Age: 59.0
Sex: M
Vaccine: COVID19
Symptoms: Sciatica, Spinal X-ray abnormal, Spinal fusion surgery, Spinal laminectomy, Wound
Clinical narrative: In November of 2022, I developed back pain if I stood still for more than ten minutes. If I stood still for more than ten minutes, I would get a sciatica type pain starting in my left buttock. The pain would go away instantly as soon as I started moving. I could do all other activities, even running. The pain continued for several weeks. I called my doctor who performed an x-ray and prescribed physical therapy. The x-ray showed degenerative disc disease in my lumbar. I did physical therapy twice. The day after my second physical therapy, I was doing my stretches and exercises at home. However, the next morning, I couldn't move. I couldn't lay down or walk more than a few steps. All I could do was sit in a leaning forward position. On 12/25/2022, I went to the emergency room where they did an MRI which showed a disc protrusion on L5 and S1. It was hitting the L5 nerve which was most likely causing my pain. There were a couple of discs above that were bulging as well, but it was the disc protrusion that was most severe. They prescribed a six-day course of steroids which didn't do anything. They also prescribed a muscle relaxer which also didn't help. They then started me on a ten-day steroid pack. I went back to the emergency room on 1/12/2023 because the pain had gotten so bad that I couldn't even take a few steps. They were trying to manage the pain with oxycodone, PERCOCET, and TYLENOL. The only thing that ended up working was morphine, so they put me on a morphine pump. Because my only symptoms were pain, I was not a candidate for emergency surgery, I had to wait until 01/03/2023. In the meantime, my legs became very swollen due to not being able to move. My legs started to blister, and I developed large blisters on the top of my feet. I was finally able to go in for surgery, but they were worried about the blisters, so they lanced them. However, they filled up again, so they had to open them up and I had open wounds on my legs. They addressed that and took me to surgery. They did a laminotomy on L4 and L5 as well as a microdiscectomy and a fusion on L5 and S1. At the same time, when I was in the hospital on 01/12/2023, I was in atrial fibrillation, so they are trying to manage that. They were able to get my heart rate down which was up to 150 beats a minute or higher. They couldn't get me out of atrial fibrillation, but they were able to treat my heart rate with metoprolol. After surgery, the atrial fibrillation went away for a few days but came back with RVR. It didn't last long, but they were concerned I might be getting blood clots. They did a CT scan with dye and found that I did have blood clots which were already in my lungs. I had pulmonary embolism in both lungs, but I was asymptomatic. I was not having difficulty breathing or anything which the doctors found unusual. They put me on blood thinners and kept me in the hospital for observation. The atrial fibrillation went away again so they released me from the hospital on 01/31/2023 and prescribed LOVENOX injections. They are going to switch me to an ELIQUIS prescription, and I have multiple follow ups with varying doctors.