Going to meet with new surgeon on Monday

[loris]

I am a little nervous about my appointment on Monday. It is obvoius my curve is getting worse at a very rapid rate. When I was in to see the first doctor in mid April I was at 53 degree, now I am seriously leaning to the left and in a great deal of pain. Generally how long after meeting with your doctors and deciding on surgery does it take before they actually do it?

[LindaRacine]

Hi Loris...

It depends on the surgeon. I think the most popular surgeons usually have a 5-6 month waiting list.

Good luck.

Regards,
Linda

[debbei]

My wait was 5 months. It gave me time to prepare myself mentally and physically. Good luck with your appointment.

[txmarinemom]

... When I was in to see the first doctor in mid April I was at 53 degree, now I am seriously leaning to the left and in a great deal of pain. Generally how long after meeting with your doctors and deciding on surgery does it take before they actually do it?

I first saw Hanson on Oct. 9th, 2007. Funny how you remember exact dates ...

He looked at my curve, heard my history of JIS diagnosis, Boston bracing, lifelong pain, and 4 years of treatment by a pain mgmt doctor (and my resistance to every modern modality). My options were basically yoga/Advil or surgery.

I guess I expected some miracle, minimally invasive technique would have become available in the 10 years since I'd last seen a surgeon, and I vividly remember bursting into tears when my balloon was popped.

As gently as he could, he advised me to delay a decision either way until I read Wolpert's book - and really give it alot of thought. In no way did he sugarcoat the fact I might be taking on a new set of problems (with a very low probability of adding those new ones to the same pain I had) if I went the surgical route.

He estimated a very high potential for significant pain relief - including that from the 3mm cervical disc protrusions in one of my compensatory curves, as well as a decent reduction in the Cobb. His estimates for all three were dead on: My worst day now is 1000x better than my best pre-op.

Most importantly, to me, was he never pushed me towards surgery; a much easier call I'm sure when the curve is stable - as mine was. Some people do have curves that move rapidly, but almost always it's not an emergency "you must decide today!" decision.

I thought about it for almost 2 months ... and went back to see him on Dec. 5th, 2007, and scheduled surgery. The pain was unbearable by then: I'm a programmer, and when I had to work from the office, it was generally through tears - in near constant muscle spasms - all day long.

He happened to have a Feb. 5th, 2008 date open, and I jumped on it. No idea if that timeframe is typical for him - but from what I've read (and what other patients of his have emailed me), it's generally longer.

I will tell you that 2 months is pushing it to get prepared. I was already in great physical condition, but I also planned to recover solo - and I was still crossing items off my to-do list down to the wire ...

That to-do list was insane, but it's all that kept me sane (I think) during the countdown. Another oddity, almost everyone who schedules surgery perceives some increase in pain after that decision's made. It could very well be psychosomatic, but I've heard it time and again. I know as scared as I was of the unknown, I couldn't wait for the KNOWN to change.

Hang in there.

Regards,
Pam