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EMERGENCY: Cauda Equina Advice
Waylay
Member Posts: 949 Pioneering
Friend just called me. Her slipped disc suddenly got a lot worse today. Severe back pain, increasing numbness in one leg, starting to lose control of bladder. She's in the hospital, and the docs say she has Cauda Equina (CE). They want to operate tonight. She's alone and on a lot of pain meds, there's a 20% failure rate for the surgery, and she's a dancer, so if she has a bad outcome it would end her career. She wants me to do a bit ofof research and see if there's any other way to treat CE that has good outcomes.
I know a lot about back surgery and bad backs, and as far as I know Cauda Equina due to a slipped disc requires surgery within 24-48 hours or you risk neurological damage. I've already told her that I think she should follow the doctor's advice, but she says she'll feel less anxious if I look around a bit first.
I'm off to read some journal papers, but if anyone has experience of CE, CE surgery, and/or other treatments fir CE, please let me know?
I know a lot about back surgery and bad backs, and as far as I know Cauda Equina due to a slipped disc requires surgery within 24-48 hours or you risk neurological damage. I've already told her that I think she should follow the doctor's advice, but she says she'll feel less anxious if I look around a bit first.
I'm off to read some journal papers, but if anyone has experience of CE, CE surgery, and/or other treatments fir CE, please let me know?
Replies
As an individual I stood alone.
As a member of a group I did things.
As part of a community I helped to create change!
I didn't get the surgery until 3 months later. Luckily it helped. I still have some nerve damage but it did improve a lot. So hopefully your friend will have a speedy recovery. I'm an ex dancer but it's not my spine that prevents me from doing that, it's my disability in general. Fingers crossed for her.