Can someone explain the main differences in these two procedures? They appear to be very similar.
I saw my surgeon yesterday for my six month checkup. It's been a long, hard road, but a couple weeks ago, I feel like I just flipped a switch and started feeling MUCH better. Doc and I discussed the different surgical options for the future. The T6-sacrum fusion he did was mostly for stability of my spine, and achieved very little correction. I sill have a rib hump, as well as a slight protrusion of the left side of my chest, and my right rib cage is still hitting my hip. So obviously the VCR would be the most risky and invasive. We also talked about getting the bottom rib removed that's hitting the hip, and having basically a chest wall reconstruction to get rid of the protrusion.
I have a lot to think about and discuss with people about what to do. The doc never mentioned the corpectomy, it's just something I'm wondering about...
Otherwise, the doctor is happy with my progress overall. I'm finally going back to work in a week or two, which feels great. I'll finally feel like I have a purpose again. I know my thoughts are all over the place in this post, hope you can make sense of it!
I saw my surgeon yesterday for my six month checkup. It's been a long, hard road, but a couple weeks ago, I feel like I just flipped a switch and started feeling MUCH better. Doc and I discussed the different surgical options for the future. The T6-sacrum fusion he did was mostly for stability of my spine, and achieved very little correction. I sill have a rib hump, as well as a slight protrusion of the left side of my chest, and my right rib cage is still hitting my hip. So obviously the VCR would be the most risky and invasive. We also talked about getting the bottom rib removed that's hitting the hip, and having basically a chest wall reconstruction to get rid of the protrusion.
I have a lot to think about and discuss with people about what to do. The doc never mentioned the corpectomy, it's just something I'm wondering about...
Otherwise, the doctor is happy with my progress overall. I'm finally going back to work in a week or two, which feels great. I'll finally feel like I have a purpose again. I know my thoughts are all over the place in this post, hope you can make sense of it!
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