It has been 2 months since my Sept 10th 2009 Tarlov Cyst operation.  I am PAIN FREE, and walking.

Let me say that again – from the minute I came out of surgery right up until today, I have been 100% pain free.

Yes, there is discomfort due to the healing process after the operation, BUT NO PAIN, NADA! No pills, nothing!!!

This is what a successful Tarlov cyst operation should be like.

Jim has been doing all of the work, since my discharge from the hospital. He’s been a Godsend.

I work on my computer, while sitting on a sofa chair in our office.  Since my Tarlov cysts were located down at the S1 and S2, I need a soft cushion to sit on it at all times.  Jim had bought me a medical donut pillow, which has been great, also for going out to restaurants because the chairs are hard.

Right now, I am able to sit without the donut  pillow for hours. I was able to even clean the kitty litter box, which was a great feeling! I can bend!

With the passing of each day, I can feel my butt muscles getting stronger.  I do my own personal exercises where I flex my butt muscles several times. It’s a great feeling, as the progress I am making is visible to everyone, despite my very own impatience.

My last visit to Dr Maya’s office was in October 2009. I showed Dr Maya the one little wound, which was right at the top of the incision, and he advised Jim to pour hydrogen peroxide over it and keep it bandaged.  The length of the scar, from my tail on up is about 5 inches.

Dr Maya proclaimed: “You are cured, no need for any more visits.  Jim, I have told you how to heal the wound, and if you need to see me, just come in to my office! And, MaryAnn, make sure you don’t life heavy things yet”

I have kept to a fish diet.  There is a great seafood restaurant, not far from our casa, called Sonorense.  We go there often. Jim has a huge shrimp cocktail, followed by a steak and fries, while I stick to the delicious tomato-based steamed halibut and rice. For now, that’s the only seafood I am going to eat -  I stick to fish to avoid getting any keliods!

The weather is getting chilly here in Mexicali, up in the 80s during the day, and in the mid 40s at night.  I am glad I had my operation in September, as this Tarlov cyst operation is no walk in the park.  It would be extra tough for me to have such an operation in winter.

I take my donut pillow with me, whenever I go out now.  I’m taking no chances.  I can walk all over our home, and wherever we go – pain free. I can now wash the dishes, and even did a little dance with Jim at the Sinapsis Café.

Jim and I watched the great game between the New England Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts. Me sitting in my recliner chair, which Jim bought from our friend, Jorge, at his 2nd hand furniture shop, for $100. How can you beat that price?

Jim is getting me into football and I read an article where Tom Brady the Patriots Quarterback had a knee injury, and it took him up to a year to get back into shape, and to get his energy back. I felt darn good, reading that.  It means that the body needs all the time to heal up the outside and the inside wounds and it even takes time for a young guy like Brady to get his full energy back.

Jim and I were really disappointed over the coach’s bad call on 4th down, which cost New England the came which they had already “won.” Jim said, “Look’s darn suspicious to me – wonder if the New England coach was getting a little cash for that?”

Matthew returns from Vermillion, South Dakota, in a couple of days.  He was there to visit with family and friends, and collect the rest of his suitcases.  The South Dakota weather at 25 degrees freezing is too cold for him now, after having acclimated himself to sunny Mexicali.  Great— Jim and Matthew will cook the Thanksgiving turkey!  I can’t wait.

Our kids are not coming down; they don’t plan to travel, with the bad economy in the U.S. They are staying glued to their jobs.

I will continue to update everyone on my progress.

Thursday morning, September 10th – A nurse came in at 7:00am and inserted an IV drip into my right hand. “Getting ready for your operation,” she said. Mentally, I was ready and excited about this whole procedure.

At 8:45am,  the nurses came in with a gurney and transferred me from my bed to the gurney.  This was it!

Jim had arrived early to keep me company, and waited in my room, while I was wheeled out and into the operating room.

There, waiting for me were a neurosurgeon, two anesthetists, and two nurses.

Dr. Carlos Maya, my spine surgeon was outside, in the hallway, speaking to someone. The doctors and the nurses were dressed in green scrubs.

“Buenos dias,” I smiled. “Buenos dias,” they all answered returning my smile.

The two nurses started to wrap my lower legs with gauze bandages and fitted each leg with a dark blue Velcro-like stocking to hold the bandages up.

Dr. Fernando, the anesthetist, spoke English to me, asking me how I liked Mexicali.

“I live here in Mexicali,” I answered. He was surprised at that, and we continued to chit chat about life and food in Mexicali.

As Dr. Maya entered the operating room also dressed in green scrubs, everyone fell silent.

Dr. Maya sat down next to me and said, “MaryAnn, I will make sure the cyst is out, and that you will have no pain. Don’t worry – everything will be fine.”

As soon as Dr. Maya finished speaking, Dr. Fernando showed me two syringes, saying, “Which one would you like, the one to put you to sleep, or the epidural?” He looked at me and said, ” I suggest the one to put you to sleep.”

I agreed. Dr. Fernando said, “You will have no pain, as I will inject the anesthetic into your IV drip.

In no time, I was out.

Three hours later, I woke up in the recovery room. There was no headache, and no side effects. I felt great!

Jim was standing just outside the room peering in. “MaryAnn, Dr. Maya found a second cyst, one inch long – you had twins, Honey,” he smiled.

Here in Mexicali, the doctors keep their patients in the recovery room for at least two hours to make sure that they are fine before returning them to their rooms.

At 3:00pm, I was wheeled back to my room and transferred to my bed. “You did just great, Honey!” Jim kissed my forehead and grinned.

The first thing I did was wiggle my toes – yippee! They all worked!

“Jim, I have no more pain,” I said, sleepily.

“Wow, that is amazing, MaryAnn! Dr. Maya is a genius!”

There were now three tubes coming out of me, my IV, a tube from my spine to drain the blood, and a catheter for the bladder.

Through the IV, I was given pain medicine, antibiotics, and medicine to calm my tummy.

For the rest of the day, I slept.

When I awoke to have a light dinner, Jim was there. He had arranged to feed our pets, and decided to spend the night in the room with me, sleeping on the sofa.

Jim and I slept very well that night. Jim was relieved that everything had gone so well, and, for the first time in 13 years, I had no pain in my back.

Around 9:30am the next morning, Dr. Maya came to pay me a visit. He explained that, in addition to the cyst we knew about which was about half and inch long, he had found a second, larger, cyst about an inch long.

He then looked me over and removed the small plastic tube draining blood from behind my spine by simply pulling it out very slowly.

When he was finished, Dr. Maya wrote out a prescription for an anti-inflammatory, a pain killer, and an antibiotic, and told me I could go home, anytime, but that I had to rest in bed for four weeks. The healing was important, especially the internal healing. The two cysts were in the middle of spinal nerves, and if scar tissue formed there, it could push on the nerves, causing pain.

“You come to see me at my office on September 25th,” he said.

“Dr. Maya,” I said, “you are a genius – thank you so much!”

Dr. Maya looked at me, and pointing upwards with his finger, said, “No, it’s God.”

I have been plagued with a back pains since 1996. Originally, a doctor had prescribed Soma to relieve the pain. Later, as the pain increased, and Soma did not help, I had treatments of steroid shots from a new doctor in the States.

First, I had three steroid shots in my neck, and that helped, but not for too long. I then had another three shots into my lower back which relieved the pain, but only temporarily.

None of my U.S. doctors made any attempt to diagnose the cause of my condition.

It was only when we came to live in Mexicali that I was diagnosed with scoliosis (curvature of the spine) in 2008.  I had an MRI taken of my lower back, due to my increasing back pains here in Mexicali. My spine surgeon, Dr Carlos Maya, detected a slight scoliosis, but thought my condition might be due to a herniated disc. At the time, it did not appear to be so serious as to operate. (I covered this in my prior page, “Healthcare we couldn’t afford in America.”)

After that visit to Dr. Maya, my back pain continued to worsen, and my ability to use my left leg was getting less and less. My lower back was in burning pain and there was numbness, tingling sensation from my lower back all the way down to my left leg.

This change in my ability to walk frightened me. I was disintegrating rapidly.

Now, in 2009, I went to see Dr Carlos Maya again and he sent me off for another MRI.

After collecting my new MRI, my husband, Jim, and I arrived at Dr Maya’s a bit early, at 6:00pm. We also had the results of my blood test for Dr. Maya. His waiting area was swamped with patients.

In Mexico, you don’t make an appointment with your doctor (and wait a couple of months like in the U.S.) – you just go to his office.

As usual Dr. Maya’s reception room was swamped with patients.  We waited and, finally, at 7:00pm the receptionist said it was our turn to see the doctor.

Dr. Maya greeted us with his usual friendly attitude, a nice comparison to the grave attitude of some of my U.S. doctors.

He took a quick look at the results of my blood test, and said, “Good.” He then took a look at my MRI and after a brief inspection said, “You have a Tarlov Cyst.  See this white spot right here…that’s a cyst on your spine.  That cyst may have been your problem, all along.”

Dr. Maya then opened the radiologist’s written MRI report. It confirmed what Dr. Maya had seen – that I had a Tarlov Cyst.

“You know, this is a very rare condition, “said Dr. Maya. I have seen it only twice in twenty years.”

“To be sure where the pain is coming from, I want you to have a nerve conduction test,” said Dr. Maya, writing down a referral, “and see where the pain in your back is coming from for me to operate. You will see Dr. Zazueta – this is very important!”

Well, I was in a state of shock, and so was Jim.  I had a cyst in my lower spine!

I had never heard of a nerve conduction test. It sounded like a great idea, especially since it could determine where the pain was coming from.

On Saturday, Jim took me to Dr. Zazueta’s office. Even though the nerve conduction test involved sticking some small needles in my back, it was not painful.

Jim collected results of my nerve test from Dr. Zazueta on Monday, September 7th, Labor Day, but it was not Labor Day in Mexico.

With the test results, we went to see Dr. Maya at 7:00pm. As usual, his waiting room was filled with patients – patients with arm slings, patients with canes like me, a woman who had her neck in a brace, a young boy with a bandaged left hand, all waiting to see Dr. Maya. There were patients holding onto their MRIs, sealed in big flat brown paper envelopes.

There was also an Englishman waiting for his turn. Jim started talking to him. The fellow works in Mexicali, and had a back operation done by Dr Maya, and was waiting for his final checkup. He was very pleased with his operation.  His wife, a Mexican lady, and new baby were there with him. Even the baby was smiling.

There were so many people that the receptionist had to bring in more chairs.

I was looking forward Dr Maya’s explanation of just what my nerve conduction tests showed.

Finally, our turn came. Dr Maya opened the sealed envelope from Dr. Zazueta, and confirmed that my “new friend,” the Tarlov Cyst was giving me all the excruciating pain from my lower back down to my swollen left leg.

Just like a nerve irritating a tooth, my Tarlov Cyst was sitting between nerves on my spine! Dr Maya made me lie down on the couch, and did his own nerve test.  He checked both of my lower legs, with a sharp object, and asked: “Which leg feels this pinch? Right leg or left leg?”

I said, “My right leg feels the sharp prick – the left leg not so much.”

“That is consistent with your tests,” said Dr Maya as he helped me off the couch, and back to my chair.

“Are you ready to have the operation?” Dr. Maya asked.

“Yes, Dr Maya.  Right now, I am in so much pain, this is no life,” I said.

“Dr  Maya, I want to check into the hospital as soon as possible.  At this point in my life, I am in so much pain, that I find it difficult to walk.  The medications that I am on, especially the cortisone pills have made me into a bloated moonfaced person. What day do you think will be good for you to operate on me?”

“Thursday morning, at 9:00pm is a good time. Wednesday, I will be going to Tijuana, to do an operation and I will be back in the late afternoon. Yes, Thursday will be fine.” said Dr Maya.

I couldn’t help but think of an American lady with a similar condition. She has a blog, too. She called a specialist, and he did not return the call for five weeks. When he did, he gave her instructions as to what tests she must take and to “send them in.” The poor lady is dealing, at least so far, with a voice on the telephone. All I can say is “Viva Mexico.”

“Can I check in Wednesday evening?” I asked Dr. Maya.

“Yes, or Thursday morning – it’s up to you,” he answered.

Since my operation was scheduled for early morning, Jim and I agreed that it would be best to check in the evening before.

Dr. Maya recommended a not-so-expensive hospital, as the operating room was just as good as those in the big name hospitals here.

Jim and I wanted to save money, but I really did not know what to expect of a “not-so-expensive” hospital. Still I had faith in Dr. Maya’s recommendation.

Wednesday evening, I packed a bag, and Jim drove me to the hospital – Centro Quirurgico del Vallee, or Valley Surgical Center.

The hospital was a small, one-story affair. I noticed that the reception room was immaculate as Jim checked me in.

After checking in, a nurse walked us down a beautiful hallway, and into a large immaculate private room, with a private bath – WOW!

“What’s this? The Waldorf,” said Jim as he looked around.

Jim stayed for awhile, but didn’t know if he could sleep over, so he went home.

After Jim left, was I afraid? Yes! I had no idea of how I would come out of the operation. I had heard of so many cases where such operations did little to reduce the pain. I was also worried that something might go wrong. We were dealing with spinal nerves. Would I walk again?

Stay tuned – I hope to see you all on the other side of my operation.