Photographic Evidence

This was right before surgery ...




This was right after - not quite so bright eyed. That's Mike from Colorado next to me. He had two ADRs.




This was just after I walked to the end of the hall and outside about 24 hours after surgery. I haven't stood that straight in a long, long time.




For those of you that actually saw my back before this, seeing the reverse lordosis or hump that I had in the lower back, here is the photographic proof that it is gone baby. Poof! If you never saw it just imagine Gollum from Lord of the Rings. It looked exactly like that. My son will think it is especially cool to see it gone.




For the curious cats, those things that look like Oreos are the artificial discs, or ADRs. In the X-Ray, the one that says "stehend" ignore the two parallel vertical lines and the horizontal one. That is metal in the post surgery brace that I wear. You can see some of the hardware from my 1997 fusion at the top of the image though. The photo below was taken from a fluoroscope during the operation.







That's about all I have for you tonight. I continue to improve and actually walked about a 1/4 mile this afternoon. I couldn't do that before I got here, so I'd say I'm off to a good start. I might try for 1/2 mile tomorrow.

If anybody can figure out how to mail a Big Mac, please do.

Oh yeah, thanks to those of you who added Margo to your prayer list. Keep it up. She was much better today. I don't think that was a coincidence.

P.S. Tomorrow I will show you the X-Rays before surgery so you can see the difference.

Location:Heilstättenweg,Ganderkesee,Germany

Walking Tall

ThIngs took a little turn for the worse after bedtime, as I fought a fever all night. I didn't feel well Sunday at all. So, I spent most of Sunday and the better part of Monday sleeping. I'm feeling a good bit better tonight and I hope that continues into tomorrow. There's a chance that I will be coming home early based on how well my body has responded to the artificial discs. I may or may not be going to the special rehab clinic for two weeks. We'll make that decision Friday.

All in all, my recuperation continues to be outstanding and the docs here continue to be pleasantly surprised. I guess they haven't operated on many South Alabama boys! :-)

I want y'all to add another person to the prayer list. Her name is Margo and she is not doing nearly as well as I am. She has terrible pain in one of her legs and may have to be operated on again. Let's all pray that she will not have to do that.

Thanks friends for all the thoughts and prayers. See you soon. Can't wait.

David

P. S. I'm trying to figure out how to get pics and videos uploaded here but I'm having issues. I may move this to another site that is more friendly.

PRAISE GOD!!!!! IT IS A MIRACLE!!!!!!

Hey everybody. GOD IS THE GREAT HEALER! JESUS CHRIST IS ALIVE! THE HOLY SPIRIT MOVES AMONG US, AND HE WAS IN THE SURGERY ROOM TODAY MAKING SURE ALL OF YOUR PRAYERS, AND MY PRAYERS, WERE ANSWERED!!!! Thank you Lord for taking care of me! Thank you for leading me to this wonderful place. Thank you Lord for guiding the hands of my doctor to perform the perfect surgery.

Many of you have seen me walking these last two years or so. I've been using a cane and just could not stand up straight no matter what I tried. The stenosis in my back had made it physically impossible to stand erect, much less arch my back. As the stenosis got worse and worse, the more hunched over I became. It was awful and I was unbelievably miserable. The only way I could get around was humped over. And then there was the pain; day and night, constant and completely agonizing.

So, yesterday a man named Dr. Karsten Ritter-Lang changed my life as I know it. YES, I CAN ALREADY TELL!! Here is what happened:

After Dr. Ritter-Lang got me opened up, he discovered that my original fusion, the one from when I broke my back in 1997, was solid as a rock so there was no need to re-fusion at that location. Additionally, he thought vertebrae L3 looked to be in pretty good shape too. So, he decided that there would be no fusion at all. Instead, he would install one more artificial disc, bringing the total to four. I was asleep when this decision was made, but I'm glad it was. I wanted to avoid any fusion of any kind anywhere. Interestingly, I may be the only man in the world with four. We are trying to find out. Needless to say, if I'm not the only one in the world, I am one of the very few.

Beyond that, the procedure itself was pretty straight ahead; take the old discs out and put the new ones in. I'll include a link to the demonstration video tomorrow maybe. It's pretty cool.

But that's not the good news ... The nurse came to my room and said it's time to stand up and walk. I was ready because I was feeling pretty good. What happened next SHOCKED me. I STOOD STRAIGHT UP. I DID NOT LEAN TO ONE SIDE. MY BACK HAD THE CORRECT ARCH IN IT!!! We walked to the end of the hall. I'm not embarrassed one little bit to say I cried like a baby and hugged every nurse I could find. For the first time in TWO YEARS I can walk like a normal person. You know, my dad cried too. It was just that awesome.

In my mind it is a miracle without a doubt. Praise God for this miracle in my life.

The Final Count Down

Well, here we go. It's 10:17 A.M. here, 3:17 A.M. back home in Montgomery. I'm here in my hospital room hanging out and talking with Darrin, who is moving on to rehab today, and to my new roommate Mike. I'm sure he and I are going to get to know each other QUITE well over the next few days.

So, Mike has the first surgery, then it's my turn. I'll mostly just be hanging around until then. I was fairly nervous about it all last night, but amazingly I'm pretty relaxed this morning.

11:00AM Mike just went back for his surgery. I guess they will come for me in about three hours. I don't really feel very chatty right now, mainly because there isn't all that much to say at this point. I will say that I have found the German people to be very friendly. I had always heard the opposite. Maybe that's true for some other part of the country, but not here.

12:05 It's time to get my gown and stuff on now. I'm signing off at this point. Wish me luck everybody, and keep praying for me. I really appreciate it!

Oh yeah, PRAY FOR THE DOCTOR TOO! :-)

P.S. I wish you could see the "panty" the nurse just told me to put on. The first thing I said was, "Hey lady, I don't wear a panty. At least call it underwear." You should see them though. They are see through gauze that gives them a kind of fish net look. Good grief! I can't wear these things! Although, I think there are certain nightclubs in Berlin where I would be quite popular. Ha ha!

All In

I was just sitting here reading the side effects of Chantix, the drug they give people trying to break a nicotine addiction. Some of them are things like irritability, sudden mood swings, murderous rampages ... I'm surprised they didn't run a study on a placebo group because I'm pretty sure those don't have anything to do with the drug. I'm pretty sure those of the symptoms of people trying to break a nicotine habit.

Anyway, it was quite a long day. We got started fairly early with routines tests; blood work and the like. I met with all of the secondary doctors and discussed their part in tomorrow's adventure. Oh, wait. I forgot to tell you. Surgery is going to happen ... sometime tomorrow around 2:00 P.M. or so here. That will be about the time you are waking up in the morning. So, throw up a quick prayer for me and Dr. Ritter-Lang.

Dr.Heinz, Dr. Ritter-Lang's assistant was a little more pessimistic about the chances for success. However, she followed that up with "He's the best and he's been doing it for 20 years. If he believes he can fix it, then I believe him" Finally, after a little down time, I was able to meet with Dr. Ritter-Lang. He's very, very confident that he can make things work for me. Truly though, his final argument, and my final argument, and Dr. Theiss's (from UAB) final argument, all are about the same. I have three options. Option one is to do nothing. I can't do that because pretty soon my vertebrae are going to start fusing themselves. I certainly don't want that. Option two is to do a total fusion from the mid-chest down. I'm 40 years old. That doesn't sound like a good idea either. This is my best option at this point. I have nothing to lose. Truly though, I think he really can do what he says he can do. I've seen some pretty amazing things around here this week.

So, I may make another post tomorrow. I may not. I'll get to the hospital around 8:00AM and I really don't know the schedule from there. I will let you know when it's surgery time though. After that, I will expect it will be a few days before you hear from me again. I am going to be feeling a little bit like a catfish filet for the next few days, so I doubt I will feel much like typing. But, I will talk to you soon. Thanks for all the love and prayers fine people! I need it!

Two things I forgot about

1) my dad snores
2) my dad snores loud

So, I guess I won't sleep anytime soon after all. I'll have to sit here and read until the agony of staying awake finally loses the battle with my eyelids.

What does it sound like? I'm glad you asked. It sounds a lot like he is trying to suck his adenoids through his tonsils and into either his esophagus or nose, I can't quite tell. Musically, I would describe it as the rhythmic stylings of Chewbaca, or maybe Chewbaca's Greatest Hits. Tomorrow I will get a sound recording app downloaded to my iPad so I can give you a sampling of this most wonderful musical experience.


While I'm writing, I'll periodically give you a little bit of the background as to why I'm here, putting it all together over time. In 1997, I had a truck accident that left me with a crushed vertebrae, L-1 specifically, which you can locate on your own body by putting your index finger on your sternum and pointing an imaginary line to your back; right in the middle in other words. The only way to repair the damage was to fuse the damaged bone to the somewhat healthy bone above and below. So, that left me with the fusion that I now have from T-12 through L-2. For several years, I had very few problems with this result. I more or less did whatever I wanted to do.

Hey, I'll stop there with the history. I'll fill you in on that a little at a time. I imagine that could get pretty boring pretty quick.

I'm looking forward to meeting the surgeon who will do the surgery tomorrow, Dr. Karsten Ritter-Lang. That is the last mental hurdle for me. I need to look him in the eye and make sure I don't see anything that alarms me. If he "feels" trustworthy, then it's a go

Day Zero ... The beginning of the beginning

So, here I am in a little place called Stenum, Germany, a small suburb of Bremen. I arrived after an 18 hour overnight flight. I was met at the airport by the cab they sent for us (my dad is with me for the first week or two). Next stop was a little hotel right next to the hospital. We went over to the hospital and took a tour guided by Melanie. We had a pretty good question and answer session which I let my dad lead, since most of it was a rehash for me. I felt a good bit more comfortable after that though. The most interesting thing so far was a visit I had with a couple of patients at the suggestion of Melanie. I entered the hospital room expecting to see two people who felt pretty dang bad. Wrong. I was shocked! They got out of bed and stood straight up. They didn't lean to one side. THEY HAD SURGERY A WEEK AGO. Now granted, their surgeries were not as significant as mine is to be. Each of them had two artificial discs implanted at L4-L5 and L5-S1. I will have a much more invasive operation to include refusion of T12-L2, and adding L3 to that, AND THEN installing three artificial discs at L3-L4, L4-L5, and L5-S1. Even still, I was impressed with the condition these guys were in a week after a fairly invasive procedure. I hope that I can reach that point after two weeks.

At that point they will ship me off to a special rehab center where I will recuperate for another two weeks. I'm hoping to make it home by April 30th, just in time for my son's birthday party. We'll see.

That's the update for tonight. I'll make my final decision sometime around noon Bremen time, after spending the morning with the doctors here. Right now, I'd say I'm about 95% sure I'm going to do it. We are six hours ahead of you here, so by the time you wake up in the morning, I should know what I'm going to do. I think I already know, but I also think it's important to go through the excercise of due diligence. Wish me luck and pray for me.

Night folks.