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My surgery is for Feb. 1, 2007. The surgeon, Dr. Paul, in Naperville, Il, is very excited about a new minimally invasive method called, "XLIF." In the procedure the dr uses a computer/xray guided system with monitors on each important nerve and enters the surgery site from the side of the spine. The patient is attached(I'm not quite sure how) to a surgery table that has a hinge. When the hinge is dropped, the spine bends sideways and hopefully, depending on the degree of my scoliosis and disk slippage, he can insert screws and rods into 4 lumbar vertibrae through small incisions just big enough for one finger to pass through to the spine. In addition to the new miracle technique, I have to have work done lying in my other side on the table to cut away bone that is pinching nerves. I am really scared. Although the doctor is excited about the reduced trauma to muscles and nerves, he has told me that my top rib will probably be in the way of the surgery and some of it will have to be CUT OUT! My affected discs will be replaced with little plastic boxes and some type of sponge will be inserted that has a substance that encourages bone growth. If he cuts off the rib, it will be used for grafting. He also has mentioned several times that it's an 8 hr surgery and he might have to do part on the first day, then take me back in the next day and do more. I am in perfect health other that a slight case of hypertension brought on by taking voltaren, an nsaid, for 14 years. Not sure why it might take two days, that's scaring me, too. I will be wearing a chair back brace and using a bone growth stimulator. I've been told I can't take nsaids for months after the surgery; already the arthritis in my hand is starting to hurt constantly.
I just joined the site, having found it when entering the diagnosis the doctor wrote on my chair back brace order. I'm 59 and have known since I was 12 that I had scoliosis but never had a brace. I remember a doctor recommend it along with physical therapy, but my mom and I decided against it. That was about 1961. As you might expect my scoliosis has morphed since then. No one has ever told me the degree, but judging from diagrams I have seen, it's about 45% and mostly confined to the lumbar spine. My spine is also "twisted" which doesn't show on the films. My left hip is several inches forward of the right and the curve in my spine goes toward the right. At a glance, one wouldn't know I had scoliosis because my shoulders are almost even and my hips look even, too. I also have osteoarthritis which has made my condition worse. I have had leg pain in my left leg from the sciatic nerve at L5/S1 which has increased over the past 14 years. I was never before properly diagnosed as having slipped discs in my lumbar spine although I went to several ortho doctors and to physical therapy numerous times over the years.
In the last ten years, the distance I can walk has decreased from a few blocks, to 100 yards, and lately to 10 feet with a walker. I have been frustrated and anxious due to my pain and to not being able to walk anywhere with my friends and family. Sometimes I feel so angry with the doctors I saw in the past, that I wish scoliosis was like rabies, if it were, I would bite them and they would get it!
For a while I took antidepressants because I was acting "emotional" about my condition. I gained a lot of weight on them. Since I went off, I have lost 22 lbs in 8 months. I was spacey, but less anxious. Prescribing those meds instead of ordering proper diagnostics was just another part of the dis-service done to me by my old HMO ortho doctor who never even ordered an MRI.
Lately, my worse symptom has been excruciating pain in the bottom of my left foot, it's called plantar fasciitis. I believe it's from strain to the connective tissue in foot because my left calf has been cramped and shortened by my "sideways" way of walking.
I found Dr.Paul through a referral from a friend who had the same surgery in the old, more invasive way. I took a long time to become stubborn enough to advocate for myself with doctors, I hope it pays off!
I plan to write back during my recovery for the benefit of other readers.
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