My cousin is seeing a DO who says he needs spinal fusion and will have to wear a cast from his neck to his thighs for three months post-op. I have never heard of this and am worried that it's indicative of outdated methods.
I'm getting this information through a relative, but I am very concerned. First, that he is seeing a DO. Has anyone here had their fusion performed by a DO? To me, that's not a specialist and considering this is not a medical doctor, I have zero confidence that this guy has had appropriate training to specialize in spinal surgery.
Second, I am not clear what it is they are planning to do and what the full diagnosis is. He mentioned that they said he has scoliosis, but he also has a lot of nerve damage from the work he used to do for a living. He retired last year because of back and neck pain associated with his job (it was very manual, technical stuff that required climbing poles, etc). This started out as needing to fuse 1 or 2 levels and now they're talking about a cast from neck to pelvis and possibly multiple surgeries? What the?!
I don't want to scare him but I also think that he really should be meeting with a specialized spine ortho who knows what the h*ll they're doing.
Any suggestions on what to say? If this goes badly and I sat by and said nothing, I would feel so guilty, but then I also am (luckily) the recipient of a single 14-level fusion that was all posterior and successful.
Help!
I'm getting this information through a relative, but I am very concerned. First, that he is seeing a DO. Has anyone here had their fusion performed by a DO? To me, that's not a specialist and considering this is not a medical doctor, I have zero confidence that this guy has had appropriate training to specialize in spinal surgery.
Second, I am not clear what it is they are planning to do and what the full diagnosis is. He mentioned that they said he has scoliosis, but he also has a lot of nerve damage from the work he used to do for a living. He retired last year because of back and neck pain associated with his job (it was very manual, technical stuff that required climbing poles, etc). This started out as needing to fuse 1 or 2 levels and now they're talking about a cast from neck to pelvis and possibly multiple surgeries? What the?!
I don't want to scare him but I also think that he really should be meeting with a specialized spine ortho who knows what the h*ll they're doing.
Any suggestions on what to say? If this goes badly and I sat by and said nothing, I would feel so guilty, but then I also am (luckily) the recipient of a single 14-level fusion that was all posterior and successful.
Help!
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