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  • Scuba Steve Revision

    Thanks to all for kind words and the great referral doc. in Tampa (Dr. Cronen).
    Going over for revision on Nov.11th.
    Greatly nervous.
    He is going to extend rods the rest of the way down and fuse the last three vertabrae.
    Wife and baby are going over and stay in hotel.
    Any suggestion, concerns or info that could make this a better hospital stay? And also any info from the family people who had surgery away from there home town?
    Please, Please keep me in your prayers. I keep telling myself "the opposite of fear is faith"!
    Thanks to all and to Suzanne (bahadreama) for the referal and lead to this great Doctor.
    SS

  • #2
    Scuba Steve,
    I will pray for you. I kept repeating 2nd Timothy 1:7 King James Version before my surgery and it helped.
    Sally
    Diagnosed with severe lumbar scoliosis at age 65.
    Posterior Fusion L2-S1 on 12/4/2007. age 67
    Anterior Fusion L3-L4,L4-L5,L5-S1 on 12/19/2007
    Additional bone removed to decompress right side of L3-L4 & L4-L5 on 4/19/2010
    New England Baptist Hospital, Boston, MA
    Dr. Frank F. Rands735.photobucket.com/albums/ww360/butterflyfive/

    "In God We Trust" Happy moments, praise God. Difficult moments, seek God. Quiet moments, worship God. Painful moments, trust God. Every moment, thank God.

    Comment


    • #3
      Steve

      A better hospital stay? Get a private room if possible.

      Is he taking it down to the pelvis?
      Ed
      49 yr old male, now 63, the new 64...
      Pre surgery curves T70,L70
      ALIF/PSA T2-Pelvis 01/29/08, 01/31/08 7" pelvic anchors BMP
      Dr Brett Menmuir St Marys Hospital Reno,Nevada

      Bending and twisting pics after full fusion
      http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/showt...on.&highlight=

      My x-rays
      http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/attac...2&d=1228779214

      http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/attac...3&d=1228779258

      Comment


      • #4
        Yep Ed all the way down.
        Getting my dive company ready for my departure. Hey here is an ideal....why don't you fly down and run the show for me while i am out?!

        Comment


        • #5
          P.S. SAlly what is the quote? All i have is the surfer bible here and it is not the same as the "regular" one.

          Comment


          • #6
            Prayer and care, Steve, dear.
            We all need each other's positive energy.
            In this regard we are each other's truest family - empathy, in the deepest sense.

            "Lynette" (netname) - late thirties, I think - had a very successful experience abt half a year ago, with Dr. Cronen. She also has two little boys and as a single mother, is - as needs be - a super positive person of faith. She's also notable because of having had astonishingly positive results from hypnosis - with severe pain (poof!) and other inner and outer obstacles.

            She hasn't been online in a good while, but it seems to be because of success rather than the opposite.

            A good person for you to connect with, I'd think.
            Best of best for you and your family!

            Amanda
            Not all diagnosed (still having tests and consults) but so far:
            Ehler-Danlos (hyper-mobility) syndrome, 69 - somehow,
            main curve L Cobb 60, compensating T curve ~ 30
            Flat back, marked lumbar kyphosis (grade?) Spondilolisthesis - everyone gives this a different grade too. Cervical stenosis op'd 3-07, minimally invasive

            Comment


            • #7
              Thanks Amanda! I love the positive energy and need it right now!
              And so happy to hear about someone else having good surgery with Cronen. That makes 3 so far. Trying to look at it as this is going to be the end to this nightmare. Maybe not completely, as i have excepted the fact that i will never be what i used to be.
              Keep praying for me and my family, It has gotten so hard for my wife to deal with these surgeries and stress involved. And taken up the slack with the children so i can recoup. God put the right woman in my life for a reason (no she is not standing over my shoulder).
              Talk to you soon, i hope.
              SS

              Comment


              • #8
                Hang on, Steve. I know you have to be shaking in your scuba fins (can't say "boots" right?) but these things DO end, and having chosen a tip top surgeon is the greatest thing you can do for yourself - and you HAVE! (Having already chosen such a super dooper wife, that is!)

                I looked up Lyn's profile link
                http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/member.php?u=50253
                and though it looks like she hasn't been poking around in months
                a) you might luck out with a PM and
                b) even reading her old posts will tell you a great deal about her experience and how much Dr. Cronen helped her.

                She's terrific! And she says he is too.

                XO
                Not all diagnosed (still having tests and consults) but so far:
                Ehler-Danlos (hyper-mobility) syndrome, 69 - somehow,
                main curve L Cobb 60, compensating T curve ~ 30
                Flat back, marked lumbar kyphosis (grade?) Spondilolisthesis - everyone gives this a different grade too. Cervical stenosis op'd 3-07, minimally invasive

                Comment


                • #9
                  Thanks gonna check it out!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Back out,
                    sent her a pm how do you check post from the past? Kinda new to this computer thing. I cannot figure out how to go back into her old post.
                    Thanks,
                    SS

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by scuba steve View Post
                      Back out,
                      sent her a pm how do you check post from the past? Kinda new to this computer thing. I cannot figure out how to go back into her old post.
                      Thanks,
                      SS
                      Sorry for delay. Good you sent her a PM but be forewarned that according to what her Profile says, she hasn't been online here since late August.

                      However, you can find her posts by clicking on the link I posted above. Again
                      http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/member.php?u=50253

                      Once on the Profile, "About Me" will give more info about that person if they've posted it (she has). Likewise, on that same "page" if you click on "Statistics" you'll get two options: to find all [that poster's] old threads = one s/he has started - or all [poster's] old posts, anywhere. She has almost 500 posts recorded. JFTR (just for the record), that's all this site will keep track of!

                      Hope this helps. I'm mucho non-computer savvy, so NO need to be embarrassed with me abt any difficulties in that direction! Haha (merely thinking of such a thing!). We got into some hot and heavy topics there, now and then. Some pertained to the hypnosis business and ways of dealing with pain, all kinds. Hope no one went back and deleted material (if anyone got "too personal" it was MOI!).
                      Not all diagnosed (still having tests and consults) but so far:
                      Ehler-Danlos (hyper-mobility) syndrome, 69 - somehow,
                      main curve L Cobb 60, compensating T curve ~ 30
                      Flat back, marked lumbar kyphosis (grade?) Spondilolisthesis - everyone gives this a different grade too. Cervical stenosis op'd 3-07, minimally invasive

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Private room or private attendant? Which matters most in comfort/survival?

                        Originally posted by titaniumed View Post
                        Steve

                        A better hospital stay? Get a private room if possible...
                        Scuze the digression, Steve, but I want to ask Ed (and anyone else) to elaborate on the private room issue - and by implication other private care issues - They periodically rear their head. The cost is clearly much more for all accommodations above standard. Similarly, the cost of a private duty nurse or aide, especially at night (It's most important then, by all accounts).

                        As I recall, Ed, you didn't arrange for a private room and now wish you had. Unsure about whether or not you had a private attendant at night and/or how you see that issue too, after the fact.

                        I don't know if "doctor's orders" can get insurance to cover either option... Kind of doubting so, in these days of drive-through childbirth, etc., but thought I'd ask for experiences and thoughts - yours and others'. Likewise, if you could get either one (asking the whole gang), which luxury would you prefer? A private room OR a private attendant?

                        A good friend who just went through nasty cancer surgery complained about the avoidable exhaustion he went through because of his very ill room-mate. On that poor guy's account, friend's room never quieted down at any hour of day or night. That was from the other guy's moaning and groaning, plus the lights and noise, from constant "vital's checking" as well as monitoring and special medical interventions.

                        It reminded me of the same from a ten day hospitalization I went through a decade ago, for what should have been an easy experience - physically, anyhow (in fact I shouldn't even have been there at all, but that's another - bitter - story ) Sleep is SO important, if one can wangle it through one/s own pain. Unlike me, my buddy is a sound sleeper yet even he was unable to sleep through that level of disturbance.

                        So! To return to the Druthers question - which could easily become an actual real economic decision (one that translates to a survival factor too, all things considered. Sleep has so much to do with immuno-suppression and "weathering crises").

                        Which do you think is most worth paying extra for if it's one or the other - All other things being equal. That is, every hospital is different - in noise level, quality of pain management and overall sensitivity of staff to patients, including the actual ratio.

                        If it's a decision needing to be made on the spot, what would be the "tie breaker" factors? I'm very worried about not being able to sleep - determined by any of countless issues. This has been a long-standing problem in MANY situations, in and out of hospital. Maybe it all sounds almost laughably irrelevant because the pain level may already make sleep virtually impossible whether in a crowd OR deathly silence!

                        That's the best I can come to asking what may be a non pertaining question...(remembering Sharon C's comments about her luxurious private room being far less important than getting strong enough pain meds, sensitively administered),
                        Not all diagnosed (still having tests and consults) but so far:
                        Ehler-Danlos (hyper-mobility) syndrome, 69 - somehow,
                        main curve L Cobb 60, compensating T curve ~ 30
                        Flat back, marked lumbar kyphosis (grade?) Spondilolisthesis - everyone gives this a different grade too. Cervical stenosis op'd 3-07, minimally invasive

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Steve
                          Did you say you were based out of Morehead City, NC. You know what I’m talking about.
                          Some day. Its on my list.

                          Amanda
                          The private room will reduce noise from others.... I had a guy who had a hip job, who had an army of support all the time making noise. Funny, the one time we were alone in the room, he asked what I had done and I told him I had my whole spine fused. He never heard of such a thing, most people really don’t know about scoliosis unless they know someone with it.

                          Actually, it didn’t matter all that much. I couldn’t sleep unless they knocked me out and a freight train could have come down the hallway.... I had a tough recovery, and major pain in the hospital... Extensive bone and grafting work is extremely painful. For an easier surgery, if you can possibly sleep some, then the noise can be an issue.

                          I had excellent nurses.... I couldn’t give them higher marks. I was also by the nurses station, and they kept an eye on me. They also asked me if I would like some of the local nursing students to come and help, and I said by all means. They were all great.

                          Its difficult to plan everything, and have it come out perfect. There will be something that will not work out, and there will be some dissatisfaction. Its best to accept this up front. Its like planning a vacation, you cannot control if the planes will be late, or the bags lost. Major surgery is much more than a vacation.

                          Ed
                          49 yr old male, now 63, the new 64...
                          Pre surgery curves T70,L70
                          ALIF/PSA T2-Pelvis 01/29/08, 01/31/08 7" pelvic anchors BMP
                          Dr Brett Menmuir St Marys Hospital Reno,Nevada

                          Bending and twisting pics after full fusion
                          http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/showt...on.&highlight=

                          My x-rays
                          http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/attac...2&d=1228779214

                          http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/attac...3&d=1228779258

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Right, Ed. All good comments about the peripheral decisions surrounding surgery. Yes, you did indeed go through the recovery from the nethermost reaches of hell.

                            I remember all your surgeon's warnings to you (such as you repeated), but having reached the level of pain you had, you were utterly unflinching. Once you bottom out at absolute agony, the plus side is that decision-making becomes easier - non-negotiable. I shudder to think what your daily life must have been like in those days. (Not to mention the weeks and months following THE OP).

                            I hear you about "the best laid plans", etc. As always I (like so many others) reflect gratefully on your generosity in sharing your experience - your proof - with the rest of us. I'm sure the resolve to do that was one of the only things that kept you going way back when. You, plea-bargaining, trapped in your own personal mineshaft.

                            You certainly have repaid in uncountable kindnesses to others, your marvelous recovery. Sharing miracles multiplies them through "evidence-based miracles" , so to speak - the most sustaining message of hope for those of us facing that abyss! Courage, uber alles...

                            *Gulp*
                            Not all diagnosed (still having tests and consults) but so far:
                            Ehler-Danlos (hyper-mobility) syndrome, 69 - somehow,
                            main curve L Cobb 60, compensating T curve ~ 30
                            Flat back, marked lumbar kyphosis (grade?) Spondilolisthesis - everyone gives this a different grade too. Cervical stenosis op'd 3-07, minimally invasive

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by Back-out View Post
                              Right, Ed. All good comments about the peripheral decisions surrounding surgery. Yes, you did indeed go through the recovery from the nethermost reaches of hell.

                              I remember all your surgeon's warnings to you (such as you repeated), but having reached the level of pain you had, you were utterly unflinching. Once you bottom out at absolute agony, the plus side is that decision-making becomes easier - non-negotiable. I shudder to think what your daily life must have been like in those days. (Not to mention the weeks and months following THE OP).

                              I hear you about "the best laid plans", etc. As always I (like so many others) reflect gratefully on your generosity in sharing your experience - your proof - with the rest of us. I'm sure the resolve to do that was one of the only things that kept you going way back when. You, plea-bargaining, trapped in your own personal mineshaft.

                              You certainly have repaid in uncountable kindnesses to others, your marvelous recovery. Sharing miracles multiplies them through "evidence-based miracles" , so to speak - the most sustaining message of hope for those of us facing that abyss! Courage, uber alles...

                              *Gulp*
                              100% Ditto, Ed. Plus....I am making soup today for my week, part of the 30 day challenge, re your thread on nutrition.

                              Snowing here, slopes are getting covered...

                              Scuba Steve,

                              Will be deeply praying for you and your excellent recovery. Some day I want to thumb through the surfer's bible. Made me laugh...your comparison. Also, best wishes to your wife and baby during this life-intensive time...Onward and FORWARD into your good life!!
                              Amy
                              58 yrs old, diagnosed at 31, never braced
                              Measured T-64, L-65 in 2009
                              Measured T-57, L-56 in 2010, different doc
                              2 lumbar levels spondylolisthesis
                              Exercising to correct

                              Comment

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