I am currently recoverying at Cleveland Clinic. I have several multiple levels of disc problems. I had C3-6 completed in 08, and work on T7-8 in 09. The T7-8 did not get much of the cord compression corrected. I came to cleveland to see what they could do. At first, they were not sure if they could get it. The went in an made the short turns to get in front of the spinal cord, behind the heart through the back. They cut out the part of the disc that was on the cord and put in a little amount of bone in its place. The other way to access this is to compress a lung, which is what my other drs wanted to do. I am glad Cleveland clinic could figure this one out. Looking forward to recovery.

Bless your heart, you must be sore as the devil!!! I'm so sorry you had to go thru this. I'm sure you know that this is a very touchy surgery and not too many surgeons can or WILL do this type surgery. You have to be darned to do this! I'm glad you went to Cleveland!

How long do you think you'll be in the hospital? I hope you'll have some help when you get home because you're going to need it! There are things you won't be able to do, and you won't feel like it either! lol.

Best of luck and take care of yourself! God bless, and thanks for letting us know how you're doing. Peace, Lee

Thanks Leesa,
I came home saturday. Currently taking constant pain meds. Taking it easy for awhile, lol. I can drive in 4 weeks. I will start some rehab next week. I am very hopeful that I will start to get some recovery of the weaker areas in a few weeks, at the earliest. I will see. It may take 6 months to see some of the benefits. I am just glad to get the spinal compression at T7-8 removed. There are other issues, but it should take 6-12 months to see how this will make improvements. These require long recovery periods to see the full benefits. Take care.

My gosh, I guess I didn't realize how long the recovery period would be. I know with 1st spinal surgery, I couldn't go back to work for 4 months! The 2nd one was about the same length of time, as I was an optician and on my feet constantly. But it sure didn't take almost a year!

You poor thing, you must have been in terrible shape. And of course, the thoracic area is a SUPER touchy place to have surgery anyway. That area moves with everything we do! How on earth are you getting any sleep or finding a comfortable position??? It was bad enough with lumbar surgery.

I hope you have some help. Do you have someone with you during the day to help you get things, etc? And at night??? I surely hope so.

Please keep us updated on your recovery, ok? You may never know how you're helping someone else in their decision to undergo this type of surgery. God bless and be careful! Hugs, Lee

I bet your just starting to feel a little normal like you have hope again. It was no joke of a surgery. I hope you take your time and do not over do it. I went to PT and worked very hard maybe too hard. I'm suggesting you be patient. It is good to hear you say you may be out of work a year. I did home daycare and was back to work in 4 months. No one will advise you so listen to your own body!!! Now I'm out of work for good probably. I don't know if that is why but I want to share what I wish I could change now. You have your whole life to work but only if YOU take to best care of your health. Best of healing to you.

I have an herniated extrusion in the exact same location t7-t8 and am experiencing the exact same problems. And no one wants to mess with the thoracic. I have a total of 7 herniated discs along my spine but the problematic ones are in the thoracic, DDD with compression fractures in thoracic. I have 3 horribly painful herniations in the thoracic, with t7-8 being the worst of them all!! I am a personal trainer & aerobic instructor (which the high impact classes seems to be making them worse right now) and I cannot tolerate the intense pain no longer. I'm finally being seen at Vanderbilt at the end of June. Already seen 2 more local to me - one wanted to do surgery the risky way deflating the lung & one didn't seem to think the herniations would get any worse (but they did). Another one didn't want to even see me once they knew the location.

I was wondering, could you tell me more about your symptoms, how long you went before finding a good surgeon, and how you finally found someone willing to help you? And how is your healing process? How are you doing??
Thanks!

Sorry I did not respond sooner. I finally found a Dr Bingaman at Cleveland Clinic who wanted to try an approach from the back without flattening a lung. They were not sure if they could make it. I was out of surgery in about 2.5 hrs and they were successful at removing the back side of the disk. They took some small bone they cut on the way in an put it in the space between the vertabras for support. I hope this helps. I would highly recommend Dr Bingaman.

I hope your recovery went well. I think that I may have the same issue. Below are my MRI results. Hopefully, someone can give me feedback on it.

1. Mild diffuse disc desiccation.
2. Disc extrusion at T7-T8 at the midline with both superior and inferior extension with mild thinning of the cord and mild myelomalacia.
3. No other areas of significant spinal canal or neural foraminal stenosis.

Hi all, yep, in the same boat, just finished 3 Epidurals, each were in a different T disc. I fell on the ice in December and I'm still trying to fix this. Pt, med's, shots, what next. The ESI's did not work. T7-8 is the worse, but I have a lot of that knawing, pulsating pain in T9-10. Wraps into my ribs so bad I can't even touch them. Sometimes I awake in early morn were the pain is in my abdomen... Just got out of hospital due to shallow, short breath, trying to get a second breath. Result's; my thoracic disc are causing it.
I go th CC myself in the PM dept. The head of dept is my doc. Anway, just had last epidural. no more for me. I have a SCS in right hip that controls all my lower back, but now it's in T and 1 in Cervical. Here's my CTScan, can't have MRI, with the SCS. If you know how to read these let me know if it's bad. Do you think I might have to have surgery? It's gotten me so upset, my stomach is turning flipflops. I'm a MESS! Please let me know what you think. Thanks

THORACIC
There is disk degeneration with spondylosis and posterior disk bulging
with associated remodelling of the bone and osteophytosis at its superior
and inferior margins

Specifically,

At T7-T8, there is moderate to large central mostly left-sided disk
extrusion with inferior migration with moderate flattening of the spinal
cord likely present

At T8-T9, there is moderate central disk protrusion or perhaps extrusion
with likely mild flattening of the spinal cord

At T10-T11, there is focal posterior spondylosis with likely mild to
moderate sided disk protrusion and perhaps some impression on the spinal
cord

At T11-T12, mild posterior disk osteophyte hypertrophy with mild canal
encroachment without gross spinal cord compression is suspected

No significant foramina encroachment noted

There is spinal cord stimulator with its leads entering the spinal canal
in the lumbar spine with two electrode wires, the tip terminating at
about the T8-T9


CERVICAL

DATE OF EXAM: Apr 15 2011 9:15AM

STC 0273 - CT CERVICAL SPINE WO CONTRAST / ACCESSION # 84870451

PROCEDURE REASON: THORACIC BACK PAIN
* * * * Physician Interpretation * * * *

RESULT:
HISTORY: Cervical and thoracic pain, patient has spinal cord stimulator

COMPARISON: None.

EXAMINATION: Spiral, high resolution axial images were obtained from the
skull base to the cervicothoracic junction with sagittal and coronal
planar reconstructions.

CT Dose-Length Product (DLP): 314 mGycm
CT Dose Reduction Employed: Yes
Radiation Shielding Employed: N/A

RESULTS:

Counting reference: Craniocervical junction.

Alignment: Alignment is anatomic.

Craniocervical junction: Craniocervical junction is normal.

Bone marrow signal/fracture: No evidence of a lytic or blastic process
in the visualized spine. No evidence of acute or chronic fracture.

Cervical soft tissues: The paraspinal soft tissues planes are
maintained.

Note made of left-sided wall up mastoidectomy

C2-C3: Canal and foramina are patent.

C3-C4: There is mild disk degeneration and left-sided disk osteophyte
hypertrophy , likely mild lateral thecal sac compression. Dominant left
facet joint hypertrophy. Minimal left foraminal encroachment

C4-C5: Mild posterior disk osteophyte hypertrophy ,bilateral facet joint
hypertrophy and mild right foramina encroachment and mild central spinal
canal encroachment

C5-C6: Mild posterior disk osteophyte hypertrophy with mild canal
encroachment to the left side and bilateral facet joint hypertrophy left
greater than right mild foraminal encroachment

C6-C7: Canal and foramina are patent.

C7-T1: Canal and foramina are patent.

IMPRESSION:

MILD CERVICAL SPONDYLOSIS C3-C4 TO C5-C6

DIFFUSE FACET CANNOT BETTER SEEN

MILD CANAL ENCROACHMENT C4-C5 AND C5-C6

MILD FORAMINAL ENCROACHMENT AS ABOVE

Hi all, yep, in the same boat, just finished 3 Epidurals, each were in a different T disc. I fell on the ice in December and I'm still trying to fix this. Pt, med's, shots, what next. The ESI's did not work. T7-8 is the worse, but I have a lot of that knawing, pulsating pain in T9-10. Wraps into my ribs so bad I can't even touch them. Sometimes I awake in early morn were the pain is in my abdomen... Just got out of hospital due to shallow, short breath, trying to get a second breath. Result's; my thoracic disc are causing it.
I go th CC myself in the PM dept. The head of dept is my doc. Anway, just had last epidural. no more for me. I have a SCS in right hip that controls all my lower back, but now it's in T and 1 in Cervical. Here's my CTScan, can't have MRI, with the SCS. If you know how to read these let me know if it's bad. Do you think I might have to have surgery? It's gotten me so upset, my stomach is turning flipflops. I'm a MESS! Please let me know what you think. Thanks

THORACIC
There is disk degeneration with spondylosis and posterior disk bulging
with associated remodelling of the bone and osteophytosis at its superior
and inferior margins

Specifically,

At T7-T8, there is moderate to large central mostly left-sided disk
extrusion with inferior migration with moderate flattening of the spinal
cord likely present

At T8-T9, there is moderate central disk protrusion or perhaps extrusion
with likely mild flattening of the spinal cord

At T10-T11, there is focal posterior spondylosis with likely mild to
moderate sided disk protrusion and perhaps some impression on the spinal
cord

At T11-T12, mild posterior disk osteophyte hypertrophy with mild canal
encroachment without gross spinal cord compression is suspected

No significant foramina encroachment noted

There is spinal cord stimulator with its leads entering the spinal canal
in the lumbar spine with two electrode wires, the tip terminating at
about the T8-T9


CERVICAL

DATE OF EXAM: Apr 15 2011 9:15AM

STC 0273 - CT CERVICAL SPINE WO CONTRAST / ACCESSION # 84870451

PROCEDURE REASON: THORACIC BACK PAIN
* * * * Physician Interpretation * * * *

RESULT:
HISTORY: Cervical and thoracic pain, patient has spinal cord stimulator

COMPARISON: None.

EXAMINATION: Spiral, high resolution axial images were obtained from the
skull base to the cervicothoracic junction with sagittal and coronal
planar reconstructions.

CT Dose-Length Product (DLP): 314 mGycm
CT Dose Reduction Employed: Yes
Radiation Shielding Employed: N/A

RESULTS:

Counting reference: Craniocervical junction.

Alignment: Alignment is anatomic.

Craniocervical junction: Craniocervical junction is normal.

Bone marrow signal/fracture: No evidence of a lytic or blastic process
in the visualized spine. No evidence of acute or chronic fracture.

Cervical soft tissues: The paraspinal soft tissues planes are
maintained.

Note made of left-sided wall up mastoidectomy

C2-C3: Canal and foramina are patent.

C3-C4: There is mild disk degeneration and left-sided disk osteophyte
hypertrophy , likely mild lateral thecal sac compression. Dominant left
facet joint hypertrophy. Minimal left foraminal encroachment

C4-C5: Mild posterior disk osteophyte hypertrophy ,bilateral facet joint
hypertrophy and mild right foramina encroachment and mild central spinal
canal encroachment

C5-C6: Mild posterior disk osteophyte hypertrophy with mild canal
encroachment to the left side and bilateral facet joint hypertrophy left
greater than right mild foraminal encroachment

C6-C7: Canal and foramina are patent.

C7-T1: Canal and foramina are patent.

IMPRESSION:

MILD CERVICAL SPONDYLOSIS C3-C4 TO C5-C6

DIFFUSE FACET CANNOT BETTER SEEN

MILD CANAL ENCROACHMENT C4-C5 AND C5-C6

MILD FORAMINAL ENCROACHMENT AS ABOVE