Monday:
Ok I'm editing now to explain the situation. When my doctor got in he found a lot more problems than were apparent from the x-ray's and MRI. So don't totally rely on those OK. So now the explaination. There are 4 screws, 2 rods, a cross brace between the rods for extra stability, and finally an InFuse cage between my vertebrae. He actually put extra metal in that he hadn't planned on because of how unstable I was when he actually got in there. He also found that the degenerative disc disease was a lot worse than they expected. The disc had ruptured in the middle and I had bone on bone motion. Another one of the reason's my symptoms varied every day.
Anyway he brought me from a 17mm slip down to a 5mm slip. That is extremely difficult for a doctor to do. Usually they don't try to control the slip, they just fuse it where it is. I'm extremely impressed with the changes he made. I know it's early but my original pain is better than it was. I can walk upright. Doctor says I'm taller now too. That should be awesome from now on. If you look on the front view of the x-ray's there appears to a halo around the metal. That is actually bone graft, which he removed more bone in my back than he expected, no need to harvest from my hip or use donor bone. He said I had excessive bone growth from years of overgrowth trying to catch up to the slip. He wasn't sure he would be able to find a place for all of the bone be removed but he did. He said as long as the bone starts to grow together it should be one of the strongest fusions he's ever done. I'm excited it's going to do very well. I'm positive I will get better.
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