Quote:
Originally Posted by brattigans
Thank you for the information. Are you not going to see Kropf because he did your last surgery? I have an appointment to see Regan this week. I have never heard of Lauryssen or Weinstein. I will take a look. Do you know which surgery you are going to be getting, and have you made your decision? Thank you and look forward to hearing from you. Happy NY!!
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I re-read your post and that of Bwink23. We were/are almost all exactly in the same boat - although I am farther along than you two.
I had a very symptomatic spondy - bothered me for about 18 years - from 22 to 40 - and now I am having more problems above the fusion. I too was super active. My spondy was a 9mm slip (grade 1/2) and my operative report says it was very mobile. It was crushing the nerve to my leg and I was always in pain.
Actually, I did a marathon in 2008 or 09 that finally did me in. Apparently running is very bad for spondy. Went through very bad pain for a year and a half before I got to surgery with Kropf. I have known several people that went to him and no one I know got a bad result, although another guy and I have had subsequent problems from discs above/before the fusion. I was told I would get ten years out of the fusion and before I needed anything else, but no such luck. With respect to the surgery, it really wans't that bad. Coming off the drugs was harder than any surgical pain. It hurt when I laughed for a few days because they went through my stomach, but that healed up pretty good in a few days. They opened my back up pretty good, which never really hurt although it gets really sore now, especially after my herniation.
Weinstein is right down the street from where I work and very conservative, which I think is what you want. I have a friend who had surgery by him with good results, but it was only a disco.
I have not made any decisions yet. I have had several surgeons say no ADR at 4/5 and some say that they could do an ADR. My fear is that if I have an ADR and they go back through the front and something happens with the ADR, I could be in a really bad spot with respect to removal. As a result, I think I am going to play it safe and probably have a fusion at 4/5 and wait for 3/4. I have to dig into it a little deeper before I decide what to do. I want to do the most minimally invasive fusion that wont trash l 3/4 for an ADR if I need one down the road.
I am not sure any of this helps other than showing that researching this stuff can drive you mad and confuse you more than ever with what to do. Feel free to ask me any more questions and lets make it a pain free 2014!