Re: tethered on both sides/arachnoiditis

[Guest guest]

I wonder......if you have Tethered Cord with or without a

Detethering.........does that mean you

automatically have Arachnoiditis? One thing leads to another, kind of

thing......... Maybe it

is something that hasn't been proven yet, but could it be true?

Brande

mymocha@...

> If it uses the term " arachnoiditis " then I would say that it what it is.

> Arachnoiditis is on the nerve roots. There are varying degrees.

>

> As far as what is causing deterioration - tether vs arachnoiditis - there

> really isn't a way to tell the difference. Its kind of like any spine

> problem - tether, arachnoiditis, spondylothesis, etc - they all have the

> same symptoms.

>

> Also, if you have arachnoiditis, you can do surgery to remove the

> adhesions.

> But it is debatable as to effectiveness in the long term. With

> arachnoiditis, the more you go in and mess with things, the more adhesions

> and inflammation that happens. Because I have arachnoiditis, even if I

> were

> to retether, I would really have to think about another surgery, since it

> would likely make my arachnoiditis worse. That is also what happened with

> my

> third surgery. I didn't really have time to do a lot of research about it

> before my third surgery. My second was in December. I was losing function

> rapidly and only barely able to walk and not able to drive by April. The

> cause was hydrosyringomyelia. But, going into fix that only aggravated my

> arachnoiditis.

>

> Arachnoiditis makes everything else tougher when it comes to making

> surgical

> decisions.

>

[Guest guest]

Tethered cord and arachnoiditis are two different conditions. TC doesn't

necessarily lead to arachnoiditis. There are people who have had multiple

untetherings w/o developing arachnoiditis. Personally, I think mine was

caused by the bovine pericardium dural graft that was used in my first

surgery. My body did NOT like it and reacted horribly to it. Basically, my

body identified it as something foreign and did what the body does to try

and protect itself - encapsulate it in scar tissue. It caused MASSIVE

amounts of scar tissue. My nsg said it looked like someone poured bottles of

super glue in my back. Far more than he ever anticipated based on the MRIs.

It think it also caused the arachnoiditis (or at least contributed to it).

Jenn

>

>

> I wonder......if you have Tethered Cord with or without a

> Detethering.........does that mean you

> automatically have Arachnoiditis? One thing leads to another, kind of

> thing......... Maybe it

> is something that hasn't been proven yet, but could it be true?

>

> Brande

> mymocha@...

>

>

> > If it uses the term " arachnoiditis " then I would say that it what it is.

> > Arachnoiditis is on the nerve roots. There are varying degrees.

> >

> > As far as what is causing deterioration - tether vs arachnoiditis - there

> > really isn't a way to tell the difference. Its kind of like any spine

> > problem - tether, arachnoiditis, spondylothesis, etc - they all have the

> > same symptoms.

> >

> > Also, if you have arachnoiditis, you can do surgery to remove the

> > adhesions.

> > But it is debatable as to effectiveness in the long term. With

> > arachnoiditis, the more you go in and mess with things, the more

> adhesions

> > and inflammation that happens. Because I have arachnoiditis, even if I

> > were

> > to retether, I would really have to think about another surgery, since it

> > would likely make my arachnoiditis worse. That is also what happened with

>

> > my

> > third surgery. I didn't really have time to do a lot of research about it

> > before my third surgery. My second was in December. I was losing function

> > rapidly and only barely able to walk and not able to drive by April. The

> > cause was hydrosyringomyelia. But, going into fix that only aggravated my

> > arachnoiditis.

> >

> > Arachnoiditis makes everything else tougher when it comes to making

> > surgical

> > decisions.

> >

>

>

>