The surgery consisted of a team of 4 Doctors - my main surgeon, a backup surgeon, the anesthesia doctor, the neuro-tester doctor... plus I think about 3 nurses... they put me out after a delay in start time of about 5 hours! They went in through the front on my neck - a fold by my collar bone on the right side. Then the moved my windpipe, esophagus etc over to reach my spinal column... at which point they viced my the 3 vertebrae and removed the damaged disks, then inserted cadiver bone cages, placed a small titanium plate on the front of my spinal column and then attached 3 sets of screws to the vertebrae.
Among the biggest risks: paralysis, heart attack, pneumonia, death and the not so serious but really sucky one.... the surgery not being successful. Meaning that the bone cages do not union with the 2 vertebrae they have been places between. This would mean that I would need an additional surgery to secure the original contraption...
So this past summer was great... I had so much fun with the kids and was feeling GREAT. Then in September I started having similar symptoms to what I had the 1st time around... So I went back to the doctor... Good news = C5-C6 union was a success (the higher level) Bad news = C6-C7 DID NOT FUSE... a non-union as my Orthopedic NeuroSuregeon described it. So now I need another surgery....
This just sucks so much... it makes the idea of a 3rd child so hard to conceptualize. Aside form hiring sitters and the occasional help from a member of my husbands family... I have no one to help with the kids. Its hard, I am not getting younger, I think our family would be more complete with a little boy tearing up the house but because of my medical failures, it may not be in the cards God has dealt me... its a hard pill to swallow.
Here are some photos from the time around the surgery:
