pirana 0 #1 May 31, 2005 Been having some serious neck pain off & on for several months. It's related to a "touch" football injury from 10+ years ago. Been thru chiropractic and neuro-muscular therapies. I'd been making some good headway and suddenly it became much, much worse. Got an x-ray and MRI that indicate an old fractured (& healed) vertabrae, some nasty bone spurs, 2 herniated discs, and some nasty pinching of the spinal cord itself and the nerve to the left arm. Meeting with an ortho surgeon tomorrow (6/1). Anybody out there had neck surgery for these kinds of injuries? Results? Satisfied? Any chance there is an ortho surgeon out there that skydives? Or an MD that skydives? Not looking for official Dr to patient advice - just want to hear what others might have experienced, and appreciate all input. La Machine is in the shop (to be specific, La Machine is in the shop AGAIN) so I won't get replies until I get back to my work PC on Wednesday." . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Foggy 0 #2 May 31, 2005 Do a search. This has been discussed a couple of times here before. In Feb 2001, I had a whiplash injury which compressed the discs between my C5, 6 and 7 and the MRI also found spinal stenosis (bone spurring) on the same vertebrae. This caused a partial paralysis of my right arm. I had surgery in April 2001 to fuse the three vertebrae together with bone plugs and a titanium brace. The strength returned as soon as the pressure was taken off the nerve root but I was not allowed to lift anything heavier than 10lbs for 4-5 months. After the joys of physical therapy, I started jumping again doing hop'n'pops and upsized my canopy to a Spectre170 from a Sabre150. I have done a little over a 1000 jumps post surgery. I do get the occasional tingles and cramping in the right hand but find proper stretching and exercise help that. My range of motion is about 85-90% but I didnt like flying the point slot anyway Foggy D21109 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TomSpoon 4 #3 June 1, 2005 I had an anterior cervical discechtomy with plating on C4 & C5 about 14 months ago. This is pretty common among skydivers. There are so many jumpers at Skydive City who have had neck surgery we could make an eight way team. The recommendations I would make are; 1]Find the best neurosurgeon you can. You want the guy who does two or three of these surgeries before lunch and has a proven track record. 2] Don't come back to soon. It will take over a year before your fully healed. I started jumping again after four months but with a cervical collar. 3]Realize that you can never get whacked again. That means saying good bye to your sabre 150 and getting a slow opening canopy with dacron lines You'll want dacron on your reserve too. Even though your fusion will heal the other discs in your neck are now subject to greater stress. Feel free to PM me if I can answer any more questions. Tom Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
