>>810352>sleeping with a small pillow between (not behind) your legsYup, I do this too. I can't sleep without a pillow there.
>>810429>The surgeon removed the ruptured disc material and the tearBlog post time:
I had the disectomy first where he removed the bulging part so that the nerve was decompressed. I felt ok after but the pain lingered.
After 4 months the disc had ruptured. I remember feeling it felt different during physical therapy and stopped. When I got home I cancelled the rest of my remaining appointments because I knew I was fucked. Within a month of that happening I was way worse than before.
Holy fucking shit did I suffer that winter. Crying at night etc because the pain was unbearable. Balled my eyes out 10/10 pain actually wanted my mom when they did my discogram. Can't remember my bp but heart rate was over 130bpm. Needed dilauded to bring it down.
Fast forward to surgery time. It's worth it in the end even though I'm not even a full year recovered and still need pain meds (but I'm down ¾ of the morphine I was on) and struggle with certain tasks etc. But it has allowed me to do so much that was unthinkable this time last year.
The sugery itself is fucking brutal. It's basically controlled trauma. I had a complication which only added to my misery. The bone softened and the upper metal piece slipped forward. I was dangerously close to getting cut back open, having that removed (which would have been nasty since two pieces were hammered in and there were notches in two of my vertebra) and getting a fusion. I had a special brace that no one that dealt with me had seen before. I was also using a walker for a decent amount of time.
In the beginning I noticed big improvements every day. Then it became a noticeable improvement weekly. Now I notice my improvements on a monthly basis. I'm on my 7th month of physical therapy although this can vary a lot.
/blog post
Hope that helped you, feel free to ask me questions.
