Pre/post surgery log for Hazardous

[Hzrdous]

Hey bro, I have back surgery coming up (details are in the HZRDOUS INJURY thread, but basically have a broken back in L5-S1 and while I don’t understand all of what is going to happen on July 7-or exactly what the injury is other than the neurosurgeon originally said Pars Defect and Spondylolisthesis until he read the results of the Myelogram with me and said that my back is broken.)

Either way, I have been kicking around the idea of HGH hoping to help with recovery time as well as the other benefits it offers. I haven’t used HGH before, am 35 y/o and on trt at 200 mg/wk of cyp. I was making really great strides towards my goals when this injury happened, and hope to be able to continue to make progress up until the operation and again as soon as I am able post op.

My question is on the HGH. Would you recommend I use it to aid in recovery? If so, would you mind sharing your thoughts on the best way to do so?

Mods if this Needs be it’s own thread, please move and accept my apologies.

Thanks all in advance.

 

[Poppy]

@Bigmurph

I was going to move this to start a new thread for @Hzrdous to get him going on his pre/post surgical stuff.

I couldn’t figure out how to do it.

 

[Bigmurph6]

There you go brother @Poppy

 

[Poppy]

Thank you sir.

@Hzrdous is getting ready for some serious surgery and I would like to get him as much advice/support as possible…along with his surgeons advice of course.

 

[Poppy]

@Hzrdous

Don’t be a stranger brother. At the very least we can be a sounding board for you. There are some folks here that have had some pretty serious procedures and can probably be of some help.

 

[Bigmurph6]

Mods if this Needs be it’s own thread, please move and accept my apologies

Never a problem brother @Hzrdous just let us know and we got you Im really sorry to hear about this happening me personally I wouldn’t use hgh until after natural healing and Physical Therapy. After that if hgh is needed because you are not where you want to be there are a couple different options

You can be aggressive with the hgh and use 5iu or more or use 2iu or 3iu and try to keep the side effects from not being to bad.
Definitely 6 month minimum a year minimum would be better but budget is difficult and I don’t reccomend off brand hgh.

 

[Kad1]

Long amd short, GH can’t hurt recovery so I’d use it. I currently use it to help recover from knee surgery. I like lower dose for recovery 2-3iu personally but currently I use the long acting GH so I need only 1 injection every 5 days. I agree with @Bigmurph 6 months would be the min time to use. More importantly I’d be focusing on getting my hips, back , gluts as strong as possible before surgery. The stronger you go in the stronger you come out. I’m currently working with middle Aged mom on doing just that. She is scheduled for spinal fusion on the 15th. I’m happy to answer any specific questions you have

 

[Hzrdous]

Much appreciated bro.

I am still trying to understand more about my injury. Maybe dinner of TheMore knowledgeable guys in the medical field here could help (I don’t know who to tag to ask them) but essentially I am struggling to understand how the original mri, all the x-rays, the mri with contrast, and the other tests they did could be determined as Spondylolisthesis and Pars but then the Myelogram suddenly show a “broken back.” I have heard that MRI image quality sometimes is not the best, but damn…is it really that easy to overlook or miss a break in the L5/S1 part of the back?

If it would be helpful I will figure out how to upload the images minus any personally identifying info as soon as I get physical (or digital) copies of the tests they did.

The neurosurgeon said I have been able to continue to walk (albeit in pain and with frequent stops to stoop down, bend over, sit, etc) because I have a “muscular core.”

He showed me in his office on the images what does look like a break, but I don’t know what bone it is or any specific details and was sort of in shock a little bit when he said it, and didn’t ask questions like I should have because I was just trying to process everything I had just been told. Can some of you guys who work in this field or who have other experience with it provide some clarification?

I know that is not an easy thing to ask for without having more information to give/show right now, but I am happy to answer any questions that would help lead to answers if I am able to. I really do not understand a lot of it not most of everything going on.

What sticks out to me the most right now is the model of what he is going to put into my back and him stating the only difference being that they will be using larger screws that anchor into my hips on either side. I have attached pictures of the model he was using when going through the surgical / fusion process with me in case they are helpful.

Thank you in advance guys. I really do appreciate all of the help from the community here.

 

[Kad1]

Let me poke around a bit . Not quite sure because when I broke my back I didn’t go through any of that

 

[Bigmurph6]

Wow I will be honest if the doctor showed me that model I would be very worried that thing just looks really scary. They need to redesign the example.

To upload pics and such its the arrow in the bottom right corner of the box that you type and post from next to the little computer screen which is to preview your post.

This is out of my league but @NeuroRN and @Kad1 are the two I would ask about this brother.

I can’t believe that they missed the injury so many times smh its disturbing.

 

[NeuroRN]

Ahh. Man. This is tough. I’m sorry to hear about all this.

So my spinal knowledge is weak. I’ll be point blank about that. This stuff usually falls more so to the ortho side of things.

I’m a bit confused too, a pars defect is in fact a broken back. It’s the difference in using the term stress fracture vs broken ankle. It’s still a crack in the bone, one is just from stress the other is from trauma.

There’s a lot of unknown here, it sounds like maybe no one spoke plainly to you (an unfortunate problem with MOST medical doctors) and use the names that you wouldn’t associate with a broken back. I sure wouldn’t and we both know I have plenty of medical terminology stored in my noggin.

Either way a small fracture can turn into a bigger one easily. It may be the direction of the imagine. MRI ct X-ray are all looking outside in. A myelogram should be looking differently with the focus on the actual spinal column. So it could show something a bit different depending on the placement of the break and severity.

To be plain; if your insurance will allow a second opinion. Take it. Ask for digital copies of all your scans. They are required to give you a copy upon request. Go to a different surgeon and give him everything and let him review it. I’ve said a thousand times we as medical professionals are easily guilty of tunnel vision aboit things. So I always recommend a second opinion before major surgery.

As I stated, spinal stuff is not my best subject. But I hope maybe this helps some. I wish I knew more that could help you.

 

[herrubermensch]

You absolutely need to have a second opinion about all of this before doing anything. Different orthos take wildly differing approaches to the same malady, and you need to hear them all and assess which one you believe is best. Pointedly, the kind of surgery your current doc is proposing should be an absolute last-ditch remedy, used only if nothing else is available. Just my $.02, and I’m not a doctor, but I do have a grade 2 spondy of L5/S1 and so have read a fair amount about THAT particular malady, enough to know I want to avoid surgery to correct it if at all possible.