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Thanks for posting Rob. I'm glad the surgery is over and that everything went according to plan. Give Evelyn my best.
Sally
Diagnosed with severe lumbar scoliosis at age 65.
Posterior Fusion L2-S1 on 12/4/2007. age 67
Anterior Fusion L3-L4,L4-L5,L5-S1 on 12/19/2007
Additional bone removed to decompress right side of L3-L4 & L4-L5 on 4/19/2010
New England Baptist Hospital, Boston, MA
Dr. Frank F. Rands735.photobucket.com/albums/ww360/butterflyfive/
"In God We Trust" Happy moments, praise God. Difficult moments, seek God. Quiet moments, worship God. Painful moments, trust God. Every moment, thank God.
Things are hard in the beginning....you guys hang in there, things will get better.
Ed
49 yr old male, now 63, the new 64...
Pre surgery curves T70,L70
ALIF/PSA T2-Pelvis 01/29/08, 01/31/08 7" pelvic anchors BMP
Dr Brett Menmuir St Marys Hospital Reno,Nevada
Great news, welcome to the otherside Evelyn....you are in my thoughts.
Spring
42 yrs old
Milwaukee braced 1983 to 1989
was told my curves would never progress
at 19yrs old 1991, T30-L38
2010, T38-L56--progression in one year 2011, T40-L67
new diagnosis-kyphoscoliosis, DDD, Arthritis, Osteoporosis, 73 degree Kyphosis
Surgery 1-09-12....10 hrs all posterior T4-sacrum & 2 cages
Dr. Lenke-St. Louis Mo.
Surgery to clean out infection 2-10-12
Revision for broken rods 1-23-14
THanks for posting, Rob. I'm glad everything went well. We will be looking forward to updates when there is time.
Karen
Surgery-Jan. 5, 2011-Dr. Lenke
Fusion T-4-sacrum-2 cages/5 osteotomies
70 degree thoracolumbar corrected to 25
Rib Hump-GONE!
Age-60 at the time of surgery
Now 66
Avid Golfer & Tap Dancer
Retired Kdgn. Teacher
See photobucket link for:
Video of my 1st Day of Golf Post-Op-3/02/12-Bradenton, FL
Before and After Picture of back 1/7/11
tap dancing picture at 10 mos. post op 11/11/11-I'm the one on the right. http://s1119.photobucket.com/albums/k630/pottoff2/
So Glad to hear that Evelyn is doing well. Praise God! Rob, Can you tell us a little bit what it was like waiting while Evelyn was under? I would like to prepare my husband and family (I'm scheduled in Oct. w/ Dr. Lenke) as much as possible.
Best wishes for continued healing and strength!
Heidi
Scheduled for surgery with Dr. Lenke Oct. 2012
53*T 71*L
Surgery 10/05/2012 T4-pelvis
Correction: looks perfect! Will find out how perfect at future appointments
So Glad to hear that Evelyn is doing well. Praise God! Rob, Can you tell us a little bit what it was like waiting while Evelyn was under? I would like to prepare my husband and family (I'm scheduled in Oct. w/ Dr. Lenke) as much as possible.
Best wishes for continued healing and strength!
Heidi
Hi Heidi
Congrats on your surgery date with Dr Lenke. What are your
curve(s) measurements? Have your hubby read my blog
so he can learn from my hubby's experience of taking care of
me.
Warmly
Doreen
44 years old at time of surgery, Atlanta GA
Pre-Surgery Thorasic: 70 degrees, Pre-Surgery Lumbar: 68 degrees, lost 4 inches of height in 2011
Post-Surgery curves ~10 degrees, regained 4 inches of height
Posterior T3-sacrum & TLIF surgeries on Nov 28, 2011 with Dr. Lenke, St. Louis
2 rods, 33 screws, 2 cages, 2 connectors, living a new life I never dreamed of!
Rob--
It was so good to check in and see your post. Tell her welcome to the other side and best wishes for a good steady recovery. Thanks so much. Janet
Janet
61 years old--57 for surgery
Diagnosed in 1965 at age of 13--no brace
Thoracic Curve: 96 degrees to 35 degrees
Lumbar Curve: 63 degrees to 5 degrees
Surgery with Dr. Lenke in St. Louis--March 30, 2009
T-2 to Pelvis, and hopefully all posterior procedure.
All was posterior along with 2 cages and 6 osteotomies.
Great News! I'm glad everything went well for Evelyn! I have been thinking of her yesterday and today. I was wondering if she got "upright" today.
A tip for you, Rob...My family thought the Queeny Tower Cafeteria there at Barnes had a nice view. I never got to see it (smile).
Kathy
Kathy 46 yrs at surgery, now 50
71 degree thoracolumbar curve corrected to 34 degrees
8/2/2010 surgery with Dr. Lenke
posterior T9 to sacrum with pelvic fixation 4 osteotomies and 1 cage http://s1066.photobucket.com/albums/...athK_08022010/
Hi all. Evelyn and I (Rob) are in a private room on the seventh floor ortho unit at Barnes-Jewish Hospital South. I am typing, but Evelyn wanted to share her experience. So here goes:
Evelyn: First of all, thanks you so much to everyone on the forum for the support before surgery.
I went in Wed morning at 6:30. I waited in preop until about 8:30 when they gave me anesthesia. I don;t even remember being wheeled into the operating room. The first thing I remember was waking up and having my ventilator tube taken out. They took me down to the CCA (Critical Care Area), which I thought would be for a few hours. Ended up being 24 hours since there were no rroms on the seventh floor.
Critical care was good from standpoint of a nurse devoted almost entirely to you. But it is very loud and bright and seems more like an emergency room. So not great for rest. Finally around 7:30 Thursday night, we moved into my room upstairs. Things have gotten better since then. Initially, I was in a lot of pain because my oxycontin dose got delayed by three hours due to the room change. Plus, they increased the delay between doses of pain medication from one/ten minutes to one/twenty before moving me. I would say my pain shot out to about an 8 out of ten. But then I got the ortho nurse talked to the doctor on call and increase the pain meds. So gradually, overnight, it went down to about a six. Then in the morning, I begged the rounding doctor (Dr. Lenke had to go to a Chicago conference) to do a little more. So he added percocet, valium and flexerol. So, I am definitely taking a large cocktail of pain medication. But now the pain is down to a 2 or 3.
So today (Friday, 9:30 PM, second day after surgery) was a much better day. I got to sit up in a chair for about twenty minutes twice and I walked baby steps inside the hospital room. Also, Kathy from Dr. Lenke's office came by today with my x-rays. I don't know the degree of my correction, but it looks pretty straight. I have pictures and plan to post them later. I can tell by looking out my window that the weather in St. Louis is great. So I sent my husband and mo out to enjoy it for dinner. And I've beenh getting a lot of naps. (Oh by the way, the first 24 hours, I never slept more then ten minutes at a time because of the pain.)
The next big hurdle will be getting my foley catheter removed so I can use the restroom. (Just as a side note, the tech in Critical Care Unit tried to take it out before I had gotten out of bed. Fortunetly, Dr. Lenke stoped by about that time, and told them to leave it.) All in all, the pain has been a little worse than expected, but I am extremely relieved to be on the other side, and very happy that so far there have not been any major complications.
Thanks again to all for listening and supporting me. I will be in touch soon. Best, Evelyn
age 48
80* thoracolumbar; 40* thoracic
Reduced to ~16* thoracolumbar; ~0* thoracic
Surgery 3/14/12 with Dr. Lenke in St. Louis, T4 to S1 with pelvic fixation
Broken rods 12/1/19; scheduled for revision fusion L1-L3-4 with Dr. Lenke 2/4/2020
Not "confused" anymore, but don't know how to change my username.
congratulations, Ev
wonderful to hear from you...to know the surgery went well and that
healing has begun...
i hope that your recovery is steady and smooth...
thanks to Rob for posting for you and keeping concerned forum folks informed...
feel better every day!
Wonderful to read this news. You sound great, for this early. Glad to hear they were willing to help you with that severe pain. Looking forward to more updates as days go by. Thank you Rob!
Surgery March 3, 2009 at almost 58, now 63.
Dr. Askin, Brisbane, Australia
T4-Pelvis, Posterior only
Osteotomies and Laminectomies
Was 68 degrees, now 22 and pain free
Thanks for the update, for sure! I'm a little more than disappointed that they haven't kept your pain under better control. You don't have a morphine, dilaudid, demerol, or fentanyl pump (I listed all I could think of because every doc has their favorite med)? I would think this early after surgery a pain pump would be the thing so that you have some control over your pain med intake and can't accidentally overdose. When I had my recent surgery (not scoli related) the anesthesiologist and assistant asked me what "my" acceptable pain level was and they kept it well below what I requested, which was a 4. I know these harder surgeries aren't as easy to keep pain under control, that's why they usually give you a pump. Aside from that, I'm glad to hear that Evelyn is doing well. Again, thanks for the update. It especially helps those of us not yet to surgery to know what to expect. It is very selfless and giving to share your experiences, and I, for one, appreciated it tremendously!
I hope Evelyn gets some well needed rest and gets that pain under better control!
Take Care,
Rohrer01
Be happy!
We don't know what tomorrow brings,
but we are alive today!
Good to hear that you are making progress and doing well. I wonder why they decreased your pain dosage so soon? When did they take x-rays? I didn't realize they were taken so soon post-op? Sounds like you were lucky to get a private room. Keep up the progress and keep up posted.
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