5 months post-op

[jc3]

hi susanna
just curious, why are you nixing neuwirth?? Actually, dr. boachie was our 2nd opinion and i was going to see neuwirth next but after seeing boachie we didn't want to go any further and booked the surgery that day. Did you do the trip to the city in one day or did you stay in the city? Who are you going to see next?
stay in touch
jennifer

[Mary Lou]

Hi Susanna....I'm glad to hear that you are getting several opinions for your daughter. The surgeon who did Jamie's surgery almost four weeks ago was our fifth opinion, two of which were his associates. I read that you are in Baltimore, MD. We are from Pennsylvania and not that far from you. My 13 y.o. daughter just had surgery (almost) four weeks ago and has had an amazing recovery. She is returning to school tomorrow half days and hasn't taken any pain meds at all for over a week. We strongly recommend her surgery, Dr. Lee Segal, who is located in Hershey, PA. If you want/need more information about Dr. Segal or Jamie's experience, feel free to contact me.

Mary Lou

[susannajon]

Mary Lou,

Boachie is our 3rd opinion, but I do want to get a couple more, if for no other reason other than another perspective. We have done so much research at this point on doctors just to narrow the field and make sure we spend our consult dollars wisely.

Jennifer, the reason I am nixing Neuwirth is I have heard so many negative stories about him. I have heard over and over that his staff does most of the exam and you get 10 or 15 minutes with Neuwirth. I have also seen too many incidences of major complication with him and his team. I know he's a very well respected doctor, but my "mother sense" is telling me he's not the right doctor for us. If I'm going to drive all the way to NYC and spend the 500 bucks for an opinion, I want to talk to a doctor who's planning on spending more than 10 minutes with us.

I am 99.9% sure that Boachie's our guy. I would like to talk to a couple more well respected doctors and hear their opinion, but I will probably look at our schedule and go ahead and get our daughter scheduled for surgery with Boachie. I am very excited about the approach he plans to take with her, and pleasantly surprised by the levels he thinks he'll need to fuse. He is planning an anterior approach, and thinks he will only need to fuse T11 to L3. She has an S curve that starts at T3 and goes all the way to L4. The first docs we saw were suggesting a much longer fusion, and one thought he might need to do two procedures, so this was a huge relief.

Susanna

[jc3]

hi susanna,
i'm sure you are happy that you are "getting the ball rolling" and you will be relieved when you finally book the date and choose the dr. you want. Are you going to wait until the summer for the surgery? In a way i wish i did it in the summer because with the cold weather and snow and ice it makes me nervous with her walking outside. Now it is fine, but last week we had some snow and ice on the ground. I was a wreck even with her walking to the car and that is something i never really thought about before the surgery. That is great that she will not have to have both anterior and posterior! I'm sure you are so happy about that. That is alot to go through. I can't believe that about neuwirth. How did your daughter feel about the whole appointment?? Did i tell you nicole went to the mall the other day and was there from 1:00 till 6:30. I was a wreck and i wanted her to come home, but she was fine she even went straight to a friends house till 11. I didn't want her to overdue herself, but to my surprise she was fine.
well keep in touch
jennifer

[susannajon]

Hi Jennifer!

Yes, I saw your message about your daughter going to the mall and was so excited for you! What a difference a few weeks makes! I also saw her message about wanted to wear heels during the holidays. That was so cute!

I wish we could wait for summer for surgery, but unfortunately Grace must have had another growth spurt, because the curve that hadn't budged since February moved 7 degrees since October! She at 60 degrees, so we need to get this done soon.

We are going to keep maybe one or two more appointments, just ot hear what they have to say, but I have to say I feel like Boachie's the guy.

My daughter loved Boachie and felt very good about him. Everybody in the family really liked him.

Susanna

[jc3]

hi susanna
sorry to hear that her curve got worse. That is what happened with nicole. When we went to meet boachie and he took new x-rays her curve got 7 degrees worse since her last x-rays and it was only a few monhths. She was about 60 degrees when we booked the surgery. Nicole liked him also. I think she liked him because she had a brace but she wouldn't wear it to school she would only wear it to sleep and he told her not even to bother wearing it anymore since she was going to have surgery. She was thrilled. You are probably better off not waiting until the summer and just getting it over with. The waiting was agonizing and worse than the surgery. I found it very stressful. Nicole wanted to wait until the summer but i just wanted it over with as soon as possible. That is funny that you saw nicole's post about the high heels and yes, she wore heels to christmas eve and she was fine.
keep me updated on what's going on.
jennifer