Well, the MRI results are in and the neurosurgeon has called it …surgery.
Apparently the herniated disc in my cervical spine (neck) has gotten worse and is now compressing my spinal column and completely crushing the nerve channels on both sides (which explains the pain in both arms, I guess). He said he “didn’t like” how it looked, and the combination of that and the pain I’m still in, leaves nothing left to be done but to remove the herniated disc and put in a titanium plate. The procedure is called an Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion (ACDF).
I’m not going to lie, I freaked out. I guess I wasn’t really prepared for that to be the only option, since before we tried the steroid shots into my spine - I just assumed that would happen again. However, when I think about it, it makes sense that the injections were just to alleviate the symptoms and that if we didn’t do anything about this, who knows how it could get worse.
So now it has been almost twenty-four hours later and I’ve had some time to process it and talk it out, I feel a little better. I am still freaked out by the way they do the surgery (through the throat!), and I’ve only ever had one emergency surgery before so this is new to me, but I’m ready to get this over with and not be in this pain anymore (hopefully). That said, I’m not looking forward to the recovery, either… 👻
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