The end of tests

Finished up testing with an EMG on Wednesday afternoon. The needles were no more intimidating than those used for acupuncture, and the neurologist worked quickly. The nerve-zapping test was a little more difficult — it involved putting a low-grade taser on the nerves to see how quickly they conduct an impulse. The good news: no nerve damage, which is pretty incredible considering how much the spinal cord is compressed.

Pre-op tests today, surgery on Thursday. He’ll be pulling the disk, dropping in some cadaver bone to fuse the vertebrae, and putting in a titanium plate to hold everything in place. Here’s how far this kind of work has come in the past few years: it’ll be done as outpatient surgery. Cost-cutting is probably part of the reason, but my spine won’t be laid open to do this. They’ll go in through an incision on the front of my neck, go past the windpipe and esophagus, and take care of everything from there. Not as much chance for infection, much less damage to surrounding tissues (just some rooting around), and because of all the preliminary tests, no surprises for the surgeon. He’ll be digging around, cutting and attaching for forty-five minutes to an hour, and later in the day I’m heading home. What times we live in.