T1 and C7 Fusion

[Dwight Howard SUPERMAN]

Hi,
I am a seventeen year old who is extremely active and happened to break my neck this summer. I am a sponsored skier and a college hopeful rugby and football player. I fractured my T1 vertebrae and have compression fractures on C7, C6 and C5. I have been to a neuro surgeon and he thinks i shouldnt get a fusion done. He says that in the long run it will cause me problems. I went and got a second opinion from another neuro surgeon and he thinks i should do the fusion and i will most likely be able to play rugby again and ski like i used to. In my head i am thinking that no matter if i do the surgery or not i will have problems in the future. I know i will never be back to 100% of my strength but i guess i am just asking anyone who has had something similar what did they do and was it a good decision. I have been scouted by many top schools throughout the nation for sports and this is my senior year in high school. I am totally devastated. Would me getting a fusion be a good idea? Even if i cant play contact sports again i would still love to be able to ski just as hard as i used to. If anyone has some ideas for me to think about or personal experiences i would love to hear them. My parents basically said its my choice if i want the surgery or not. I just want to be able to be active again. PLEASE HELP.

 

[keg]

first of all,i am sorry this even happened to someone your age. but the next thing you seriously need to wonder just what that first NS was even thinking here in telling you NOT to get something this in depth and potentially much more very impactful if this is left the way it is? esp if you even THINK that esp rugby wills till even BE an option with the level of real fracures and the compressive stuff you simply even have going on in there? this just IS unfortuently one of those lessor of twoe evils situations/choinces? i have had to deal with this crap myself when it came to doing or not doing an actual surgery that would cut into my cord itself? either way you will be very limited at least immediately post op if you do what i personally feel and the one NS actually feels you need to do here. OR doing absolutely nothing will most certainly keep you away from skiing the way i am sure YOU are simply used to, and rugby will NOT even BE a possible with fractures within your neck at all? and depending upon the exacting nature of how and where that compression even was or even still is that created enough forces to actually fracture a younger persons vertebrae WOULD definitely matter here too.

just exactly 'how" did this injury occur to have the compression there and the fracture too? did you somehow land on top of your haed and create this THAT way or did something 'hit' your neck and create some type of compression? just need to know 'how' that compression came to be and how it is impacting your spinal here? do you actually have your own copy of any and all testing reports, esp that very crucial MRI report? if not, get them esp the MRI, and if you could, please type out for us here exactly,and i do mean word for word as that rad typed it up since wordings just CAN matter alot more than one might think in this situation, what were the "hard findings" that are usually within that back page "summary"? this really really would help to see exactly how the interpretting radiologist saw this and the real level of impact upon the spinal area too? that very real and underlying level of injury IS what would truely determine your real need for any types of actual c spine surgery at all here? so getting that summary up so we can simply see it at all would truely help TONS in giving you the very best advice cd.

in most cases, this type of thing,depending upon what is simply being impacted in there at all at this point, is not something that can always simply 'heal" wihout some type of real stabilizatiuon that either can be outter(hard collar) or inside ON/IN the vertbral colmun itself? but it DOES matter sooo much in just what the true depth of your injuries are down to the spinal cord and nerve roots here too. thats why seeing that rad report really IS crucial to even begin to give YOU and your injuries the best possible advice? you just DO have one solid fracture there at t 1 along with kind of a 'run' of real compression fractures too. just using basic logic and common sense here cd, how realistically do you think your c spines stability really would be right now or if you did nothing to even bring the stability back with some surgical help? ya know what i mean?

just what actual symptoms have you been experiencing so far like down your arms or in any particular fingers or anything like electrical "jolts' that kind of stem from the neck on down? what occurs upon movement with any symptoms? how is the pain? just even knowing the real mechanism of your reason for this type of injury "run" down your mid-lower c to T spine would help alot to know what else could have been impacted? but DO get your hands on that MRI report and that crucial summary of findings for us. it WILL help alot right now. FB

 

[the1 with da answers]

I also broke my neck 4 years ago and dislocated 5 vertebrae. I am fused from C3 to T1 and I can tell you, depending on the length, you won't be playing sports for any college with a fusion. You will be way too much of a risk, financially.

If I were you, being in Idaho, I'd make arrangements to see the best neurosurgeon on the west coast...San Fransisco, LA, Seattle...do some asking and research. There are a lot of cutting edge stuff being done at major teaching centers that take years to filter out to smaller centers. I'm on the east coast and I can tell you that I can get surgery in Boston not even done in New York. It all depends on the research, who gets funded and who is supported. You need a major university system behind them...some place like UCLA might be a good place to start. I go to Boston because Harvard gets the bucks for research. As they always say, follow the money.

Your future depends on what these docs think and do. With spines, the expertize of your surgeon is the #1 factor in determining your outcome. I should be dead or paralyzed and I'm up walking around and holding my 30 pound granddaughter. It was the doc, plain and simple.

Ask your high school coach to help you find the best doc possible. He can consult with a sports medicine doc and they can find you names. Then you need a doc to get you into them ASAP. The neurosurgeons you've already seen may take offense to you wanting to go elsewhere but it's your life, not theirs. If it were their son, they'd be taking him to the best they knew of too.

I don't know if you have the money to do this but it's a lot cheaper than having to pay for college if you can't get a sports scholarship. Might be a godsend physically and financially in the long run.

Every football team has an orthopedist specialists and a spine specialist...that is another way to research. Remember the guy who broke is neck at Buffalo? That was the team ortho and spine surgeon who had him walking so fast. They are cutting edge.

This is about as serious a decision as you can make at your age so do the homework to find the best and give yourself a chance to be what you want to be.

good luck..............Jenny

 

[here to go]

I am also sorry for you. I broke my back after a back fusion. What your first NR didn't tell you is that you will be limited in your playing ability-probably for the rest of your life. My bet would be that if you told the scouts that you had a fractured neck, you wouldn't see them again! College teams can't afford to take chances with people who are "damaged" so to speak.

You sound like an agressive skier. You may be able to ski again, but probably not with the type of energy you did before. You have to realise, that once you have broken an area of your back, it will be fragile for the rest of your life. You will need to learn to protect it. I was told that I could no longer bowl, ride roller coaster, move furniture, vacuum....you get the idea.

I would run from the first NR. Get one more opinion from a third doctor. That should give a good basis to go from. I would think that if you do nothing, you won't be doing any sports or skiing. Which leaves the alternative. Now we aren't medical experts, but we have usually gone through some surgery that is related to what you are facing. You will need to make a decision that will impact your entire life. And yes, this will affect you for your entire life. But I think that you may see that with the fusion there is hope of you being somewhat active. You are young and will heal more readily than older folks.

good luck and keep us posted.