[tornoversurgery]

Thank you for reading my thread.

First off I must say that I do suffer from severe depression, the past 10 years have been very tough. (I may address that in a future thread but for now, surgery is the issue) But to make it simple, of the past 10 years, 6 of them I spent fighting in divorce court, trying to keep my ex from relocating with our child out of state. (Eventually I lost) The last 4 years I spent caring for my terminally ill father. (Passed june/2012)

After finishing the dealings of my fathers estate in aug/2012, I found myself in a place where I set in my mind that I could finally work on my life. (change career, maybe move near my child, etc)

30 days later I was in the hospital due to a degenerated disc in my neck, that was caused by arthritis and prolonged sitting at a desk/computer use. After physical therapy & acupuncture I felt a bit better but the western medicine surgeons still want to do spinal/neuro surgery, that I seem to be very fearful of. Because this is an approved workers comp claim, there is a lot of red tape & bull$#it.

I feel that if I could just stay off the desk/computer I'd be OK, *BUT*

-It's what I've done for the past 3 decades, and at middle age I don't have a lot of options or transferrable skills.

-Workers comp (& the doctors) push for surgery and returning me to work (Which is what got me here in the first place) and want to avoid my going on permanent partial disability. (Court & lawyer stuff)

-I still have 7 more years of child support and disability pay may not be enough to cover my obligations.

-The percentages of success rate (80%) and complication rate (15-20%) are not too good in my opinion.

-I'm just friggin scared of it.

As far as the neck pain, I sometimes have bad days if I over extend myself and try to do too much, but the hand numbness flares up EVERY TIME I get on the computer. The non-surgical doctor I am seeing now feels I might/should have the surgery to prevent increased pain as I age, but I still fear spinal neurosurgery just to fix a numb right hand (I'm right handed) so I can go back to what put me in this position in the first place.

[Phreak]

I guess it depends how bad the potential complications are verses the potential gain.

A numb hand is as useless as one you can't use due to surgery complications.

You may be okay now.. But the conditions you have are only going to go in one direction aren't they?

[tornoversurgery]

Originally Posted by Phreak

I guess it depends how bad the potential complications are verses the potential gain.

A numb hand is as useless as one you can't use due to surgery complications.

You may be okay now.. But the conditions you have are only going to go in one direction aren't they?

- Complications are: permanent nerve damage from surgeon error, infection, bleeding/clots, failure of success to remedy problem, and in rare occasion death from infection or bleeding.

- Hand is almost fine when not at the desk/computer all day, and gets better progressively with acupuncture. (Typing is biggest problem, doing this post isn't easy.) Neck, mostly better but not perfect some days.

-RE-Direction over time: This is what the non surgical DR says, and it makes sense otherwise I probably wouldn't even consider it. Still, deep down I don't want them to cut on my spine. I've spoken to 5 people with past spine surgeries, 4 of them are unhappy with the results.

Thanks for your input, still somewhat torn over it.

[unaluna]

Are you mousing or what? Have you tried using your left hand? That's what I did.

[tornoversurgery]

Originally Posted by hankster

Are you mousing or what? Have you tried using your left hand? That's what I did.

Mousing I do from the left, it works ok, but data entry, typing, looking down at catalogs and heavy phone use is most of what I do, and those are what aggravates my condition the most.

Thanks for your reply

[tornoversurgery]

I invite all to continue to reply to this thread, especially if you've had spinal surgery, the more info I have the better.

Thanks!!