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#1
06-04-2010, 03:05 PM
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Dr. Hey
Has anyone seen Dr. Hey in NC? I sent him my X-rays and he called me back. He was WAY more thorough than Dr. Tribus in Madison. He got the measurements right to the T. My upper curve 45.5, lower thoracic curve 38* not 28* like Dr. Tribus said. My pictures are quite clear and I had a hard time believing 28* with how bad it looks (which means I have progressed about 20* since diagnosis!). I also have severe hypolordosis of my upper spine which he says can squish the heart and lungs. He also does the same surgeries in about 1/2 the time with minimal blood loss, which is quite impressive. I'm just afraid if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. I don't want to put my hands into the care of someone who will do more harm than good. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks!
Rohrer01 
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#3
06-04-2010, 10:17 PM
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Dr. Hay has a good reputation. Oddly, I actually met him today, as he attended a meeting at UCSF about spinal surgery outcomes, and a spine conference that we put on. He seems like a very thorough and thoughtful man. Check out his blog if you want to get a sense of what he's like.
--Linda
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#4
06-05-2010, 07:18 AM
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Quote:
__________________
Sharon, mother of identical twin girls with scoliosis Now 50, the new 51. "As we should all know by now, when you see an argument about tone, you see somebody who’s avoiding the substantive issues." -- Jerry Coyne, Professor of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago "Science is what we do to keep us from lying to ourselves." -- Richard Feynman, Nobel Physicist and genius What can be asserted on no evidence can be dismissed on no evidence. Last edited by Pooka1; 06-18-2010 at 03:40 PM.
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#5
06-05-2010, 08:00 PM
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Quote:
I thought about this today when there was a bit of a lull at the conference. I think I'd be less concerned about picking a surgeon who treats mostly adults for my child who needed traditional scoliosis surgery. While these surgeons certainly treat far fewer patients than the pediatric surgeons, I think adult surgeons (that is, surgeons who treat mostly adults), are far more likely to think about the problems that the kids will face 10+ years from now. I was in a conversation earlier in the day, talking with several surgeons about kids being told that their scoliosis problems are over with surgery. I actually thought that was a thing of the past, but I still hear of kids being told that. Since the incidence of spine pain is so common in normal adults, it seems that people with (or without) scoliosis fusions as children, are going to be at least as likely, or potentially more likely, to have additional problems in adulthood. In other words, I doubt that adjacent level issues are going away any time soon. Sorry, I sort of went off on a tangent... With all that said, I think that adolescent scoliosis surgery is still a very good thing. Kids with 50 degree curves are likely to have a real deformity issue, and probably a lot of pain and loss of function, if they don't have surgery. I guess my message is, pick the best surgeon you can find, so that you reduce the potential for needing additional surgery in the future. Regards, Linda
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#6
06-05-2010, 08:19 PM
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Quote:
Quote:
Now that said, I do not think successfully fused areas of the spine are subject to any issues whatsoever. So the ten levels each of my girls are fused, assuming they are successfully fused, are out of the picture in terms of ever causing any issue whereas the general population has many more discs to potentially be involved in problems. W.R.T. adjacent level disease, I suspect surgeons surmise that is simply not likely to be an issue with fusions that end at L1 and above. He said they start to see problems when they end at L3 and below and the risk increases with each vertebra doing down as I understood him and I may not have. So when my eyes bugged out when he said he may go to L2 on the second kid he said the risk of adjacent level disease doesn't really increase compared to stopping at L1. So between removing several vertebrae from the picture and where the fusion ended, I think that is why I think our surgeon said my daughter was back in the general population on risk for future back problems. If that isn't his reason then I don't know it. If you have specific information about why he is likely wrong on this point I would like to know it. My other kid is hitting the 8 month mark tomorrow and is therefore off restrictions and into general monitoring for one or two more years. It is my impression they are done with scoliosis for if not the duration then a long time hopefully. And even if they are not then I certainly expect by the time any issue occurs that there are good solutions in hand. As it stands now, the worse I think that can happen is that they would need an extension at the distal end though I don't think that would be expected with a fusion ending at L1. Quote:
__________________
Sharon, mother of identical twin girls with scoliosis Now 50, the new 51. "As we should all know by now, when you see an argument about tone, you see somebody who’s avoiding the substantive issues." -- Jerry Coyne, Professor of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago "Science is what we do to keep us from lying to ourselves." -- Richard Feynman, Nobel Physicist and genius What can be asserted on no evidence can be dismissed on no evidence.
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