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Amit bent over his laptop. His call with his peers and juniors was close to completion and he delegated work to his juniors. As a product manager it was his job to assess the needs of the company and co-ordinate with various stakeholders and deliver what the client required.
Glad to have done his bit, he slammed his laptop shut and got to his bed. He sat at the head of the bed and dropped his neck to focus on the WhatsApp messages that he missed during his 10 hour shift. Having had a little banter with his old classmates he then turned to scroll to Instagram. His new smartphone had this unique user interface that seemed to constantly be updated to keep his interest in the small screen.
While he keyed in messages into his phone, he suddenly felt his fingers slipping. They seemed to not feel the weight of the phone.
He kept the phone aside and then decided to get himself a glass of water. He took a bottle of water from the fridge and began pouring the water into a glass when he couldn’t feel the solid surface of the glass. He brushed it aside, called it a day and went to sleep.
The next morning, he had to be at work, given the new rules after the pandemic. He sat in his squeaky office chair. The office was sparsely filled, the teams taking turns in presenting themselves for work at different times during the week.
While he started typing into the laptop, he realized he had pain over the back of his neck. He suddenly felt the pain radiate to his fingers. He felt a numbness over his fingers and a tingling sensation from his neck all the way to his forearms.
This was when he became concerned. What was happening to him?
“Your neck has nerves that supply your arms and forearms, as well as your back. But that isn’t the end of it. The spinal cord that supplies the upper limbs also transmits nerve impulses to your lower limbs. Let’s say with repeated compression of the spinal cord over your neck, or any injury that can happen to it such as bleeding or oedema, the nerve impulses can be affected, and it can lead to quadriplegia, meaning paralysis of both your arms and legs.” The Neurosurgeon that Amit consulted said.
“But I haven’t suffered any injury or trauma. How is this happening to me?” Amit said, concerned.
“Poor posture is the reason. See, the normal posture of the neck is a gentle curve with its concavity facing posteriorly. Once you bend down a lot over the phone or the laptop, this curve over the cervical spine is lost. There is increased stress on the cervical spine. Every time you bend your neck and for every inch you bend, it can double or triple the load on the cervical spine. The nerves arising from the spinal cord are stretched. The upper back muscles constantly work harder to balance your head which is being pulled down by gravity. All these lead to spinal degeneration” the Neurosurgeon patiently explained.
“What is this called? What will I have to undergo if this gets worse?” Amit asked.
“What we are concerned about is if you have an Intervertebral Disc Prolapse. Basically, in between the vertebral bones of your neck, there are cartilages known as intervertebral discs. Once these protrude behind and impinge on the spinal cord, they can cause the symptoms as you have described to me. You probably also have headaches and shoulder pain, yes?”
Amit nodded.
“We’ll have a look at the MRI to identify what changes are occurring. If you do have a disc prolapse, and if that is serious enough, then we would do a surgery called the Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF). We would make a small incision over the neck, we will remove the damaged disc and fuse the adjacent vertebrae together. This will relieve the pressure over the spinal cord and nerves”, the Neurosurgeon counselled.
“Will I be awake during the surgery?” Amit asked, worry writ large over his face.
To answer his question, Neurosurgeries are conducted with the aid of Neuroanaesthesiologists who manage complex brain and spine surgeries. The movements of his neck are to be monitored carefully and anaesthesia is given safely for cervical spine surgeries once a tube for breathing is inserted into the patient’s windpipe while the patient is awake. Additional local anaesthesia is given and this process is called an Awake Fibreoptic Intubation. Once this is done, general anaesthesia is given and the patient enters into a deep sleep during the spine surgery.
“It’s time to take care of your neck”, the Neurosurgeon smiled.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint