2 Year (late) checkup with DrRand

[Guest guest]

s post reminded me that I wanted to post a summary of my

checkup last Friday.

Lucky me, DrRand was seeing patients right here on the island so all

I had to do was drive to the end of my street instead of taking an

all day trip to Boston. Since he only had a few patients to see we

did get to gab a bit too. Very nice.

Anyway...from the xrays...all is still looking A-okay although he

reminded me that the StLouis group (Bridwell/Lenke etc.)reports that

non-unions can crop up until the 5 year mark. I will conintue to see

him once a year (assuming nothing arises that needs monitoring) until

then. We talked about the chance of needing the illiac screws

out...he still estimates the need at 1 in 5. The infrequent nervy

kind of tingle I get in the top of my one butt (for no particular and

completely random reasons) could be a screw head irritating a muscle,

but more likely is a nerve in the SI joint that is getting zinged

somehow. Believe me, I am counting myself lucky at this point and am

not consider taking anything out. Its just one of the wierdnesses, as

puts it, that continue on after surgery.

We did talk a little bit about the future of this surgery. One

interesting thing he talked about was that in the future there is

going to be a kind of injectable BMP which will permit them to reach

around from behind and inject and perhaps forgo some or all anterior

work. I could be wrong, but as I understood him, this material is

being used/tested for when an artificial disc fails, instead of

removing the disc (which I believe is quite tricky) they will just

inject the BMP and fuse it all up. He also told me he was working

with DrOndra on the hardware he is designing which I think is the one

that connects old HR's to new implants. Very cool.

I know I have said this recently, but I just want to restate in this

post that my own recovery experience has been that during the time

between 18 months post and this spring is when I really felt very

good and about as " able bodied " as I expect I will ever get. It seems

to me that once I had confidence that all was nice and solid after my

one year CT scan that I began to push myself a little more. What I

suspect that means is I have gotten back a bit more in flexibility

(although I will never look like Gumby or Kam!). Really just the

difference between managing things that require a stretch or a reach.

I can pretty much do it all now and I just have to be careful to use

good body mechanics.

Some things probably will be a permanant part of my repetoire. I will

probably always roll the bottom drawer of the dishwasher in with my

feet, and then lift the door that way too. I will always try to put

an arm down to support my torso before leaning or kneeling forward. I

will always try to engage my abs before lifting or holding anything

heavy. I will keep the silky PJ bottoms and a grabber in the house

but I don't have to think about where I am sitting too much

anymore...even though a flat lightly padded chair is my favorite

perch. I do like to keep a small pillow in the car to stuff in the

small of my back....but I am fine without it and really prefer it for

long distances. And generally I like to have pillows around the house

to stuff in the back when I am relaxing.

I believe I will always prefer swimming and biking to walking. I know

there are benefits to weight bearing exercise...but I feel like lots

of walking is just too hard on all my joints with this very fused

spine...so my deal with myself is that I walk short distances

regularly(or snowshoe in the winter) but save the cardio fitness for

less harsh endeavors. Going for a 3-4mile walk many times a week

just seems like I am asking for trouble.

So thats this years recap. I feel good and am still glad I underwent

the surgery and accepted the long timeline for recovery. I can't

imagine what my life would be like had I not undergone it.

~Cam