Post by Bird on Mar 20, 2014 7:36:05 GMT -6
Hi, everyone. I'm wondering if anyone would be willing to share their symptoms immediately after surgery, and how long it took for those symptoms to resolve. (if they did resolve) I will start!
Before surgery I had numbness in my left hand extending up the left arm and my legs would sometimes feel like they were falling asleep at odd times. I also had neck/back pain. Immediately after surgery I was quite numb from the waist down in addition to the hand/arm numbness. My feet felt like bricks and my legs felt like tree trunks. The left leg had very limited sensation but I had full muscle control in both legs. My bowels and urine were messed up and mostly gravity driven, but I was never incontinent. I could walk with a walker and had a neck collar to help with really debilitating neck/shoulder/back muscle spasms. I had weird phantom sensations (not painful, but weird) in my legs. Both hands were at 1/2 strength (as measured by a tool my OT had)
In the weeks following, the spasms have cleared up, the phantom sensations have gone away, and the numbness in my legs has started to lessen. I can walk very well (without a walker) and can do stairs without issue as long as I wear shoes. (I fell down the stairs while barefoot because I didn't realize my foot had missed the step - now I wear shoes and watch where I put my feet). I'm getting used to the numb-leg feeling. My bowels/urine were weird for several weeks but have settled down now and are pretty normal. The strength has fully returned to both of my hands. I'm still not doing any big lifting, but I'm pretty active again and sleeping well. I sleep with a heating pad by my feet because my left foot in particular has the sensation of being cold (even when it's not). My neck/back feel great, unless I've been really busy, then they get a little sore but no big deal. I just take that as a sign that I need to slow down a bit.
I've been reading that the nerves just keep trying to heal, and the doctor said he is very hopeful about my right leg in particular, but said it will take TIME. People tell me that I look totally normal, so that's good! I still get a tight belt-around-the-ribs feeling, which is very uncomfortable, but it's not all the time and I have some strategies that help with that.
Did anyone else get worse initially, then improve?
Before surgery I had numbness in my left hand extending up the left arm and my legs would sometimes feel like they were falling asleep at odd times. I also had neck/back pain. Immediately after surgery I was quite numb from the waist down in addition to the hand/arm numbness. My feet felt like bricks and my legs felt like tree trunks. The left leg had very limited sensation but I had full muscle control in both legs. My bowels and urine were messed up and mostly gravity driven, but I was never incontinent. I could walk with a walker and had a neck collar to help with really debilitating neck/shoulder/back muscle spasms. I had weird phantom sensations (not painful, but weird) in my legs. Both hands were at 1/2 strength (as measured by a tool my OT had)
In the weeks following, the spasms have cleared up, the phantom sensations have gone away, and the numbness in my legs has started to lessen. I can walk very well (without a walker) and can do stairs without issue as long as I wear shoes. (I fell down the stairs while barefoot because I didn't realize my foot had missed the step - now I wear shoes and watch where I put my feet). I'm getting used to the numb-leg feeling. My bowels/urine were weird for several weeks but have settled down now and are pretty normal. The strength has fully returned to both of my hands. I'm still not doing any big lifting, but I'm pretty active again and sleeping well. I sleep with a heating pad by my feet because my left foot in particular has the sensation of being cold (even when it's not). My neck/back feel great, unless I've been really busy, then they get a little sore but no big deal. I just take that as a sign that I need to slow down a bit.
I've been reading that the nerves just keep trying to heal, and the doctor said he is very hopeful about my right leg in particular, but said it will take TIME. People tell me that I look totally normal, so that's good! I still get a tight belt-around-the-ribs feeling, which is very uncomfortable, but it's not all the time and I have some strategies that help with that.
Did anyone else get worse initially, then improve?