Facet Impingement

Posted by Kevin.......

Wednesday afternoon, during a very rough ride at 8,000 ft. over Iowa, I was doing a very good impression of a bobble head doll, when I felt a small pull in my neck followed by a faint burning pain down my back.


The pain grew and grew. By 1130PM I was totally overcome.

Stace drove me to the emergency room at Northfield General. I was sure that a vertebra disc had just shot out of my spine and lodged itself in my skull.

"Facet Impingement" was the diagnosis.

It seems that on either side of each vertebra, there are smaller bones or "facets" that fit together with the matching "facets" of the next vertebra.

Somewhere around the C-4 or C-5 vertebra, left side, my facets went misaligned and contacted a piece of spaghetti. Actually, it was a nerve running from my spinal column across my neck, and out to the top of my shoulder blade.

I wanted a large needle full of anesthesia to be plunged into my upper back right now! But instead, a mix of Vicodin and Ativan sent me on a visit with Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.

I lost Thursday forever. I have no memory of that day at all.

Friday, I apparently dug up some back yard plants and moved them to less than desirable locations in the back yard. I did this even though simply holding an object in my left hand or raising my left leg caused bright flashes of light in my skull and pain usually reserved for Civil War wounded.

When Stace came home from work Friday and asked what I did all day, I said, "I think I did yard work. Maybe I shouldn't have."