Surgery with Dr Zeegers Tomorrow at 8am :)

[Karger]

8 am Wednesday Germany time is when I become Bionic Karger. Mostly man, with a bitch of machine. Wish me luck!

After reading and signing everything still scary as hell, but I am over here, paid all the money and need to do it since my L5/s1 is pretty much Jello. I keep looking at my MRI to confirm this is what i need to hopefully get out of pain.

The flight sucked. About 4 hours in, my back was killing me, like really killing me. (further confirms why i need the adr) The plane seats really really suck. I don't know how people without back problems do it. I could feel some sort of bar though the shitty cousin. Honestly, I think the plane seats causes people to have back issues. Couldn't get comfortable at all. I was up for over 24 hours, it was great to get to the hotel and finally lay down and give my back a break and let my spine decompress. I so missed my inversion table. 1000 channels to watch and they are all in German LOL.

I went to the beta Klinik today. Everyone is very nice, their wifi is broken.. The nurse who took my blood was very great at it, only felt a pinch. took about 5 vials of blood though. She then came back in because she forgot two more vials. That really hurt. guess she was lucky the first time ha. She was really nice and i think she felt bad that she put me though more pain then i needed to be in.

Dr Zeegers was really great! Super awesome guy. I did my Xray and CT scans and nothing has changed and he is confident with his perfect diagnosis! I am so happy he is so diligent with his work.

I had my last supper being a small portion of wiener schnitzel with a pint of beer while watching the soccer game! German won the other night because at 1, i woke to the whole country cheering LOL.

Well off to bed. Hopefully i can sleep since i am scared, excited, nervous, etc. I kind of wish they didn't show me all the disclaimers. Sometimes not knowing is better then knowing all the .001% chances of something going wrong.

See you on the other side. Over and out.


Karger!

[Maria]

Hi Karger!
You made it and maybe are asleep now? I don't think I could sleep if I were going to have spine surgery again since I can hardly sleep if I have a doctor's appointment the next day let alone a surgery!

Yah.. plane seats suck as far as I'm concerned.. I'd have never made it sitting thru anything more than maybe 2 hours and possibly 4 if I could move around all over the place and get up and down.. anything after that I'd be begging someone to shoot me or just throw me out door.. hence my 3 coach seat thing where I lie down for flights (buy 3 seats together which hopefully is a row to myself .. bigger planes may mean I need to buy more seats).

Side lying is painful too after so many hours but at least I can stand and walk by the time I get off the plane and function. Too much sitting and my back goes out though for back surgery would probably be just about right if an ambulance could pick me up and somehow I'd magically get taken care of until surgery!

Ok blabbing on here so really just hope you have a GREAT surgery and then a WONDERFUL recovery and everything is GOOD!

take care and hopefully we'll hear from you soon "on the other side!" Maria

[Jim M2]

Hi Karger,
I remember being miserable flying over there. I squirmed all over the place.

Good luck,

[henry4956]

Right about now, I estimate it's about 8 in the evening and you are in your 1st night of recovery on the Beta Klinik. I must warn you, that little accordion jig that plays when a patient buzzes for attention will drive you crazy by the end of your 2nd day. I wish I remembered the names of the attendants, there is one guy (middle east decent), talks very much like he is gay. Anyway he is one of the nicest people you will meet there. Please tell Dr Jung I said hello.
I didn't feel too much pain once the morphine drip was started, but for the most part you are going to be very sleepy. My real intense pain actually occurred when I released myself on 3rd day from clinic & switched over to my own meds at the hotel. You also probably won't see this until you get out of the klinik (wifi). The 1st 5 days for me were real bad, then things started to improve.
Congratulations.

[sahuaro]

Hoping your surgery went splendidly and you are in the process of recovery!

[Karger]

Hello all,

Thanks for all the responses and the shared experiences. This is something i will never forget. It's really odd laying there on the operation table and having the swat team come in and start doing stuff. They are all speaking german too so i had no clue what they were saying etc. that's probably for the best. Then out of no where Dr Zeegers was there and said "Hello Mr Karger". We chatted and he let me know everything was going to be ok. That was super comforting and I had faith that he would do everything in his power to make sure it went smooth. Then the antistatic guy said he was going to start to put me to sleep and in 1 min i would be out. They were all still talking to me and my eyes got heaver and heaver and out i was. I had a crazy dream when i was under, I remembered it when i woke up, but can't really it now due to all the meds.

My surgery took about 4 hours. Dr Zeegers said it was hard to get the disc out and the new one in due to the positioning of my l5/s1 and they had to decompress my spine. Apparently my spine was super compressed. Probably due to the shitty flight. Dr Jung said he also removed some bone that was against my cored. All in all, I don't have any more sciatic pain. i have no pain when i am up and walking around. I do have some at l5/s1 when i am laying down on the bed which is odd..

I spoke with Dr Zeegers and he was extremely happy with the surgery and how it went, even though it was a bit hard. He said he would be sending me the forums outlining the procedure step by step. I can't wait to see.

When he asked me to get out of bed and walk around, I had a huge smile on my face because there was no more pain. I never thought i would feel like that again. I got my picture taken with Dr. Zeegers and my brother. We chatted a bit before he left. The morphine makes you really sleepy. ive been doing lots of sleeping. Just when i got over my jet lag, I messed up my sleep schedule.

All in all i think it was a success.

[Maria]

Hey there.. good to hear from you! So glad that you've no more pain thus far. I think the Morphine helps a bit too with some stuff (having taken it when I first started pain management). Had to smile when I read about the shitty flight possibly compressing the disc space ~ hopefully the flight back will feel entirely different with your new back!

I remember right before my 1st back surgery (89) I was so nervous I was starting to cry and the guys rolling me into the OR told me to breath and backwards from 100 and I remember getting to 98.. zonk.. waking up in ICU (where my surgeon put me initially so that I'd have nurses turning me frequently and checking on my every need all the time the first 2 days. There was no TV in there and I was getting so bored I begged to put me in a regular room as soon as I was able to pull myself out of a druggy sleepy state!

Then once on the regular surgical unit I talked one of my friends into helping me get into the shower that first week post op and the nurses caught me, the surgeon came barreling in threatening to have me 4 point restrained because if I had fallen or would fall I'd ruin the beautiful work he'd done "back there" ..

yes.. what is it they say about nurses and doctors making the worse patients? Pretty true...

Ok end of my droning on here about my past surgical endeavors and sending you loads of good wishes for a continued wonderful recovery! Dr. Zeegers sounds like he's a magician~ making pain disappear! Congrats to him too on what appears to be successful surgery!

take care and rest up now~ Maria

[Karger]

I must say, day 3 has been the best day ever! I finally got my appetite back at all my lunch and dinner and feeling great! Going back to the hotel on Sat where I can rest up some more. But, I feel like i am making great progress. I'm off the morphine woot woot, no more zombie

[Maria]

You are really coming right along! Congrats! Now don't get too far ahead of yourself and OVERDO Glad to read you're off the Morphine and will have more energy. Hope you continue to do great with your recovery Maria

[henry4956]

Pain wise, sounds like you are doing waaaaaaaaaay better than me. I was still in severe pain till day 5 or so. taking 60-70mg of Percocet & 1800mg of ibuprofen daily. then again I was coming from 3 years of in-activity and I had 2 levels done, but who cares - I'm doing well now. it amazes me why more people don't choose Dr Zeegers, he's arguably the best spine surgeon in the world! now go have some pork & sauerkraut, topped off with some Becks

[Jim M2]

That is most excellent. Dr. Z has been doing ADR for 25 or 30 years. He is the ADR master.

[Karger]

Don't get me wrong I still have a bit of back pain, but it's totally different pain. It feels more like muscular, like brused or something like that. All my old l5/s1 pain is gone along with no sciatica pain. I do think Dr z is the ADR master. At least most of the people who see him end up with amazing results. Henry is a awesome example he went from pretty much bed ridden to walking again!

I also think I have a few things going for me that helped with the success.

1. I never had any previous operations on my back. This was my first surgery ever! I have read on. Some fourms about where they trimmed the disc but end up butchering you instead.

2. I am only 35. That could help. Perhaps the younger you are the faster you heal.

3. I selected what I think is the best surgeon for the job.

I am happy none the less!

Karger

[Karger]

Day 7.

Well I survived the week. Today I feel great. Monday I walked a bit too much because Tuesday I felt like I did a marathon and was incredibly sore. I can't describe the soreness I felt. I guess I was getting cabin fever and needed to get out. Today I feel great. Didn't over do it!

It's a great feeling of progress ever day. Even if it's just a little. Makes me feel good my money was well spent.

Karger