Hi everyone,
I've been reading this forum since Nov 09 and this is my first post. I've loved reading all the wise advice and seeing such great caring support of one another. Since the first few weeks of logging on I've been telling friends and family...."I have found my people."
I'm 55, 4 grown kids, married, and work in Colorado full-time. For the last 10 years, my orthopedic back MD has followed my slow progression, and in 2008 he urged me to consider surgery since my curves were advancing more rapidly. I have family in NYC, so I visited one of the NYC scoli doctors, and he gave me the pain/progression criteria, said come back in a year....I revisited in Sept 09, had new x-rays, showing curves of 64T, 65L, or 8 degrees more than my Colorado doc had measured. So now it will be determined if I am progressing with my next set of x-rays, as there is the possibility of pilot error, or difference in measuring Cobb angles. But the visual certainly told the story....Dr. B said I would need a lumbar anterior/posterior fusion, and if my bone density was not good, I would need thoracic fusion. Had bone density tested, showing osteopenia in spine, so it looks like the Full Frankie for me, if and when I decide to make the leap...
I am not in horrifying pain. I don't take anything stronger than ibuprofen, but some days I take 6-8 of them. I'm never comfortable, always achey, stiff, have to keep moving and changing positions constantly, but not "cattle prod pain", so it's not a slam-dunk decision for me. From my neck to my waist, it feels like I went through a trash compactor- there is no room for everything and it's all jammed up and harder to breathe and I can't see over the steering wheel as well as I once could! If I have surgery, I would want to wait until long-term disability kicks in next October, and preferably into the spring of 2011, so I can get past another winter resort season, workwise. So a full year of contemplating, obsessing, wondering, and worrying. I will need coaching. Please?
So I just wanted to get on the same page with everyone, come out of the shadows, and many thanks to all of you....
I've been reading this forum since Nov 09 and this is my first post. I've loved reading all the wise advice and seeing such great caring support of one another. Since the first few weeks of logging on I've been telling friends and family...."I have found my people."
I'm 55, 4 grown kids, married, and work in Colorado full-time. For the last 10 years, my orthopedic back MD has followed my slow progression, and in 2008 he urged me to consider surgery since my curves were advancing more rapidly. I have family in NYC, so I visited one of the NYC scoli doctors, and he gave me the pain/progression criteria, said come back in a year....I revisited in Sept 09, had new x-rays, showing curves of 64T, 65L, or 8 degrees more than my Colorado doc had measured. So now it will be determined if I am progressing with my next set of x-rays, as there is the possibility of pilot error, or difference in measuring Cobb angles. But the visual certainly told the story....Dr. B said I would need a lumbar anterior/posterior fusion, and if my bone density was not good, I would need thoracic fusion. Had bone density tested, showing osteopenia in spine, so it looks like the Full Frankie for me, if and when I decide to make the leap...
I am not in horrifying pain. I don't take anything stronger than ibuprofen, but some days I take 6-8 of them. I'm never comfortable, always achey, stiff, have to keep moving and changing positions constantly, but not "cattle prod pain", so it's not a slam-dunk decision for me. From my neck to my waist, it feels like I went through a trash compactor- there is no room for everything and it's all jammed up and harder to breathe and I can't see over the steering wheel as well as I once could! If I have surgery, I would want to wait until long-term disability kicks in next October, and preferably into the spring of 2011, so I can get past another winter resort season, workwise. So a full year of contemplating, obsessing, wondering, and worrying. I will need coaching. Please?
So I just wanted to get on the same page with everyone, come out of the shadows, and many thanks to all of you....
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