Originally Posted by JinSong
Hey folks, it's meeee again. Not sure if replying to my old, original thread is the best place to put this, but I thought I'd start here. So much has changed since I first posted here...getting close to a full year ago. Wow.
Welp, I lost my appeals for an ADR last spring and had a C5/6 ACDF back in March. Since then, life has been AWFUL. Nothing has improved. I've got migraines, constant spasms, my old symptoms never resolved, and now I've got all those new issues. I'm seeing neurologists, doing physical therapy, on every drug known to man, and I've had every injection procedure out there (a bit of hyperbole, but seriously, I'm getting to the point where I've exhausted my options).
Meanwhile, I've got my own neurosurgeon telling me my pain has nothing to do with the ACDF surgery, and everything looks fine, other than my oversized graft and incomplete fusion. Yeah. Right. These problems just "magically" appeared after I had major surgery and never resolved. No connection at all.
I've been so depressed from the constant pain and the total disruption of my life and finances that this has caused, I've seriously been considering suicide, and I even "practiced" a few times. I've been ready to just say goodbye to this all.
Then a friend of mine poked at me and said that I needed to start talking to other surgeons for opinions since you know, surgeons have something of a biased opinion of their own work. As you can see from my signature probably, besides C5/6 which is currently fused (well not really--the graft's not taking), I've got other herniations in there. I need to update my signature because I'm the ripe old age of 33 now, ha.
Anyway, someone told me to send my imaging and history to Dr. Kenneth Light in San Francisco to see what he had to say about my case, since he's one of the people in the country that specializes in revising fusions to ADRs. I can't afford to go to Europe, but I live in Arizona, and I have friends in San Francisco, so doing surgery there wouldn't be impossible...and miraculously he's on my insurance plan.
So he tells me to send in my materials and he offered to review them for free, which I thought was quite generous. I figured he'd get back to me and say sorry Charlie, everything looks structrually fine (as my surgeon keeps saying). Not so much. He says at this point, 8 months post-op, the amount of fusion I've got in my graft is minimal, and probably contributing to all my pain. As well, there's a high risk of a non-union (aka failed fusion). My surgeon keeps claiming I'm fine, but he's actually been using the post-laminectomy syndrome/failed fusion CPT diagnosis codes on my paperwork. I know you can't technically call it failed until you're a year post-op, but in any event, things aren't looking promising there. In addition, he thinks my C4/5 now looks bad enough to be contributing to my pain as well. I thought I'd get like...I don't know a few years out of this stupid fusion before succumbing to ASD, but I guess not. I freaked out for a second, because the prospect of a 2-level fusion and a revision surgery, meaning two big surgeries within the same year was terrifying.
Then he says to me he'd revise my 1-level fusion into a 2-level ADR. THAT'S WHAT I WANTED IN THE FIRST PLACE. I know I need to get my expectations in check because there are so many variables here to consider, insurance and financing not being the least of my concerns. But literally nearly gun in my hand (not an actual gun...but things to end my life) were laid out on my counter when I got that message. Just the idea that I might have hope of SOME improvement in the hell I've been living in for the last 8 months--probably only those of you on here who have lived through the same pain and feelings can understand.
And now I have questions. Can you help me? Has anyone here had surgery with Dr. Light? I know there's a separate revision forum, but I haven't actually had the revision surgery, so I wasn't sure if I should post in there. Are there other U.S. based revision specialists I should be looking at before diving in with Dr. Light?
ANY insight would be so deeply appreciated.
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