Tweet
I met with Dr Gupta yesterday and had new x-rays done and asked him a lot of questions. Overwhelming to say the least!
First of all, the measurement of my thoracic curve is making me a little nuts! March of last year my first surgeon said it was about 56*. Dr Gupta read those same x-rays 4 months later and disagreed and said they were 53*. I had new x-rays done at that July visit that were read as 61*. Yesterday, my new x-rays were 58* and the x-rays from last July were re-measured at 57*! This is crazy! I know that it's very subjective & I should not obsess over this number but it seems to be pretty important in determining progression, right? I noticed that Dr Gupta had a Fellow do the measurements, a different 1 at each visit, thus the discrepencies I guess. I wasn't expecting progression anyway, my point in meeting yesterday was to discuss surgery.
He will do it as I am a candidate, but he said I could wait 5 years and see how much it is progressing. I am 50 now and in his words, young (ha!) but I feel the time is right since I am so healthy, well-insured, and desiring to change careers soon. What's hard is that I have no proof of progression since I haven't been x-rayed since I was about 12 & who knows where those x-rays are, & I certainly don't remember anything (I blocked it out). So he's basing progression on my comments and my husband's belief that my back hump is worse. But I'm already seeing my measurements all over the place so when will there be absolute proof of progression?
Cosmetic is one of my main reasons for having this too. My clothes do not fit right, my posture is bad when I sit, my torso is so off balance, and I have 1 leg longer. I bet many of you have these same issues!
I do not have constant pain - I have pain only when sitting or standing or walking for an hour or so. (Hmmmm, so I guess that unless I want to lay on a couch all day everyday, I'll be fine!) I do have every day muscle discomfort. So if it's the weekend and I'm active, I'm pretty OK. But at work I have to get up a lot & walk around. I'm also studying right now to be a medical transcriptionist and I sit for HOURS and I have to get up every hour or I'm getting out the trusty heating pad and eventually I have to quit typing for the day. But since I plan on becoming a transcriptionist, I will HAVE to sit for hours, & that is not possible now and it will get worse. Aside from my thoracic-area pain, I also have lumbar pain after exertion, which he said based on my x-rays is likely due to arthritis and has nothing to do with my curve. That was a shock. So even with surgery, my lumbar pain will not get better? I was hoping that it was my curve that was putting undue pressure on my lumbar vertebra.
He is quite confident that he can get about 75% correction with my curve, maybe down to the teens. The fusion will be from T2 to L2 or L3. I have a significant hump that he feels will be almost gone with a thoracoplasty and he does quite a few of those. I am very confident with him doing my surgery, I just want to be sure that I'm fully educated about this. My plan is to have it this September or October, it's up to me. They were ready to schedule me yesterday but I was so overwhelmed that I decided to think about it. I just can't imagine waiting for years until I am in constant pain, especially when I've learned that it is not guaranteed that the pain will go away after surgery! It could remain the same or even get worse.
Wow! For those of you who went forward with the surgery or are about to, I applaud you! You are/were very brave as this is probably the hardest decision we will ever make.
First of all, the measurement of my thoracic curve is making me a little nuts! March of last year my first surgeon said it was about 56*. Dr Gupta read those same x-rays 4 months later and disagreed and said they were 53*. I had new x-rays done at that July visit that were read as 61*. Yesterday, my new x-rays were 58* and the x-rays from last July were re-measured at 57*! This is crazy! I know that it's very subjective & I should not obsess over this number but it seems to be pretty important in determining progression, right? I noticed that Dr Gupta had a Fellow do the measurements, a different 1 at each visit, thus the discrepencies I guess. I wasn't expecting progression anyway, my point in meeting yesterday was to discuss surgery.
He will do it as I am a candidate, but he said I could wait 5 years and see how much it is progressing. I am 50 now and in his words, young (ha!) but I feel the time is right since I am so healthy, well-insured, and desiring to change careers soon. What's hard is that I have no proof of progression since I haven't been x-rayed since I was about 12 & who knows where those x-rays are, & I certainly don't remember anything (I blocked it out). So he's basing progression on my comments and my husband's belief that my back hump is worse. But I'm already seeing my measurements all over the place so when will there be absolute proof of progression?
Cosmetic is one of my main reasons for having this too. My clothes do not fit right, my posture is bad when I sit, my torso is so off balance, and I have 1 leg longer. I bet many of you have these same issues!
I do not have constant pain - I have pain only when sitting or standing or walking for an hour or so. (Hmmmm, so I guess that unless I want to lay on a couch all day everyday, I'll be fine!) I do have every day muscle discomfort. So if it's the weekend and I'm active, I'm pretty OK. But at work I have to get up a lot & walk around. I'm also studying right now to be a medical transcriptionist and I sit for HOURS and I have to get up every hour or I'm getting out the trusty heating pad and eventually I have to quit typing for the day. But since I plan on becoming a transcriptionist, I will HAVE to sit for hours, & that is not possible now and it will get worse. Aside from my thoracic-area pain, I also have lumbar pain after exertion, which he said based on my x-rays is likely due to arthritis and has nothing to do with my curve. That was a shock. So even with surgery, my lumbar pain will not get better? I was hoping that it was my curve that was putting undue pressure on my lumbar vertebra.
He is quite confident that he can get about 75% correction with my curve, maybe down to the teens. The fusion will be from T2 to L2 or L3. I have a significant hump that he feels will be almost gone with a thoracoplasty and he does quite a few of those. I am very confident with him doing my surgery, I just want to be sure that I'm fully educated about this. My plan is to have it this September or October, it's up to me. They were ready to schedule me yesterday but I was so overwhelmed that I decided to think about it. I just can't imagine waiting for years until I am in constant pain, especially when I've learned that it is not guaranteed that the pain will go away after surgery! It could remain the same or even get worse.
Wow! For those of you who went forward with the surgery or are about to, I applaud you! You are/were very brave as this is probably the hardest decision we will ever make.
Comment