bonus update: first day without pain!

day 19

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. Pinky and ring fingers on both hands won’t straighten without intentional focus and effort. Then large-amplitude tremors/spasms in both hands and arms when I brought the arms down. Rhythmic spams in both triceps meant arms came back down in a kind of ratchet motion. With arms relaxed and hands resting on my chest spasms in both forearms made my hands beat lightly on my test. Very weird.
• 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.

day 20

Nothing more than mild discomfort for a second whole day. I did cause myself a bit of an ouchie by shampooing my hair a bit too vigorously. Accidentally pushed my head/neck over to one side¹ and it felt like bending a finger back too far. The body says “stop that”.

Had the “raising the arms in the morning” issue again this morning. I paid more attention to what was happening and corrected the narrative above.

update: day 24

Still no pain while doing allowed activities in the brace. Dog and I are up to 1 mile/day on our walks. Cramps have stopped. Spasms have mostly stopped. Tremors are decreased. I may have turned the corner.

1. the brace comes off for showering. ↩