fellows operating

[Guest guest]

Unfortunately some surgeons just plain ugly lie about their fellowes not

operating on your revision surgery and they do. They are instructed to say

otherwise as well and defer all questions to your dotctor if you have

concerns about it but i know first hand my surgeon supposedly the best in

the world told me NO NO NO the two fellows wouldn't be touching my insides

and after i cold cocked one fellow in his face we talked it out and he

admitted that both he and the other fellow did do work on my inside and do a

big part of the surgery. I awoke from surgery with partial spinal cord

injury which has reuslted in permanent nerve damage to both legs. Of course

I didn't come out of my comatose pain and depression for 2 1/2 years and by

then it was too late too sue , all the attorneys i asked said they needed a

year at least and six months was not enough time to prepare for filing. SO

don't believe everything you are told. As far as your foot getting worse.

yes i would be concerned and if he does nothing about it after six months

and you still have the same situation start looking for a second opinion

from another revision surgeon. That should have given the damaged nerve

enough time to start regenerating a bit into some recovery. I know it stinks

to wake up with other problems but this is what it is. Besides permanent leg

damage i awoke with wacky eye syndrome and double vision which is not able

to be fixed as it has to due with pressue on the brain and now is involved

with arachnoiditis I developed from the revision surgery butcher job of my

L5-S1, but yes I have to Thank God I am walkingevery day on 240mg of

Oxycontin 3x a day and 8mg of Dilaudid every 6 hours...on a good day.....and

Seroquel for the needed side effect of extreme sleep so i can sleep through

the pain each night so i don't wake up twice a night for pain meds and i can

sleep seven hours straight through.. So I have to dope myslef up so I can

sleep solid so I can tolerate the pain in order to have a very good day

which of course it is 7.5 years revision post-op and it took 5.5 years

post-op to finally find the best pain doctors who take the best care of me

to allow me to live as pain free as possible.. level 2 instead of a

suicidal thoughts of level 8 as the previous 5 years of 24 hours seven days

a week existance. I was told as I searched for a new pain doc that I didn't

deserve to be on the meds i was on (Mind you then it was much lower dposes

and I was on a level 8 pain every day because i didn't deserve the drugs

because i wasn't dying..i was a stuck at home mother disabled with two kids

and would have to suffer for the next 40 years and the pain doc, said yep

because I would never give you those meds!!) needless to say I never went

too him! Its all about more than adequate pain management post-op if needed

and taking the proper (long) recovery time needed to heal which I truly

believe is a year. So many people have pushed themselves to fast too hard

and have unfortunately had problems down the road. Would the problems be

there if they had taken it easier instead of pushing themselves. I don " t

know. But I do know the fusion mass takes a long time to fuse and one fall

even six months later can have permanent nerve damage... how do i know i

have done it. I walked down my hallway without my walker and just fell over

for no reason....... so no heroics. use the walkers use the canes learn the

right way to get around the house, I actually went into a back rehab program

for two weeks after surgery and that made a big difference and taught me

allot. But only you can make the difference and only you are the one

affected by taking any risks. I say lay down and take it easy, for a year

with some required walking PT and thats it. Give your body time to heal and

nurture yourself. well my five cents worth. It pains me to hear so many

people in pain after all the surgery and more pain. I think I have suffered

enough for everyone and I pray no one else keeps suffering. enough

already... really. Final note if anyone wants great pain docs.. NYC. Dr.

Jan Slomba, and Dr. Marco Pappagallo at Beth Israel Med. Center 10 Union Sq.

East Manhatten, NY

Wishing everyone pain less moments and happy days ahead....

wishing you many peaceful moments

TwistedSister in NJ

ps Carla Kay call ME!!

1982 Scoliosis Harrington fusion, 1998 Revision A/P Surgery for Flatback

Syndrome, 1998 Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, 1999 Degenrative SI Joints,

2000 Weight Loss Surgery, 2000 Spinal Hardware Removed, 2001 Two Cervical

bulging discs, 2002 Arachnoiditis, 2002 GERD, 2002 Adhesions, 1993 Mitral

Valve Prolapse, 1996 Fibromyalgia, 2001 Kidney Stones,

2003 Interstitial Cystitis, May 2003 Anterior spine hardware removal; May

2005 Abductor Voice Dystonia; Oct 2005 Full blown Disc Degenerative Disease

neck to tail; April 2005 Osteopenia; 2004 Four Blown cervical discs in all;

April 2005 Twisted Sacrum, scoliosis of upper thoracic area now. (lucky me)

** LIFE IS UNCERTAIN.............EAT DESSERT FIRST **

Harrington Rod scoliosis people and other post-op multiple spine surgery

people may interested in the following website dedicated to Flatback

Syndrome and revision/salvage spine surgery... " Salvaged Sisters of

Scoliosis " website on Delphi Forums at:

http://forums.delphiforums.com/adultscoliosis/messages