David

As most of you know, David had an accident during his soccer game last weekend. He was going to block a ball (he's a goal keeper) and was hit in the forehead with someone's knee.  Besides getting a concussion his head was knocked backwards leaving him unconscious and initially with no feeling in his hands. After waking up, the pins and needles came and then changed to severe burning pain in his hands. So much that you couldn't tough his hands at all.

The paramedics were called, a neck brace was put on his neck, and he was taken to the ER in New Orleans. I was not at the game and was called when the ambulance was on its way. I rushed in from Hammond to find him in the ER very scared and upset. He truly thought he broke his neck. As it turns out there were no breaks or fractures (!) but his spinal cord was is bruised.

Three days later he was being wheeled down to the OR for anterior cervical discectomy fusion. Basically, they went in through the front of his neck, removed a disc, and fused two of his vertebrae together.  He had numerous bone spurs in his spine as well as minimal space in his vertebrae all of which was putting pressure on his spinal cord. When his head snapped back, it 'pinched' his cord, bruising it.  All of that has been cleaned out now, but he still may need to have this done on the vertebrae below these two that were fused together. He won't be happy about that.

He did get some immediate relief in his hands after the surgery, and they've gotten a tad better since being home, but he is still dealing with some pins and needles and some pain in his hands. His biggest complaint is pain across both shoulders and back. 

He has a follow-up appointment Monday, so we'll see what the doctor says at that time.