Information – this is what people miss most here. You get to know that you are going to be operated and the name of your diagnosis, but nothing is explained to you. Of course, when a doctor says to you that everything is going to be ok, only a few of us are interested in what the whole health problem is about. Mostly we are just lucky that we are going to be ok again. In my case the problem was discovered too late, and also I was struggling with the system a lot. I had MRI and CT examination which confirmed my diagnosis – a hernia of TH6-7 which was already at that time 8 mm in my spinal cord and caused serious problems with breathing, but I had problems to find a surgeon who could operate on me. When I called to a place in which they operate such things, they told me, ok, you can come for a check-up in 3 or even more weeks. So, I had to wait, when I went there a surgeon had a look at my documentation and told me to come again in a month – in case of more problems I should have called earlier – I did that later, I almost begged for help – but I was told to come in a month.. Finally I was waiting 6 months this way – in the end I went to a private ambulance for a check-up and I paid for it (despite the fact I pay for my health insurance regularly every month) – after this I was finally approved for an operation. Before the first operation I was told not to be worried – this is normally operated and people usually go home after a week with no problems. So I was completely not ready for any complications or consequences… The only complication which was mentioned to me was a temporary limited movement of my right leg which I had an accident on as a child and where the main nerve was damaged, so I told myself that this is ok, I am already used for the fact the right leg can cause problems to me…
What I remember from the first moment after coming round from narcosis was terrible pain. Anybody who had ever experienced pain of ribbons knows what I am talking about. I was lying on my back and I wished I could lie on my right side, but I could not move my body because it hurt me a lot. After a while my surgeon came to see me and he asked me to move my legs. The right one was fine, but …. ups… I could not move the left one. I was told that it needed time until I could move it again. Later they took me for an X-ray which was a horrible experience as the lifted me up from the bed and put me on the table. I managed to start to move the left leg till the evening at least a little bit, so I was quite happy… However, my happiness was spoilt in just two days when they sent me for X-ray again and right after that another surgeon came to tell me that there is water in my lungs and they had to solve it with thoracic drain… This was when “a real fun” started ….