Quote:
Originally Posted by SonjaB
So I'm on tenderhooks here!!!! Who was it? Are they better? Are they home? Lillyth you can't leave us hanging like this. I have trouble finding my way around these forums so it might be posted elsewhere but if so can you post the link here so others who are also forum challenged can find the answers too? Or post here, that works too.
thanx
Sonja
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Sorry about leaving you all hanging. Part of that was just trying to sort out what happened. I don't have permission to say who it was, but likely none of you will know FBM because FBM is more of a lurker. I think FBM posted ONCE that I am aware of. Maybe.
Anyway, FBM IS home. Got home less than a week ago.
Essentially it comes down to one of the ADR's in the lumbar region needed to be fused instead. The ADR subsided. So they did the fusion. FBM was still in a lot of pain. Three or four surgeries total (not sure, can't quite nail that one down yet). Bone density tests were all fine, even though FBM has 20 years on me, FBM's bone density is consistent with someone my age, so this next part is weird. Dr. Clavel said when he put the screws in for the fusion, they went in "too easy". He did all of these "revisions" (technically speaking a revision is any operation on a level - or adjacent level - in the period of one year. Might be two years, someone feel free to correct me if I am wrong on this) FOR FREE. FMB chose not to pay the extra for the insurance, and, though there were extra costs from the hospital that FBM had to pay, Dr. Clavel didn't charge an extra dime for himself, despite the fact that no insurance was purchased, which I think it pretty damn cool. He could have been a total *** and been like, "Well, you didn't purchase the insurance, so, sucks to me you." But he did ALL of these surgeries with NO extra charge. (AND, lest this seem like a cheerleading session for Dr. Clavel, I do know that last I heard from Dr. Dare, he said his fee included anything that may go wrong or any extra re-operations while still in hospital - so just putting that out there too.)
At one point, Dr. Clavel had a team of FIVE neurosurgeons in there trying to figure out why FBM was still hurting. In the end, they are all baffled.
No test shows anything wrong, when they were in there they couldn't find anything wrong, so they are stumped. At this point we are all just hoping FBM gets better. FBM is less than a week off the plane, and since FBM had a surgery similar to mine PLUS a posterior fusion, I can promise you that plane ride
FMB UP! That was absolutely the worst part for me, and I didn't even have my back cut open! I was doing my best to reassure FBM that pain right now, so close to the plane ride is TOTALLY normal (I had forgotten, by hubby tells me I was calling for him about every five minutes to do something for me in the week after we landed).
So at this point, I would say keep the prayers coming. I may have had six levels done, but FBM had at least FOUR surgeries done while there. (The initial one - which was, BTW, almost as many levels as mine - plus the other ones trying to fix what is wrong).
The sad thing is that no one can really figure out why FBM is hurting so much.
BUT, on the MAJOR plus side, FBM's cervical ADR's were a success! FBM's MAJOR concern prior to surgery was the cervical, as that was where all the burning pain was coming from, and, for those of us that have had it, I don't need to tell how you horrible it is.
I will keep updating as there are updates to write. Don't know for sure when that will be. But FBM is home now, and we are all just waiting to see what happens.
I DO know that I am three weeks ahead of FBM, and I only had anterior stuff done, and I still have pain every day, so, I wouldn't imagine that someone who just got off a plane, had more surgeries than I did, AND one that went through the back to boot (!) would not be in pain.
But DO keep they prayers up. I swear to God (LOL!) it has been proven in scientific studies. So says The Prayerful Atheist. (And science.)
