It was a warm summer morning, July 30. Vanessa, our grandson Asher, and I were riding a single-track mountain bike course in Woodbury, MN. As always, I rode in the third position, ironically, in the event either of them ever had a bad fall.



I came upon a skinny bridge about three feet off the ground and, for a brief moment, thought I should skip it that day. I didn’t listen to my intuition.



Instead, I slowly pedaled up the steep incline. As my front tire reached the top, I knew I needed to follow the bridge's curve to the right, but I was going so slow I couldn’t correct myself. Instead, I kept riding straight ahead.



Before I could blink, my front tire dropped off the bridge, and when it hit the ground, I was leaning forward enough that the only thing that could happen was for my body and the back of my bike to fly over the front.



The top of my head made contact with the ground first, the rest of my body directly above it. As our grandson would later describe, my head then got squished into my shoulders, my neck hyperextended, and the rest of my body rolled over until I lay flat on my back.



Within seconds, I realized I had no feeling in my lower body. I knew this would be a severe injury. I also felt surprisingly calm, knowing things would work out according to God's plan, whatever that might be. As she'd later tell me, Vanessa felt at peace in the chaos as well.



The police and fire department arrived 15 minutes after my wife called 911. They gave me ketamine, carried me to an ATV, loaded me onto the back, drove me to an ambulance, gave me fentanyl, and drove me to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota.



This is an introductory post about my adventure back from a serious spinal cord injury. I'll refer back to it in future posts as I discuss the therapies we use and the insights we gain. Here, I want to outline the complications we faced, as it turned out to be more than a broken neck or a spinal cord injury alone. Also, my wife, Vanessa Romero has documented, and will continue to document, our approach to recovery and its milestones on her Facebook and Instagram pages. Please check them out!





The Diagnosis



Upon arriving at Regions, the staff ushered me into X-rays, CT scans, and MRIs.



According to my admission notes, I had:




C6-C7 fracture dislocation with bilateral facet fractures, unilateral perched facet.



Severe degenerative disc disease at C5-C6 with severe secondary spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal).



Spinal cord injury with central cord syndrome at C5-C6 and C6-C7.




Based on the degenerated discs and bone spurs he saw, the surgeon told Vanessa I was a walking disaster, even if I hadn't broken my neck. He said I was lucky the crash hadn't made me a quadriplegic. We call it a blessing.



The surgery team told her I would likely be in the hospital for 10 to 12 days. They even said it would be a few days before I could walk.



The surgeon, Dr. Mendes, wanted to do immediate, emergency surgery. As he noted:




Because of instability, the unstable nature of fracture, dislocation at C6-C7, surgery was immediately recommended because of the severe compression at C5-C6.




So, by late afternoon I was headed for surgery. I don't remember much about that afternoon as I was pretty drugged up.



The Surgery



Dr. Mendes, the neurosurgeon, performed a two-level anterior cervical diskectomy and fusion (ACDF). This was to reduce the compression and flattening of my spinal cord, caused by the fractured vertebrae, existing disc degeneration, and bone spurs.



If you geek out at this stuff, here are the notes from my surgeon on my procedure.




PROCEDURE IN DETAIL: The patient was anesthetized, intubated, and placed supine on the OR table, roll underneath his shoulder blades, head in mild extension, head resting on a foam donut.



Gardner-Wells tongs were applied approximately an inch in front of the external auditory meatus to reinforce this lordotic positioning.