I've Got Your Back

Today was a big day as far as doctor visits go.  Benjamin had an appointment at 1PM with his neurosurgeon in Lafayette who performed his spine surgery.  Prior to the visit we had to have X-rays done on his spine.  That appointment was at noon and those X-rays would be immediately sent to the neurosurgeon.  The X-ray location and the neurosurgeon's offices were in two different buildings about a block away.  That's usually not a big ordeal, but when you have to get out a walker and a wheelchair and stand and pivot and sit and then stow away all that equipment only to wash, rinse and repeat a few minutes later, well, that's "tracas."  [TRAH KAH] "trouble or problem" in Cajun French.

But you know what?  There's another way to look at it.  It gave us good practice.  By the end of the day, Tricia and I were like a pit crew on pit row getting the walker out of the back seat and setting it by the opened passenger door, popping the trunk to remove the wheel chair, opening it and putting the cushion seat on, rolling to the front door and locking the wheels.  Benjamin stands, pivots, sits, foot rests are put on the chair and Benjamin rolls clear of the car.  All doors are closed and the trunk shut before the car speeds away.  If you listen closely, you can almost hear the whirring of the air impact wrenches and the squeal of tires...  

We went in and were seen by the neurosurgeon's office.  The staff was very thorough and explained things so well.  It was not rushed.  They asked if we had questions.  Of course we did!  I asked, "We never saw anything but the big scar on his back.  Can you show us what was done to Benjamin's spine?"  She pulled this up quickly and began to explain:

Benjamin's spine suffered compression fractures in the lumbar region and sacrum.  L2 was pushing toward the cord, with little pieces broken off.  To stabilize this, his back was cut open and two titanium rods were put on either side of the spine and fastened with screws.  To do this you must go two vertebrae above and two vertebrae below the damage, so the rods went from the Thoracic group (T11) to the Lumbar group (L4).  You can see the rods and anchoring screws in the x-ray above.  He will have some range of motion issues (some diminished bending/twisting), but they keep stressing that he is young and healthy and his muscles will develop to compensate.  Who's got your back?  The rods answer saying, "I've got your back."  Ultimately, God has our backs!

The pelvis was fractured, along with the sacrum.  If you look at the film above, you can see that two 5-inch screws were inserted to 'hold things in place.'  Yikes!  He certainly has some hardware in him.  Benjamin's off of all pain medication and muscle relaxers and is only on gabapentin for nerve pain and trazadone for a sleep aid when nerve pain persists.  We discussed nerve pain.  Nerve damage is slow to heal.  They wrote OT/PT orders which will be communicated to Rehab to help with that.  They want the back brace on at all times.  No sleeping on the stomach.  They want him taking Vitamin D and calcium.

They looked at his "pins and needles" sensation in his right (dominant) hand - mainly the ring finger and pinky.  It looks like damage to the ulna nerve (funny bone), however, it could be caused by the neck.  In looking at the film, there appears to be a slight bulge in the cervical group (C6, if I remember correctly).  We were shown the opening where the nerve goes out and to the right arm.  The opening was large and doesn't appear to have damaged the nerve.  Only time will tell on the nerve damage.

Overall, they were very pleased with his progress in rehab, range of motion, strength and want to see him again in a month.  He heads back to Physical and Occupational Therapy tomorrow afternoon and our next appointment is with his orthopedic surgeon on October 12th.  We'll see what he has to say about his pelvic area and especially, legs.  When will he be load-bearing?  We're just a month out from the injury.  In many ways it seems like a LONG time, but we look at where he was versus where he is now and it is a testimony to the Goodness of God.  To God be the Glory, great things He hath done!