Hello and broken rods :( :(

[titaniumed]

Ed - 1983 in Ohio public schools. I was mortified. I’m not sure it mattered in my case that they caught me, since I ended up needing the whole shabang at age 40 anyway.

Yeah....Your right, it didn't matter with me either, which isn't the norm in most cases. Today its different due to the improvements. I really have to think hard about my diagnosis since you do forget these things over time....I guess I have done a few mental resets over the years. Surgery was like that for me, always looking forward and never thinking back.

You will do good....

Ed

[Confusedmom]

They caught you in school at age 11? Not bad. What year was that, and where was this? They didnt school screen in 1969, and I felt it doing crooked situps in the 5th grade.

Ed

Ed - 1983 in Ohio public schools. I was mortified. I’m not sure it mattered in my case that they caught me, since I ended up needing the whole shabang at age 40 anyway.

Linda - Love your description of the poll dance fall. Sorry you have balance issues, too. I hate to think what I’ll be like when I’m elderly.

All - Revision tomorrow. Dr. Lenke says he will remove lumbar rods (and screws if necessary), replace, add a cage most likely, add 3-4 additional short rods. Expects it to take 3-4 hours instead of the 8-10 of the first surgery. Wish me luck, all! I will report back in a couple weeks!

[LindaRacine]

I’ve heard many surgeons state that spinal fusions actually protect against trauma.

[jackieg412]

Yes Ed you are right about falling. Not good. I am still amazed that I did not crack the fusion in the car accident. Imagine being thrown against a brick wall at 30 Mph. Yes the air bags deployed and the seat belt locked. The seat belt itself caused considerable pain.
I happened to break everything in between the fusions but not the fusion. Go figure!

[titaniumed]

It could also be PLIFs.

Correct

I guess I think mostly TLIF due to Dr Lonners explaination of it being a "refined" PLIF. Less muscle dissection and nerve manipuation.
https://www.scoliosisassociates.com/...if-procedures/

However, TLIF was superior to PLIF with shorter operation time, less blood loss, and lower incidence of nerve root injury and dural tear.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29367001

There is a lot of info online about TLIF vs PLIF. (For those interested in this material)

Ed

[LindaRacine]

Yes, you had TLIF's if you have cages.

It could also be PLIFs.

TLIF:
https://www.spine-health.com/video/t...ion-tlif-video

PLIF:
https://www.spine-health.com/video/p...ion-plif-video

[titaniumed]

Falling is not good. (at any stage, for anyone)

I was warned about cracking my fusions in ski crashes....especially with a large rotational force. I dont think just because you do not hear a popping sound that damage is not being done after a fall....Also dont know if after a crack, if its all said and done, or if it goes on to re-fuse again.

Yes, you had TLIF's if you have cages. I guess Dr L does these on most if not all of his cases....

Neil Peart, drummer of the band Rush passed away at 67 a few days ago from Glioblastoma....(Brain Cancer) What a shock. This cancer is a hard one to deal with since the brain doesnt heal, and meds dont do well with the blood brain barrier. RIP Yes, scoliosis is better than this one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Peart

Good news on Dr L. He will get you fixed up.

If you think you are going to fall, try to go down on one knee to soften the blow. If I am queasy, I always sit down.

They caught you in school at age 11? Not bad. What year was that, and where was this? They didnt school screen in 1969, and I felt it doing crooked situps in the 5th grade.

Ed

[LindaRacine]

I have the same balance issue. I’ve always suspected that it had something to do with one’s center of balance being altered. I was once on an airport train shuttle that came to a rather sudden stop. I was standing, and holding onto a pole. As the train drew to the stop, I did an awkward looking pole dance. I had no ability to right myself as it took place.

[Confusedmom]

There it is......a few times?....Your not on the Thai kickboxing circuit are you?

Its been a lot of years Evelyn, so sorry to hear about this.

Ed

Yes Ed, I fall like a tree. Anyone else have this problem? Ever since I was fused T4 - S1. I have no balance once I fall past a certain point. I have fallen and broken a wrist, fallen and broken an ankle (separately), and face-planted and bit through my lower lip/gum. None of it fun. But, none of the "pops" occurred with the falls. The falls also were all past the first year of fusion. So, I think I just failed to fuse in the first place because maybe I don't have great bone growth? I had osteopenia at age 40 for my first fusion, so. Yeah, this time I am going to ask for bubble wrap!!!

On the radiation/cancer question. Yes, I was diagnosed with scoliosis at age 11 in a school screening and have had about 6 million x-rays in my life. Even though I have a lumbar curve, they always refuse to shield my upper half. However, none of us can really point to x-rays if we get cancer because guess what? About half of all people will get cancer in their lives, whether they have scoliosis or not. Fun, fun. I will take spinal fusion over cancer if given a choice.

On that note. Good news!!! Dr. Lenke has an opening in February to do my revision!! I didn't expect it this quickly, but I will take it. Wish me luck all! Heading to NYC first week of February. The revision is around L1-L3-4. The CT was inconclusive, so he will have to decide during the operation, I think. I have a CT myelogram scheduled this week; maybe that will provide more info.

[titaniumed]

Yes, good catch Sharon

Already knowing about the 4% in the Danish study, I was thinking about all the rest (96%) that were not affected quite as bad. Like me. Airplane pilots and even the Japanese Atomic bomb survivors (some double, Hiroshima and Nakasaki) who made it into their 90's....Also knowing breast cancer survivors that did not have scoliosis, (a lot of them)

Even if there is no proof that Toni got cancer from repeated x-rays, cts, and flouroscopy (dont know if or how you can prove something like that) she did do 2 open thoracotomies and a costoplasty, and the standard posterior thoracic procedures that we do. (Also early bracing and its x-rays). She really did have a lot of exposure in her chest area.....(smug face)

I guess our DNA is all so different that there are extremes that are hard to explain. Like the oldest verfied person Jeane Calment who lived to 122 and smoked every day. I had a friend who did nothing and died from cancer at age 10. I cant help from wondering about this....

Ed

[Pooka1]

I think the chiros wrote that paper to defend against the notion that they take a lot of radiographs. It's a self-fluff piece.

[LindaRacine]

Sharon, It always hard for me to talk about Tonibunny....but thought I would follow up

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6560808/


Any increase in breast or other cancers in scoliosis cohorts are likely due to the disease entity itself as scoliosis of the spine has direct biomechanical consequences on internal organs (ie, heart and lungs) as well as the spinal cord and nerves, both factors being critical issues of concern in evaluating scoliosis surgery necessity as these factors influence long-term health and longevity.

Ed

Agree with Sharon. This is probably totally junk science.

[Pooka1]

http://europepmc.org/article/med/27592106

The overall cancer rate in this AIS cohort was 4.3 % which is five times higher than compared to the age-matched Danish population, and endometrial and breast cancer was most frequent. The radiation dose applied to the patients in this study, is comparable to modern equipment. This is to our knowledge the first study to report increased rates of endometrial cancers in a cohort of AIS patients, and future attention is needed to reduce the radiation dose distributed to the AIS patients both pre-operatively and during surgery.

[Pooka1]

https://www.fda.gov/radiation-emitti...is-radiography

Radiation-induced breast cancer in women has been well-documented in the scientific literature. In addition, several bioeffects studies indicate that women who were exposed to ionizing radiation during adolescence have a greater risk of developing breast cancer than those who were exposed later in life.

[Pooka1]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6560808/

Chiros wrote that. That is the only explanation for why this passage can appear in a paper in 2019...

The ultimate goal of treating scoliosis, and AIS in particular, is to prevent surgery. Recent evidence has substantiated that contemporary patient-specific, customized treatment approaches including intensive exercise programs (ie, Schroth methods33-35), spinal traction techniques (CBP approach36,37), and 3-dimensional types of corrective spinal braces (ie, ScoliBrace,38 Spinecor brace,39-41 Gensingen brace42) point to successful outcomes of curve magnitude reduction strategies that were not yet available or popular in the past.

Either they were high when they wrote it or they don't know WTF they are talking about. It is as if it came through a wormhole out of the past and that there is STILL no evidence PT or Spinecor or any brace avoids surgery for life. They don't seem to even know braces don't reduce curves.

I don't think chiros are necessarily qualified to discuss radiation exposure and I don't know about the quality of that journal but they are publishing nonsense wrt at least that paragraph I posted.