opelmanta1900 wrote:How did you find out it was actual herniated? MRI or was it obviously sticking out?
MRI
I wanted and needed my life back.
Interview with the neurosurgeon was interesting, almost like I had to give him a reason to believe in my sincerity.
His point was that once the offending disc was removed (not really quite like that) the cause was cured. After that it was up to the patient. (I also had lots of stenosis cleaned out once opened).
Before he agreed to the surgery he asked a ton of questions related to my motivation in seeking out his services.
I told him I needed to get back to my Tuesday night basketball game, I needed to be able to get in and out of a car without crying in order to support my family (in-home sales) and that despite being a bad golfer, at the age of 42 I wanted to continue to play.
He (being like 12 years old) said, "there's no reason you can't continue to play poorly".
That closed the deal. Very funny line.
I asked what convinced him to take me on. His concern was mostly that in his experience, a lot of patients would go to the RX therapy sessions for a couple of weeks and then never do the program.
A year later they are sitting in their lazy boys with remotes in their hands cussing him out.
But he believed I wanted it badly enough to do the post operative work.
Originally he didn't prescribe PT. He believed in me so much that he gave me exercises and walking goals and then would see me every couple of weeks. He said 98.2% of patients only do rehab when they have to drive to a facility, odd as it seems, but that almost all the work done at those places could be duplicated at home with cans of soup instead of 1 lb weights etc.
There is another story about being attacked by a dog on a rehab walk, but the main points are the same. The patient has to be motivated as the surgeon can only create the opportunity.
