My Second Life Changing Event, Part 3

So, the doctor tells me in no uncertain terms that my neck was broken. I knew this, but nobody else seemed to realize it. He told me that they were going to have to operate. And that I was looking at a long recovery. That part concerned me.

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As you may have figured out, this was a while ago. I was 23 years old and recovering from PTSD from my first life changing experience (I am working on the courage to blog about that one). I was living back at home with mom and dad due to that same incident, but had my whole life ahead of me. I realized quickly just what a C2 burst fracture meant. It is commonly called a hangman's fracture. For those of you without medical knowledge, the C2 vertebra surrounds the brain stem. The brain stem is responsible for some of the minor body functions of the human body. It controls things like blood pressure, breathing, heart rate, and sleeping. Nothing major...really...Unfortunately (or fortunately), I had enough medical knowledge left over from anatomy class to know how lucky I was. I was scared. But I was a pretty smart kid with a huge survival instinct and knew when I needed to put fear aside and be rational. I also had a dad who I adored and who worried about me. He was 72 years old and I knew that I needed to be strong for him.

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The doctor consulted with an orthopaedic specialist and came back into the room. He explained what he saw on the x ray and the CT scan. He said that the muscles and tendons were still attached to the vertebra, which literally exploded into many pieces when the car hit me. None of these pieces had damaged either the brain stem or the spinal cord. But he was concerned about the placement of one shard, which was along side the brain stem. He talked about the dangers of swelling and pressure and ANY movement whatsoever. He then proceeded to tell me that there was a VERY small chance traction could pull the pieces back together. He was not confident and stated that he would give it about a 3 to 5 % chance of success. I told him that I would like to try it and see. He told me that he was willing to try it for 24 hours and then re-evaluate, but if there was not a dramatically positive change, we would have to revisit the surgical plan. I agreed.

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Then, for the first time in HOURS, I was allowed to sit up. The neck brace was still on and there was a doctor and 2 very well built, completely mouth watering male nurses. At least I think they were nurses...techs...someone!! I was still in shock I think, was in a bit of a fog from the pain meds, but was quite lucid and still logical enough to discuss treatment options with the doctor. I was excited to be able to sit up. Everyone was very very careful and kept warning me not to move my neck, reminding me of the shard that was resting against my brain stem (as if I had forgotten!), reminding me of the sensations I needed to watch out for (racing heart rate, feeling short of breath or dizzy).

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In my excitement over being off the backboard after hours and being able to sit up and watching these two cute guys who suddenly appeared in the room, I had forgotten what was coming next. I had seen a young man in high school who had a halo. I knew what it looked like (weird) and new basically what it entailed. Well, guess what? I was SOOO not prepared to have 4 screws screwed into my skull!! I quickly realized what the 2 nurses/techs were there for. Those cute SOB's had the job of screwing those screws into my skull. The pain? INTENSE!! There were 2 of them working so they could finish as quickly as possible. (And to restrain me if they had to so I couldn't hurt myself.) I realize that now. I asked them to stop for a moment so I could catch my breath, but they didn't. It felt like my head was in a vise and being tightened. The absence of control terrified me (they didn't stop when I asked them to -- see PTSD above). I clenched my eyes closed and held my breath through the whole thing. The 2 nurses/techs? No longer adorable or mouth-watering...it's amazing how one's view of someone can change simply by them screwing some big screws into your skull!

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They then transferred me to my room. I could finally be with my mom and dad. It was about 10:00 at night I think, a good 12 hours after the accident. I was given more pain meds and muscle relaxers put into traction. My doctor called radiology. They took their time showing up and he went to see another patient. Fortunately my mother was there. While I remember the event clearly, I was not speaking well at that time. The shock was wearing off and I was cold and was shivering, teeth chattering. The pain meds had me feeling spacy and somewhat comfortable. I was in some private distress from the whole halo experience, which made me shut down somewhat emotionally.

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So, radiology shows up. Two young techs are talking, trying to figure out how to do an x-ray of me while I am in traction. My mom is just sitting there, listening politely. At first. Then these two techs decide that they would simply take me out of traction, put me in a wheelchair, and just take me to x-ray!! I remember the instant thought of "these stupid techs are going to kill me." Then my mom spoke up. She wasn't polite. She sent them to the charge nurse with their idea. She kicked them out of the room and then went to the nurses station and had the doctor paged. Apparantly, they spoke to the charge nurse, who called their supervisor. Together the four of them had a discussion about the pros and cons of their idea. Then the techs were reminded that they had a portable x-ray machine that they could use... (DUH!)

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(yep, part 4 is coming)