15 weeks post fusion
7 weeks post lami
The surgeon's office had a very difficult time getting my MRI approved. So Dee did it. Dee had it done in the same day. Assertive! My MRI was last week and I met with my surgeon today to read it. Bad news. Well, not really bad news. Depends on how you look at it.
I have a rather large pseudomeningocele. Again, that's a large blister full of CSF (spinal fluid). The fluid can leak but mine is not. I have not had a single headache since the second surgery in July. So there is definitely no leak out of the blister. But the blister formed from the nerve sheathing being torn in the July surgery. Basically it's the body attempting to fix the damage but, like a burn blister, it's not really helpful. The fluid will not be absorbed by my body and needs to be removed. Thankfully, going to see a second surgeon got this moving along and I didn't end up dicking around with some false recovery for months and months. Well more months.
He believes this blister, which is sitting against my spinal cord, is causing at least some of the pain in my leg and tenderness in my back. Hell even if I get some immediate relief I'll be happy with that for the time being.
So the process is quite simple, actually. Propofol for me, needle in, draw out the fluid, draw out some blood from my leg, insert blood onto the surface of the nerve sheath which will clot and heal the damage. The removal of the fluid and the clotting should give me some immediate relief. Supposedly 90% successful. Additionally, the surgeon is going to have an ultrasound tech in the room (in addition to the x-ray tech) to have additional views available to him to get this right.
I made the mistake of asking how big the blister is. I said are we talking pea-sized or golf ball sized, thinking it's somewhere in between. He said, uh more like a pear. What??? A pear??? So he takes me to his office and we look at the MRI together. Yep, it looks like a pear. Or the bottom two sections of a snowman. We measure. It's 2.5cm by 5.5cm. Damn, man.
Tomorrow they will try for insurance approval, which shouldn't be a problem because, you know, you aren't supposed to have pears in your back. He has time on Friday in his surgical schedule, so I'm hoping to get it done then. If not it will be 9/21. And for the record, this is a "procedure" not a third surgery since I'm not under general anesthesia or tubed. Dudeman is just splitting hairs at this point.
After the "procedure" I have to "move very little" for 24 hours. After which I can move around but do nothing strenuous for 2-3 days. I notified work that my return will again be delayed some. Thankfully, the admin has been supportive.
I used to ride bikes.