bonus update: first day without pain!

It’s after midnight so this, the 19th day after surgery, is my first day without pain.

I did have some mild discomfort a couple times. And I’m still having weird neurological experiences like

• right arm going randomly/suddenly going numb
• significant weakness when I tried to raise both arms upon waking; couldn’t quite make the elbows straight. Then large-amplitude tremors/spasms in both hands and arms when I brought the arms down. Kinda like Tarzan beating his chest only less violent chest-beating and the hands moved in sync rather than alternating. A deeply weird “stop hitting yourself!” moment.
• pinky and ring fingers on both hands getting stuck at the same time when doing the arm raise above.
• rhythmic, painless spasms in my right-side lats (such as they are)
• (apparent) tightness around the right shoulder blade where I’d been having horrific (apparent) cramp pain. I can’t reach that spot to check if there’s an actual cramp or phantom neuropathy.
• random periods of hand tremor, usually on the left
• most interesting for last: a distinct sensation that very cold water was dripping onto my shirt over and down my right shoulder blade. I was walking the dog when this one happened and was confused about where the water had come from. I checked my shirt when I got home and it was dry.

This stuff re-affirms my belief that the decompression of the spinal cord was way overdue and I should have made it happen years ago. I hope the nerves remember how to work sooner rather than later.