd say that I have not experienced a stiff neck or loss of rotation other than that which I believe comes with growing older.
That said, I did the physio RELIGIOUSLY and continue stretching to this day.
However, I suspect that in your case you would almost definitely experience loss in mobility due to the number of discs effected. But that is just reasoning on comon sense, not on science.
As for cracking my neck, I have never again allowed a chiropractor to crack my neck because I was worried that the trauma might increase the chance that yet another disc popped out.
I am not sure if this is my own made-up fear, or if it is real, but nonetheless, I have not had my cracked since the operation and probably won't.
As for the artificial disc surgery, I have heard about this surgery from one other person who wrote me. I don't think it was available when I had my operation done....and I have not looked into it at all, so I am pretty much useless in terms of advice :)
Your option (c) seems the more reasonable approach without knowing much about artificial ones.
I have 2 options - to get it done in Sydney, or in Singapore. I have medical insurance in Sydney, and suspect that I will be about 80% covered for the total bill. What about in Singapore? Will MediSave cover all the expense? Did you get it done at SGH or a private hospital in Singapore?
I am sure that quality of health care in both cities is adequate. I did mine at Tan Tock Seng Hospital in Singapore, and if you decide to research further in Singapore, I would be happy to direct you to my surgeon.
As for cost, my MediSave covered about 95% of the cost. Amazingly, I think I ended up paying about 500 SGD in total (although MediSave has been deducted from my salary for as long as I have been working in Singapore...so....it's kinda my money anyway.)
After hearing your motivating encounter with overcoming your disc problem, it has given me lots of courage, I guess my next step is decide on who, where, and how I should get it done.
I think that given the advanced state of medicine today, there is every reason in the world to be confident. As noted in my journal, there are always risks and this is a pretty scary op. Yours sounds even more scary than mine :) But I would say...trust your intuition about the doctor, grill them with questions....but in the end, you gotta just go with your gut. Good luck
Another person wrote in as well (June 05)....
I read your web site info about your disc surgery, I had the same op done Mar 05. I'm just curious about your progress, mine has been slow, but you have youth on your side, I was getting out of the Navy in 69.:) Well. I'd have to say that I feel that I've recovered pretty much to 98% of what I was pre-op in terms of what I can do. That is, my strength and flexibility in my neck and upper back have returned, though I was VERY disciplined about physio appointments for over 6 months.
I also feel less vulnerable, though I do always wear seat belts now and I don't do extreme-ish sports things like high diving or gymnastics. But of course, in reality, I did not really do much of that before the op....so....although I am aware that I shouldn't do it now, it does not feel like I am somehow handicapped or anything.
Of course, I'd say that that these exceptions are due more to my age than my injury. I'd say that generally my peers in the 30-something age group are focusing more on work than sports...so everyone is slowly getting a pudgy and slow.
I also have no residual pain from the operation. The scar is totally healed, swallowing is 100% back to normal, and I experience no pain related to the op.
However, I do still have numbness and slight ache in the fingers of my right hand. I 'feel' that this is a result of permanent damage I did to the nerves BEFORE the op, so while it is too bad that the op did not remove this, it makes me appreciate that if I had not done the op, it could have gotten bad enough that it really reduced my enjoyment of life.
The end of next month I go back for a follow up x-ray, I'll be glad to keep you posted
on progress. Your site helped me understand what was going on when it was my turn.
Some one asked me what I can't do, it's funny but every once in a while I'll discover
something new, like I was helping my wife make the bed & couldn't put the pillow under
my chin, so I used my teeth! The biggest test is this month, I'm going ahead with
putting my sailboat in the water. I haven't figured out how I'll look up the sails &
mast for wind direction but I'll bet I do.
Everything in your details sounded like my situation, I aggravated mine working in the
bilge of a sailboat. If you have time, if you could comment on where you are today
activity wise I would appreciate it, one difference, is they put a titanium plate in
after the implants.
What I would say is that I was still VERY MUCH aware of the op for at least 6 months after. I think that my trouble swallowing lasted at least 4 and I was still in physio for 6 months. I think that being religious about physio was key as it brought me from about 60% flexibility and strength to 98%. If you had your op in March, I'd say that you would likely still be pretty aware of it and that your body would not have recovered completely.