re: Anyone here have their neck broken and recovered? My brother broke his neck Update pag

Last summer I was having trouble getting my blood pressure regulated, I had lost a lot of weight and as a result it was running too low, 95/60 was common. One night I fell asleep in my recliner, my wife woke me up to go to bed (I'll skip on that logic), I took a few steps toward the kitchen and I just went down hard, hitting my neck on the granite countertop.

EMS came, put a hard collar on me and took me to ER. Over the next few hours I found out that I had fractured C3-C5 vertebrae. I was in severe pain, but not paralyzed, neurosurgeon came in, he told me he would operate on me the next morning putting the pieces back together with screws.

The next morning he came to my room a couple of hours later than I had expected him. He told me he had spent a lot of time going over my CAT scans and MRI, he found that none of the bone fragments were near nerves that might paralyze me, so instead of risking surgery, he wanted to keep me in a hard collar for 90 days, then do another CAT scan.

While 90 days in a hard collar was pure torture, it was the best alternative. He also told me that be on the lookout for collateral damage, for someone my age (72) to take a fall like that, usually other things get hurt too. Over the next few day I found out that I had aFib and some of the bone fragments were lodged against my esophagus, making it difficult to swallow.

I was in the hospital for a week mostly due to the pain, I refuse narcotics, but when I could at least sit up on my own, they released me. I was not allowed to lie down, so I had to sleep in my friend, the recliner.

Recovery: It's been a year, I will never have much mobility in my neck, I can't look up, left about 20 degrees, right about 5 degrees, there is no treatment that can make that better. I was able to drive again in January, but with my neck I plan my routes carefully to avoid looking right. I'm having a cardio ablation next week to get rid of aFib, the swallowing issue cleared up on its own.

There still is pain, but its not severe, I put it in the "others are much worse off" category. After 90 days I got out of the hard collar and 30 days in a foam one. I consider myself to be fortunate to not have any paralysis, I did a lot of PT, not sure if it helped a lot. The mental side it very important, I work out 3x a week and keep working so I don't fixate on the pain, everyone my age (73) has pain.

Good luck to you and your brother, having supportive family is a huge boost, try not to worry about his walking, what a person can do after a serious accident is a lot more important than what he can't do. It must be very difficult for you to see him in ICU on a ventilator.

Prayers to your whole family.