I’m back, seriouslyCraig Hall

I am back in the groove this morning, one week after having back surgery last Monday.

It has been a bad week — serious pain the first couple of days, an upset stomach one night along with bad indigestion, and I didn’t leave the house until yesterday, when I joined my wife, Trish, for a trip to Poteau.

Hall about it

I apologize for not letting everyone know of my absence in advance, but I figured most people have better things to worry about than ye old Craigman.

For those who didn’t know, last spring it got to where I had trouble walking any distance without pain in my hip, backside and back. I went to an imaging place in Van Buren and was told I had stenosis in my L4 and L5 vertebrae — not from an accident, but most likely from my age (63, no really).

The path from a surgeon telling me I needed surgery to actually having it took a long and winding road. But Monday was the day. We were supposed to be in Tulsa at 6 a.m., so we headed out at 3:30.

The surgery seems to have gone well. It doesn’t hurt where it did before, just in the area of my back where the surgery was performed.

Not to get too scientific — that was a course I didn’t do well in — but a small incision was made in my back, and the surgeon removed part of the bone that was putting pressure on the nerves.

The procedure is technically called a laminectomy — a surgery that removes the lamina, the back part of a vertebra that covers the spinal canal, to relieve pressure on the spinal cord or nerve roots. It’s most often done to treat spinal stenosis, herniated discs, tumors or other conditions causing nerve compression. Doctors sometimes call it decompression surgery, and it can be performed at any level of the spine — neck, mid-back or lower back. Mine was in the lower back.

I’m well on my way to becoming the bionic man, minus the cool side effects, since this brings the total to three vertebrae worked on. That is, until I read that a typical adult spine has 33 vertebrae total:

• 7 cervical (neck)
• 12 thoracic (upper/mid back, attach to ribs)
• 5 lumbar (lower back)
• 5 sacral (fused into one bone, the sacrum)
• 4 coccygeal (fused into the tailbone, or coccyx)

That means I’ve got 30 more that could screw up. Egads.

Some of you may be complimenting me on the timing. It came the day I was supposed to go back to work after being off all summer, so I got an extra week — not that this summer, or last week, has been any kind of vacation.

Last spring I missed a lot of events because it hurt too much to walk and stand, but I’m hoping that’s changed and I can get back to my usual routine.

For now, I’m back to my morning routine and trying to get back to school Monday. Thanks to all of you for your support, especially Trish the wife, who has been and continues to be a real trooper. You are all excellent people.

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