Hi Honey

[bmccasland]

Snap - glad to hear the recovery is going well. Have a good night's sleep in your own bed.

[Dogmama]

Not fair - I had to wear mine for ~ 6 weeks!

Seriously - big congrats. Let me know if your neck feels longer - mine did.

[snapdragen]

Oh yeah, neck feels stretched! I wonder what my height is, last time at the dr's it was 5' 5 1/2", maybe I'm back to 5' 6" now.

I still have to wear the collar if I go out -- riding in a car, walking. He said to slowly wean myself off of it. I find my neck gets sore after having it off for about an hour.

Dogmama, do you have hardware in your neck too? Maybe that's why I don't have to stay collared for 6+ weeks. Pic below, not my neck, I actually have 3 screws, this one only has 2.

[Dogmama]

Yup, I have hardware and an x-ray card to carry through airport security. They fused it with bone from my hip - you too? They fused C4-C6. I have lupus & sometimes that can mess with healing - if my body thinks the fusion is an enemy & decides to attack it - thankfully that didn't happen & that's a prime reason I used my own bone.

My doc tends to be anal retentive - he admits it. Orthopaedic surgery = sterile carpentry.

When do you start physical therapy?

[snapdragen]

Yup, I have hardware and an x-ray card to carry through airport security. They fused it with bone from my hip - you too? They fused C4-C6. I have lupus & sometimes that can mess with healing - if my body thinks the fusion is an enemy & decides to attack it - thankfully that didn't happen & that's a prime reason I used my own bone.

My doc tends to be anal retentive - he admits it. Orthopaedic surgery = sterile carpentry.

When do you start physical therapy?

Supposedly mine shouldn't set off the airport security, - guess I'll find out someday. My doc recomended cadaver bone for me, already cut, sized and sterilized. He knew I had enough with the pain, the hip harvesting would have put me over the edge.

Dr B won't let me think about PT until about 8 weeks out - so probably January? What kind of stuff do they do for therapy?

[crazycanuck]

That's way cool! So if i donate my body to science after I leave the planet, this is one benefit to someone else. Funky!

I certainly hope the US TSA acknowledges the x-ray cards etc..!!! Dogm, have you ever been hassled when you set the airport x-ray machine off??

[Trekhawk]

Glad to hear you got the collar off Snap. Im sure just getting a better sleep will help a lot. It can't have been fun sleeping in that thing. You are very brave Snap just the look of that Xray makes me feel a little queasy.

[Flybye]

It sounds like you have some great new Bionic parts - I am glad you are doing great.

I don't know if you remember or not but my DH had a major jaw surgery in January of this year and he has a plate and a bazillion screws - 17 I think. We went though airport security in with not even a tiny beep. He got in more trouble for trying to check 5 bottles of water though. I think he was hoping for more adventure - like meeting the sky Marshall over a bottle of Dasani.

Keep yer' neck up!