by Norman Weibel

Created on: April 27, 2008   Last Updated: April 29, 2008

Web MD says the first cause of spinal compression is from fractures of the vertebrae. I have no personal experience with that, but I do with the next greatest cause;surgery.

My first injury was to the disks in my neck. When it occurred I was a teacher for California's Department of Mental Hygiene at a State Hospital. My students were from the Psychotic wards and had been classified as both Mentally Retarded and psychotic.

During the initial six months, as we were learning the techniques that would give us our teaching efficiency, we were attacked an average of 14 times a day. Most of our injuries were minor. Ruptured disks was major.

The attack that caused severe injury began with the student attacking my aid.It took forty-five minutes to bring him under control (he was 6'2" tall and weighed 180 lbs). I would later learn I had ruptured two disks in my neck.

I decided to avoid surgery and through weekly chiropractic treatments did so for eight years. When it became clear that my chiropractor could no longer allay my pain, he referred me to a neurosurgeon.

The neurosurgeon performed a dual fusion on my cervical spine (neck) at C-5, 6 and C-6, 7. The surgery was a success. I was relatively pain free from 1984 to 1993. I stepped out of my car into a pothole and twisted to keep from falling. The resultant pain was enough to send me back to my neurosurgeon, who immediately ordered an MRI. It showed both extremely dangerous slippage of the cervical spine at C-3, 4. C3 had moved forward enough to change the shape of the spinal cord on the MRI from an o shape to a c shape. My doctor told me emergency surgery was in order.

At this time I was also scheduled for a five level laminectomy(Laminectomy / Discectomy is a surgical procedure wherein the lamina of the vertebra is trimmed or removed in order to create more space for the spinal nerves) to be completed approximately three months after the fusion.(Web MD)
After both surgeries were complete I was up and walking the second day after the surgery. I then went to physical therapy. Though I could walk I had suffered some nerve loss. My feet and lower legs were a bit numb. I considered myself lucky to be able to walk without any support.
Though I was told that I should continue the PT exercises,I didn't. The doctor had told me that if I didn't do my exercises, I could end up in a wheel chair. When pain in my shoulders and some bad falls drove me back to the doctor, tests showed that diabetic neuropathy had caused me to develop

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>