Cauda Equina Syndrome Discussion

My braces are just like the plastic ones.  They are starting to look loose and the straps are getting long.  I guess it's time for new ones.  Are the black braces more difficult in put on?

Boy, it's hot here in eastern PA,  going to 98 with high humidity

Well here is my CES story.
I had never heard of CES until the 16/11/12.I had been out bush to a aboriginal community called Yeuendumu working,its about 300kms north west of where I live, I got home on the Thursday 8/11/12 evening and had a very slight back pain,really nothing to worry about, during the night it got a bit worse but still nothing to bad. I got up in the morning, pain still there, had shower and went to work, all good. At about 10am the pain got a lot worse and was radiating down my left thigh, then I went to lift some equipment of the back of the ute and the pain was intense, I called my manager and told him I was going to ED. Arrived at ED and was seen by a nurse,by this stage I could not stand, instead of being seen by a doctor 2 physio therapists saw me, they tried to make me walk down a hall way,was not going to happen,then on bed where they pushed and pulled me, I was in the most unbelievable pain by this stage. I got home and lay on the lounge till Sunday afternoon,back to ED and this time I saw a doctor who told me that I had sciatica and I will be OK in a few days, no x-rays nothing, just sent home with some panadole for the intense pain. camped on the lounge unable to move till Thursday again back to ED pain was unbearable again sent home with sciatica,LOL, that afternoon I hobbled over to the kitchen sink to get a glass of water and then I had the most intense pain in my lower back and down I went, I crawled to the lounge room and rang my wife,who was at work, as there was noway I could drive, she turned up with a friend and I could not get into her car,so we rang an ambulance,this was the 16/1/12. back in ED they finally took some x-rays couldn't find anything wrong so then they did a CT scan and they found a aneurism on my right renal artery,so they admitted me with the plan to fly me to Adelaide in the next few days to fix said aneurism, latter that night I felt the strangest sensation starting from my left toes goping up my leg and across my groin and down my right leg, guess what, i was now PARALYZED from the waist down. So then the panic set in, Doctors everywhere nurses running around and me not having a clue what was going on. then woke up being wheeled down to a waiting Ambulance and to the airport and flown to Adelaide, emergency surgery, 2 weeks on the spinal ward then 6 months in rehab in Adelaide,1500kms from my home and my family,Christmas day was fun.
So here I am 8 months down the track, bowels don't work I self catheterize and I can not walk at all and I can stand for short periods of time if I'm holding onto something, my rehab consultant doubts very much if I will walk again as the damage to my nerves for being left untreated for so long is server. So there you have it in a nutshell as they say

P.S the aneurism has still not been fixed 

Butiki, that's another crazy CES story! I think there should be more awareness for CES detection beause it seems that most of the time the doctors don't even know what's going on. They say it'll go in a few days but the longer you wait, the worse your injury gets. I think if anyone gets symptoms as mentioned in here, the doctors should order an immediate x-ray. With any other injury with immediate paralyses you'll be treated within a matter of hours but due to the nature of how CES starts and worsens up, they don't take it as serious.

It's such a shame what we ll have gone through. I'm so lucky that I only waited 5 days for my surgery.  It's just not fair :-(

LOL bensan! Whenever someone asks me what happend I just say car accident. If they ask about the accident I just say it's a long story and leave it at that, unless I'm really bored.