Well my ROM is pretty good, I can turn side to side with no issue. The harder one for me is looking up and down, they exported me to loose 10% of my ROM that direction. I am not currently worked except at being a care giver for others in need of cannabis. That keeps me plenty busy with the grow, which is a good thing. My last surgery date was 09/27/12, two levels. Got off my pain meds within four weeks and have been using cannabis as my med. I know I could not got bak to my previous line of work as it was 90% computer based with lots of data entry. That bothers my arms still to this day, I can do some computer worker he and there but not a lot. Since I lost my career I have been trying to figure out what I want to do when I grow up, lol. For now, I am in a unique position to be able to focus on the grow and helping others medicate with cannabis for all their ailments. When things were at their worst, my disc had collapsed, I could not due much due to the issues I have in my arms with my nerves. Everyday tasks became impossible, like trying to button shirts, dry my hair (hold the hair dryer), cooking, driving, etc. I originally ruptured the disc at a job where I had to restrain behavior problem children. I live with that for 12 years, opted not to have surgery. Kinda stupid looking back as I had spinal chord compression. Anyway, then in 2010 as I was leaving work, I feel head first down the stairs leaving the building, didn't hit my head or anything, walked away with two broken toes. However after that all the nerve problems started in my arms and the pain eventually made me go on short term disability, eventually forced me to leave my employment. I tried everything, trigger point injections, spinal adjustments, deep tissue massage, acupuncture and finally cervical epidural which gave me about 2 months of reduced pain, then it came back and that is when I couldn't take it anymore and did a one level fusion at the disc that was collapsed. I had a good surgeon, just conservative and he recommended the one level fusion even thought I had building disc's already at the level above and below the collapsed one. The first surgery was partially successful as it reduced my pain and I was doing pretty good then fell on the ice about 6 months after surgery. It was then the pain continued in the same pattern as before, I was till on pain meds, so a lot of the pain was masked. When I came off the meds, it was then I realized something was not right. Too much pain and the same pattern as before, my surgeon pushed that aside and sent me to pt, did that for 6 months, no changes. So at my year sfollowup he asked me my thoughts on the pain, I said it was a disc. He ordered An MRI and that is when I found out the other two disc's had already moved and I had an annular tear. Also tested positive for spinal chord compression, so the second surgery was scheduled. Thing's are so much better now, I am not in severe pain or really chronic pain anymore. I still have to watch how many activities I can do in a day that involve a lot of arm stuff. They say the nerves can take up to two years to recover and grown. So I am hopeful, however, given the chronic and severity of my issues, I have been told I will always have problems. So just got to be smarter on how I am doing things and watch my posture and how I am holding myself. If I do to much now, I might need to take it easy the following day, whereas before I would be down for several. Hope that helps, everyone is different, just try to trust what your body is telling you. If it hurts stop or don't do that, I know easier to say than do.
)
