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Hi all,
It's been years now since I was last on the forum or read any of the posts. I went back to work full time in September 2012, and have been so busy since then, and spent a lot of my very infrequent free time on my major hobby, which is genealogy. I've just now stopped by because I needed to update my email address.
I've had a couple of nasty falls since my January 2012 surgery. The first was September 2015 when I was walking across a parking lot and was hit by a car, and knocked to the pavement. My left elbow was the main point of contact with the ground, and quite fortunately didn't break. I must have rolled because I recall things flashing before my eyes so fast that I didn't know which way was up and which way was down. The X-rays of my spine taken after that showed no damage to my hardware, which really surprised me, but didn't surprise my surgeon's nurse.
The other fall happened during a walking tour of the Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala when I tripped and fell on the lava rocks not too far from the lava store (http://www.ticotimes.net/travel/the-...pacaya-volcano). Again no real damage to my spine, though my fingers, hands, and the opposite elbow didn't fare too well (lava rocks are VERY SHARP!).
My current issue is knee osteoarthritis, which is making it very difficult to walk at times. I'm told a need new knees, particularly on the right. I think that may be a result of the surgery myself. The reason I say that is because my right knee and right foot have been out of alignment with each other ever since the surgery. When my right knee points straight, my right foot points towards the right. When my right foot points straight, my right knee points to the left. I personally believe that may well be a result of the loss of sensation in my right leg that began as soon as I woke up after my back surgery in January 2012. The first thing I perceived about my physical state when I woke up was that my right leg was on fire with pins and needles so intense that it's impossible to describe; that was likely the result of shortening of the nerve(s) feeding my right leg after the nerve(s) feeding my left leg were lengthened as a result of the laminectomy. The pain in my left leg was gone immediately after the surgery, but my right leg paid part of the price. I believe that the loss of sensation led to changes in one or more tendons, when then led to a fallen arch in my right foot. The orthotics I got in September 2015 are supposed to help with that. I had to send them in for repair on April 11th and didn't get them back until today. In the meantime, the pain in my right around the knee area has increased dramatically. Here's hoping that now having my current orthotics back (I wore an old pair while they were out of my possession) will lessen the pain and allow me to walk better, because I'll be on vacation the week after next. Not looking forward to having knee issues in the airport when I have to change planes.
Other than that, I've been staying very busy with my job and my hobby.
I hope everybody's doing well.
-- Mary
P.S. Not sure if I properly marked the URL so it is clickable
It's been years now since I was last on the forum or read any of the posts. I went back to work full time in September 2012, and have been so busy since then, and spent a lot of my very infrequent free time on my major hobby, which is genealogy. I've just now stopped by because I needed to update my email address.
I've had a couple of nasty falls since my January 2012 surgery. The first was September 2015 when I was walking across a parking lot and was hit by a car, and knocked to the pavement. My left elbow was the main point of contact with the ground, and quite fortunately didn't break. I must have rolled because I recall things flashing before my eyes so fast that I didn't know which way was up and which way was down. The X-rays of my spine taken after that showed no damage to my hardware, which really surprised me, but didn't surprise my surgeon's nurse.
The other fall happened during a walking tour of the Pacaya Volcano in Guatemala when I tripped and fell on the lava rocks not too far from the lava store (http://www.ticotimes.net/travel/the-...pacaya-volcano). Again no real damage to my spine, though my fingers, hands, and the opposite elbow didn't fare too well (lava rocks are VERY SHARP!).
My current issue is knee osteoarthritis, which is making it very difficult to walk at times. I'm told a need new knees, particularly on the right. I think that may be a result of the surgery myself. The reason I say that is because my right knee and right foot have been out of alignment with each other ever since the surgery. When my right knee points straight, my right foot points towards the right. When my right foot points straight, my right knee points to the left. I personally believe that may well be a result of the loss of sensation in my right leg that began as soon as I woke up after my back surgery in January 2012. The first thing I perceived about my physical state when I woke up was that my right leg was on fire with pins and needles so intense that it's impossible to describe; that was likely the result of shortening of the nerve(s) feeding my right leg after the nerve(s) feeding my left leg were lengthened as a result of the laminectomy. The pain in my left leg was gone immediately after the surgery, but my right leg paid part of the price. I believe that the loss of sensation led to changes in one or more tendons, when then led to a fallen arch in my right foot. The orthotics I got in September 2015 are supposed to help with that. I had to send them in for repair on April 11th and didn't get them back until today. In the meantime, the pain in my right around the knee area has increased dramatically. Here's hoping that now having my current orthotics back (I wore an old pair while they were out of my possession) will lessen the pain and allow me to walk better, because I'll be on vacation the week after next. Not looking forward to having knee issues in the airport when I have to change planes.
Other than that, I've been staying very busy with my job and my hobby.
I hope everybody's doing well.
-- Mary
P.S. Not sure if I properly marked the URL so it is clickable
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