Others of you have disc problems so I am going to share this in the hope it may be useful to someone.
I have a herniated, possibly prolapsed (popped), disc in my neck. It is the result of a bad opening during a skydive, I heard it go when my neck whiplashed and I thought for a moment I may be paralysed from the neck down, thankfully not.
The effects on me of the disc material pushing on the nerves is that: I get shite headaches every so often; I have a loss of movement in turning my head side to side; a slight loss of arm movement; loss of muscle strength in my arms; loss of muscle mass in my arms; if I lift my head back in what the Doc calls the breastroke swimmer (also like cycling and motorcycling) position I get severe tingling down my arms and numbness in my fingers.
As of today I am in Germany to visit a surgeon who I selected earlier this year and he is going to perform artificial disc replacement surgery on me. Why Germany and why not in the USA? Well, the Germans invented the procedure back in the 1980's at the Charite Institute in Berlin, they have had over 30 years of developing and perfecting the procedure so that it is considered a standard operation nowadays. As the developers they have taught the world to do the operation. The leading Doc's in Germany have performed the procedure up to 4000 times, whereas the leading light in the US has done it perhaps a couple of hundred times after being taught by the Germans.
In Germany the procedure is available through their health insurance if it is Dr recommended. They do the maths; if you are relatively young and have a slipped disc that is giving you gype so that you have to see the Doc every week, are going to be on pain pill's and receive physio for the next 30 years it is cheaper to pay out 17,000 Euros once to get you fixed once and for all. Simples. The NHS see's it differently, they see the price of the disc kit required for the operation (around 5K) as being too much and they would rather you went for tea and sympathy. That said, the kit is allowed in the UK and extreme cases would receive the treatment (just don't hold your breath waiting) there are surgeons who will do the operation privately (BUPA, PPP, etc.) in the UK, but again they were trained by the greatly more experienced Germans (who all speak english).
I am having my op done in Cologne/Koeln. Dr Biren Desai is the surgeon, normally they try not to operate on over 50's, but as I have the basic physique of someone 10 to 15 years younger (thank you army) he is happy to do me at 60. He is going to install an ESP prosthetic disc in my neck, the disc has 6 degrees of motion which is exactly the same as a normal disc, the structure of the disc allows a return to sporting activity once healed. The basic healing takes 6 weeks however, 6 months is recommended by US Navy surgeons who perform the surgery on injured Navy SEAL's. I have read the paper with post surgical timeline for fitness and they state that a SEAL should be fully fit and functional jumping out of planes, diving and back to full active deployable status at the 6 month point. Anyway, the EPS disc is a 3rd/4th gen disc, compared to the gen 1 they are allowed to use in the US, I also know that the EPS is offered privately in the UK. The disc is constructed using tried nd tested materials: Titanium alloy discs sandwiching a polysomethingorother flexible, compressible core, the titanium discs are coated with a bone growth promoter to speed bone growth into the titanium - yes bone grows into titanium. It takes 2 weeks for 50% bone growth and 6 weeks for full bone growth, meaning that after 6 weeks if you have been careful and not strained anything the disc is actually a part of your body - bionic mate.
Anyway, I arrive at the hospital on monday, I'm just getting over jet lag for a couple of days, Monday they check me over again, tuesday they do the pre-surgery starvation and enema (lovely), wednesday my spinal cord is severed - yes severed, thrilling. I should be compos mentis again probably late thursday, early friday and I shall let you know how it goes.
This is my Doc ===>
I have a herniated, possibly prolapsed (popped), disc in my neck. It is the result of a bad opening during a skydive, I heard it go when my neck whiplashed and I thought for a moment I may be paralysed from the neck down, thankfully not.
The effects on me of the disc material pushing on the nerves is that: I get shite headaches every so often; I have a loss of movement in turning my head side to side; a slight loss of arm movement; loss of muscle strength in my arms; loss of muscle mass in my arms; if I lift my head back in what the Doc calls the breastroke swimmer (also like cycling and motorcycling) position I get severe tingling down my arms and numbness in my fingers.
As of today I am in Germany to visit a surgeon who I selected earlier this year and he is going to perform artificial disc replacement surgery on me. Why Germany and why not in the USA? Well, the Germans invented the procedure back in the 1980's at the Charite Institute in Berlin, they have had over 30 years of developing and perfecting the procedure so that it is considered a standard operation nowadays. As the developers they have taught the world to do the operation. The leading Doc's in Germany have performed the procedure up to 4000 times, whereas the leading light in the US has done it perhaps a couple of hundred times after being taught by the Germans.
In Germany the procedure is available through their health insurance if it is Dr recommended. They do the maths; if you are relatively young and have a slipped disc that is giving you gype so that you have to see the Doc every week, are going to be on pain pill's and receive physio for the next 30 years it is cheaper to pay out 17,000 Euros once to get you fixed once and for all. Simples. The NHS see's it differently, they see the price of the disc kit required for the operation (around 5K) as being too much and they would rather you went for tea and sympathy. That said, the kit is allowed in the UK and extreme cases would receive the treatment (just don't hold your breath waiting) there are surgeons who will do the operation privately (BUPA, PPP, etc.) in the UK, but again they were trained by the greatly more experienced Germans (who all speak english).
I am having my op done in Cologne/Koeln. Dr Biren Desai is the surgeon, normally they try not to operate on over 50's, but as I have the basic physique of someone 10 to 15 years younger (thank you army) he is happy to do me at 60. He is going to install an ESP prosthetic disc in my neck, the disc has 6 degrees of motion which is exactly the same as a normal disc, the structure of the disc allows a return to sporting activity once healed. The basic healing takes 6 weeks however, 6 months is recommended by US Navy surgeons who perform the surgery on injured Navy SEAL's. I have read the paper with post surgical timeline for fitness and they state that a SEAL should be fully fit and functional jumping out of planes, diving and back to full active deployable status at the 6 month point. Anyway, the EPS disc is a 3rd/4th gen disc, compared to the gen 1 they are allowed to use in the US, I also know that the EPS is offered privately in the UK. The disc is constructed using tried nd tested materials: Titanium alloy discs sandwiching a polysomethingorother flexible, compressible core, the titanium discs are coated with a bone growth promoter to speed bone growth into the titanium - yes bone grows into titanium. It takes 2 weeks for 50% bone growth and 6 weeks for full bone growth, meaning that after 6 weeks if you have been careful and not strained anything the disc is actually a part of your body - bionic mate.
Anyway, I arrive at the hospital on monday, I'm just getting over jet lag for a couple of days, Monday they check me over again, tuesday they do the pre-surgery starvation and enema (lovely), wednesday my spinal cord is severed - yes severed, thrilling. I should be compos mentis again probably late thursday, early friday and I shall let you know how it goes.
This is my Doc ===>
