Background

Background

I am 42 years old and although a bit overweight am in good health. Before the operation, I cycled everyday regularly doing journeys of 75 km each day. I walked 3 times a week of distances of around 6km. I’m a teacher and spent most of my working life sedentary behind a desk or sitting on a chair in the classroom.  While on a bike ride about 6 weeks ago I stopped to change a puncture. When I got up from changing the inner tube my back started to hurt. When I got home the pain had increased significantly and I found it difficult to move. I iced my back and assumed it would go away fairly soon. After struggling another day with this I decided to go to the doctor. I arrived at the BNH on Soi Convent, Bangkok and went to the Spine Centre. I met with Dr Eakpatipan, an Orthopaedic and Spinal Surgeon, who did a physical evaluation and then sent me for an x ray. The xray came back and his diagnosis was I had spinal canal stenosis L4 -5. However, to be clear, he would need to do an MRI. I couldn’t do the MRI on that day as I needed to get insurance clearance so booked it for a few days later. I went back and had the MRI. This was my first time for an MRI and the whole experience was very strange. I wasn’t expecting it to be so noisy. It was rather claustrophobic but I soon got used to it. I lasted for about 25 minutes and altogether it was painless. I returned to the doctor and he confirmed his initial suspicions. He recommended I have surgery. The surgery I was to undergo is called laminectomy decompression L4 -5 with fixation and fusion L4 -5. He initially scheduled me for 4 days in the future and I agreed.

However after a think I decided that with something of this nature I would be better off getting a second opinion. My wife’s friend knew a well renowned back surgeon who worked at a respected hospital in the city. I went to visit him and he agreed with the initial diagnosis. This was a strange feeling as I felt relieved that the first doctor was right however it did mean I now needed to go through with the operation. I went back to Dr Eakpatipan and rescheduled, however I decided to give myself a bit more time to prepare and have a short holiday before going under the knife.  

During this period I searched the internet for stories, information and anything I could get my hands on to do with the operation. I had another consultation two weeks before with Dr Eakpatipan and received information about what to expect and what to prepare for my stay in hospital.