As I explained in my pervious post, I fractured my C6 and C7 vertebrae when I landed head first after going over the handle bars on my mountain bike. The fractures, combined with significant disc degeneration in my C5 and C6 caused compression and flattening of my spinal cord, which then caused Central Cord Syndrome.



The surgeon performed emergency surgery where he and his team removed bone spurs on C5 and C6, removed the remains of my two degenerated discs, replaced them with spacer cages and an artificial bone matrix, and fused my C5 to C6 and C6 to C7 with a two-level anterior cervical fusion and discectomy (ACFD). I also had some bleeding on my brain, but it seems to have been minimal.



Initially, the doctors said it would be a few days before I'd walk and would be in the hospital for a week to a week and a half, and activity for the foreseeable future would be kept to a minimum. Against their recommendations, I demanded to stand up on my own 12 hours after surgery, and later that day said I wanted to walk. The next day, I asked to use the stairs between floors at the hospital and was discharged three days after my surgery.



From the beginning, I also told the medical staff that my hands felt like I'd punched a cement wall. Each staff member told me it was just nerve pain, even though my hands looked like they belonged on the Pillsbury Dough Boy they were so swollen. At a follow-up appointment last week, I told the PA the same thing and she said the same thing: "It's just nerve pain." I asked her to order an X-ray on my right hand, which she begrudgingly did. It turns out I was right. My right hand was broken. My left seems to have faired slightly better.



With that as a brief summary, I'll share what we're doing to speed up the recovery process, and how that contrasts with the advice I got from the medical team.



I'm sharing this information as a way to detail an "unofficial" case study, not to suggest this for others. If anything, I hope that by sharing the details of what we're doing in this and future posts, it'll cause others in similar situations to ask better questions of their medical team. I also hope it causes healthcare practitioners to invest some time into exploring ways their patients can safely recover from similar injuries in less time.



Side Effects of Conventional Guidance Following Spinal Cord Injuries



Following a spinal cord injury and surgery like mine, conventional advice during the first 6-12 weeks includes:




Wearing a collar (i.e. Aspen collar) at all times. An exception may be to take it off to shower after 2-4 weeks. My PA said I should only do that if I have a shower chair to sit on. I thought that was funny.



No lifting items over 10 pounds



Limit exercise to walking or riding on a recumbent bike




Once patients are "allowed" to become more active, the guidance is often akin to lifting soup cans or pink dumbbells.



While I'm all for protecting the area of injury and helping to ensure the fusion heals appropriately, I'm also 100% against allowing the rest of my body to fall apart while that happens. Especially if it isn't absolutely necessary.



Unfortunately, most patients aren't led to see things this way. As a result, the average spinal cord injury patient experiences the following:




18-46% decrease in muscle cross sectional area in first six weeks, and 45-80% after six months



significant decrease in ratio of slow twitch to fast twitch muscle fiber type, which reduces fat metabolism, stamina, and endurance



Up to 126% increase in intramuscular fat within first six weeks and more than a 300% increase after six months



3X increased risk of developing diabetes compared to uninjured, comparable adults



Significant loss in bone mineral density, leading more than 40% of SCI patients to developing osteoporosis or osteopenia, according to one study




These stats are disturbing!



As of 3 1/2 weeks post-op, not a single healthcare professional from my ca...