Re: Nearly 4 months and still in pain./Nerve Evaluation..

[Guest guest]

Hi Tom,

Good to hear from you again. Sounds like you're having a new plan of

attack. As I mentioned to you before, IF the MRI/diagnosis pinpoints

clearly what is wrong with your back, the OS can do wonderful things.

As for the nerve evaluation, this is pretty neat. They'll hook you up

with electrodes from top to bottom and then send tiny electrical

pulses in the foot/lower leg to stimulate the various lumbar nerves

(based on their associated skin area; did you check that website?)

and measure the response speed in various places all the way to your

head. If a nerve is pinched the travel time will be longer. Your pre-

op response profile is recorded. During surgery you're hooked up

again and they compare your response times continously with your pre-

op numbers to make sure that the OS is doing the proper thing.

I had this done for my 2nd back fusion exactly 10 yrs ago to fix the

sciatic pains in my right leg. BTW I'm having to work a lot harder

now with the hip rehab than after the back surgery when I was jogging

again at 3months post-op,playing singles tennis at 4. The leg/hip

muscle structure is so complicated!

Good luck and keep us informed.

Ed

Mont RC+ Nov 03

> Hey Gang,

>

> I just got off the phone with Dr Mont. I told him how I've

been doing

> everything I'm supposed to do ( electronic muscle stim/ warm water

exercises,

> etc). I said the muscles have gotten much stronger but I'm still in

pain when I

> stand. Also the cortisone shot in my hip really didn't do too

much . So he

> says now we need to look to my back which is what I was going to

suggest so I'm

> glad we're on the same page. He's going to send me orders for an

MRI and

> something called an ENG and a nerve evaluation study. I guess that

is a way of

> telling which nerves in the back affect which pains elsewhere. Has

anyone here had

> this done? If so could you enlighten us about how it's done.

> Hopefully this will give us some idea as to what is causing

this pain.

> I'll keep you posted. Also thanks to everyone who contacted me

recently to show

> your support. I REALLy appreciate it and I've made some good " email

friends "

> that continue to share their pain/ success stories with me.

>

> Tom in San Francisco

>

>

>