Check Out My Latest X-Rays :: Bruce Snyder's Status

Posted by: Bruce Snyder on May 17, 2015

On Friday, I paid a visit to my neurosurgeon and I have x-rays to show off! 

My neurosurgeon was happy to see me because it was the first time that he had seen me walking. He happily greeted me at the front desk which doctors almost never do, he just happened to be there when I walked in. It made me feel pretty good that my surgeon was so happy to see me. After all, this guy sees lots and lots of people who have had surgery. He said he was happy to see me walking because when I last saw him in November I was still in the wheelchair. 

Below you can see the two sets of x-rays -- one from the back and one from side. From both vantage points, you can easily see the hardware that was inserted. Even though I can feel the hardware in my back, it's still crazy for me to actually see it. Especially when I see how deep the screws go into each vertebrae. In the view from the back, you can also see the curve in my spine because the hardware is crooked. Oh well, I've been told that spinal surgery is more art than science -- sounds like writing code. 
Also, if you look closely you will see some little dots in between the L3 and L4 vertebrae. This is a plastic spacer and the dots are metal so it will show up in an x-ray. It's typical for the surgeon to insert a spacer in between the vertebrae in place of the disc that had to be removed (the disc was so badly damaged that they had to scrape it out). The spacer keeps the vertebrae the proper distance apart as the bone grows and fills in the space. According to the surgeon, the bone growth between the two vertebrae looks really good.

Based on  my recovery and the state of healing in my spine, the surgeon told me that he doesn't want to see me for a year! He said that he feels that I'm ahead of the curve and that I should keep doing everything I'm doing. Yay! 
Bruce Snyder's complete blog can be found at: http://bruceblog.org/
Bruce Snyder

About Bruce Snyder

Bruce Snyder has a unique skill set with a deep background in software architecture and engineering and the ability to liaise with the business side. With nearly 20 years of professional experience in enterprise and open source software, Bruce has a passion for creative problem solving, a strong work ethic and the ability to bridge the gap between business leaders and software development teams.

Bruce is a member of the Apache Software Foundation and has worked on several Apache projects. He has also authored books on Apache ActiveMQ, the Spring Framework, Apache Maven and Apache Geronimo, spoken at numerous software conferences and has helped to build communities around open source software.