Yesterday we drove an hour and a half to Washington’s Tri-Cities, Richland, to the Apex Spine Institute, for a test procedure to see about addressing Jon’s neck pain. His x-rays show the discs between his vertebrae entirely corroded, and the bones are rubbing against each other without any “cushion”…
It’s been a long road—especially because things don’t move quickly with the VA. (We’re immensely grateful that the VA takes care of all his medical—but nothing there is an efficient process.) First he went through a year of physical therapy, to see if that could address the issue—and although he did improve his range of motion, it didn’t affect his daily pain. Then he got passed to the spine institute to talk about surgery, and their process of tests and appointments took another year before they tried to schedule him—right in the middle of our busy season. We simply can’t afford to have him out of commission for a month or two of summer, so he had to start all over and try to time it so the surgery-schedule could happen in winter.
At the end of the day, though, when we got closer to it, the idea of having them go through the front of his neck to mess with his spine… Well, it was just too much. That’s scary stuff, truly. And when he had a panic attack in the doctor’s office (this is NOT a man who has panic attacks!) he took a step back to re-evaluate. When he decided, after all, that he didn’t want to risk the surgery, I felt an overwhelming rush of relief. I was going to support him when he planned to do it, but it had scared me too!
At that point they began to talk to him about ways to address the pain—and we wondered why these options had never been mentioned in the first place! We could have saved almost two years of messing-around and gone straight to pain-solutions.
Yesterday was a “test run,” where they injected an anesthetic at the medial branch nerves that relay pain signals to the brain. They’ll assess the effectiveness, and apparently do at least one more test—and if it seems to work, there’s a more permanent pain block they can do at that site.
We fervently wish they had mentioned this option two years ago! We understand that this procedure is a matter of addressing the effects rather than the root cause of his pain, but it’s the effects (the pain itself) that are the problem for him. And this solution is orders-of-magnitude less drastic than the surgery to replace the discs with artificial material—a major surgery that messes with spinal column and has a recovery time of several months. Jon has been living with daily pain for years. He’s the ultimate in Tough Human Beings, and he never complains, beyond an “Ow” when the spinous processes (the sticking-out extensions of bone) from two vertebrae catch against each other and lock up his neck.
But I know a thing or two about chronic pain, living with Crohn’s Disease. I’ve been largely in remission for more than twenty years (a circumstance that has stumped every doctor and specialist with whom I’ve come into contact over the last two decades), but the memory of PAIN is emblazoned on my brain. So I know that just because it’s there all the time and you might be “accustomed” to it… doesn’t mean it hurts less! I remember, when I turned the corner after a flare-up of half a year, how the unaccustomed absence of pain would be like a new sensation in itself. A glorious one. We have hopes that this nerve-block procedure will bring Jon some of that! And he has already started the slow wheels of the VA to see about similar treatment for his lower back, in case this works.
At least this time we know what to ask for!—pain relief, not rebuilding-the-spine surgery.
Kana's Chronicles 
I think you and he were smart to avoid that particular surgery. My best friend had it several years ago, and although it provided some relief, a year or so later she fell, and she ended up needing to have the neck vertebrae fused. The from-the-front surgery results are apparently rather fragile. Good to hear that there is a pain management option.
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I will add to the chorus of avoiding surgery if at all possible. I have a friend who had back surgery almost a year ago and eventually he got back to some sort of normalcy but it wasn’t an easy year.
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Kana,
I understand Jon’s problems completely and I feel his pain. While I was in Vietnam I was involved in a serious accident. I was flipped out of a boat and into the barbed wire along the side of the canal. I landed on top of the metal post and put a crack in my sacrum. I was paralyzed in the hospital in Saigon for about two weeks and then underwent another three weeks of physical therapy. I was then sent back to my team.
I’ve had back issues ever since then and that was over 50 years ago. I tell everyone that Vietnam finally caught up to me. I’ve always been a very active person, I ran marathons for years, backpacked the Appalachian Trail the Tuscarora trail and the Allegheny trail before I finally had to give it all up.
Up until about two years ago I worked out every day of my life. I had an exercise routine that I did daily. Eventually all of that stopped. I’m drawing 100% disability from the VA because of my back issues. So far they’ve tried everything except surgery.
Like Jon I started out with physical therapy, I’ve had chiropractic care, I’ve had acupuncture, I take nerve blockers, I’ve had gel shots, I’ve had three MRIs and each one of them shows basically the same thing, degeneration of the area where I was injured.
I’m still working with the VA trying to see a neurosurgeon. It’s been a long slow process, hopefully they are finally getting the idea that something serious is going to have to take place in order to solve the issue. So far everything they’ve done is just tried to ease the pain not solve the problem. I understand there is a procedure that they are doing at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington DC now where they actually use a laser to clean out the arthritic area that is pinching the nerves in the back.
At this point I’m just waiting to see what they’re going to do. But like Jon it’s been a long slow wait.
I wish him the best, I know what he’s suffering through.
“Hardcharger”
http://www.ptaylorvietnamadvisor.com
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Reading this made me feel sad and teary and I’m not sure why other then I am having an emotional day
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Joanne, ramble on, into my arms, into my farm, into my blarmy, into my disregulated fold, not of sheep, or rheingold, but into my bliss, which will kiss,
JoAnne, of Austria,
Joe of Judea,
Anne of Green Gables,
Hercules, cleaning his stables,
Rambling….
…. And able.
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I feel a small percentage of that pain (bulging discs in my neck) and it can be debilitating. So sorry he is going through this.
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So sorry to hear this. As someone who has suffered from chronic neck pain most of my adult life (a soccer injury) and suffering from arthritis, I get it. Pain management and massage therapy is the way to go in my view. All the best to you both.
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I hope this route helps with the pain. My brother has been dealing with the VA for back issues for years and I know how difficult it can be.
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My interest here is he has a problem money can’t solve, nor can love, in any meaningful sense.
Philanthropy can’t either, so let’s dispose of that nonsense.
Nor can reaching out to others, though if I had my druthers, I’d reach out to you.
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Sending warm wishes and hopes that the pain becomes more manageable, … a friend of mine went through the surgery route and regrets the day,… take care, on the journey for improvement, …✨
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