I was just looking at our recent ad, and it's offering a seminar on spinal decompression. I'm wondering if anyone here has had this treatment, if so were the results good?
http://www.wilkinsspinalcare.com/?gclid=CLOXktDSqLYCFUVN4AodDX4A1Q
In Feb 2007, I had already been on disability for seven years due to a combination of Rheumatoid Arthritis, Fibro and Chronic Fatigue. However, that Feb, I experienced a NEW, SHARP PAIN THAT NEVER WENT AWAY in my low back. I eventually found myself sitting in the offices of the most highly regarded neurosurgeon in the Washington DC area (so said WASHINGTONIAN magazine's annual "Top Doctors"). The wait to get in to see him was insulting but it is what it is.
After a brief physical examination, followed by an examination of my MRI film, Dr. P. gets right to the point by telling me that I have SPINAL STENOSIS and possibly FORAMINAL STENOSIS. The treatment for this is a SPINAL DECOMPRESSION (I should point out that I had a SPINAL FUSION at L5-S1 nineteen years prior, which evidently messes with the 'success' percentage). OK, so Dr. P. tells me that even with the fusion, I'm looking at a 96% success rate if I go ahead with the SPINAL DECOMPRESSION. Are you kidding me? 96% - uh, yeah, Sign me up!! I scheduled the surgery in May, had the surgery and woke up from the surgery feeling that something was wrong. Was there improvement? Over the next few days I'd have to say it was obvious I was in the 4% club. The SPINAL DECOMPRESSION failed.
I soon learned what it means to have the right surgery performed by the right doctor and still fail (hint: it sucks). Within a week, the same pain was back and I was even more miserable. Now what?
OK, VERY long story short. I was scheduled for another surgery in August. They called the procedure a SPINAL DECOMPRESSION CLEAN-UP (to me, that sounds like he's going in to retrieve his watch). Due to a complication, the surgery was post-poned until December 31, 2007.
12/31/07 I go in for what will be my last back surgery (he made sure to tell me that no matter what happens, this is it - like he is doing me a favor, right?). The surgery starts and he "cleans up" though he honestly said there was nothing to clean-up. Given that the day of New Year's Eve is not a terribly popular day to have an "elective surgery", he had time to explore and see if he could find a cause for the pain. Ultimately, he decided to remove (and if necessary, replace) the nineteen year old spinal fusion instrumentation. Why? Back in 1988, they used a composite of steel and other metals that mess up MRI images. Today, they use a titanium alloy in which there is no distortion. Once he removed the old fusion, he knew exactly what the problem was - I had nineteen year old scar tissue compressing the nerves and doing all sorts of damage. He fixed it.
Upon waking up after surgery, I knew immediately Dr P. had fixed it.
So there is my story. I do not know if it helped or not. I hope so. If there is anything I could for you, please let m know.
Best wishes and gentle prayers...
Marc
Thanks Marc,
All of mine started off with the third time being rear ended in an auto accident, which probably kicked up my predisposition to autoimmune. So I went to the local highly regarded NS, he said the damage was not extensive enough to operate, so then my GP schedules me for the Asst Prof at Hopkins, he told me that surgery would only ever make me worse, then finally the top NS at Univ of MD, he finally told me that sooner or later if I kept looking for a NS, I'd find one to operate, and rue the day.
That stopped me searching, but since then stenosis is present in my cervical and lumbar spine, but it is NOT bad yet, my SI joints are the main cause of pain/dysfunction and also why I have so much trouble riding in a car, this info is according to my Rheum looking at my very recent MRIs, but I was wondering about the future. The Enbrel seems to be slowing things down, he says it's working, for me it's hard to tell too much difference, as I always suffer the most in winter. He keeps telling me that this damage and pain was untreated for so long that it is taking a long time to show progress. I have to learn to accept better, rather than want best! We all want that 'quick fix', and there just isn't one, there is progress though.
I have never heard of a 96% success rate for spinal surgery, never heard of odds being that good! You were lucky the second one was such a success.
Thanks a thousand for sharing this with me!
SK
I was blessed that the date of my surgery was Dec 31 and that meant the doctor had extra time. I was blessed that he removed a spinal fusion that was functioning perfectly just to satisfy his own curiosity and make sure everything was ok with him looking at it. I've told him many times had he not done that, no other doctor would have ever operated on me and I would have had compressed spinal nerves, nerves that were pierced with scar tissue, etc for the rest of my life.
Talk about timing, my wife and I were in the process of separating (she opted out of our marriage after twenty years because she could not take being my caretaker for the rest of her life). She left the house with our daughter eight days before my Dec 31 surgery. When I woke up, I could immediately tell the difference, but were the pain still there AND I would be going home to an empty house.....that would have been problematic.
Want to know how malicious fate is? I put my life together - I lost 80 pounds, met a woman and fell in love (something I never expected to do again) and saw a future...a happy one. Then in April 2011, I came down with pneumonia. My new girlfriend was gracious and loving but the pneumonia would not go away. In fact it stayed in my lungs for five months. Ok, a speed bump but we got past it and things were better than ever. Then, on March 3, 2012, I woke up unable to stand or walk. It is now thirteen months later and the pain from this new condition combined with everything else (FM, RA & CFS) has affected my life unlike before. The girlfriend I mentioned left me because of the disability - those words are from her lips. I've gained the weight back plus about thirty pounds, I now ride a scooter out of necessity pretty much everywhere I go, I am isolated from family and most of my friends and I barely see my beautiful, busy 16-year old daughter. I talk to her everyday but that is not the same as seeing her and being with her.
So here I sit, rescued from the pain I suffered in 2007 only to be thrown back in the well in 2012. I'm praying for your journey, that it is as peaceful as possible, that you meet people who lift you up and that you come through the other end better off than when you are now.
Marc