Bonjour à tous! I have been reading you for some weeks, and today I’m willing to post for the first time. It’s a bit hard for my mother tongue is french and not english. Hope that my post will be clear enough to be understood!
I’m having surgery next fall. My 2 curves (lumbar and thoracic) are around 70 degrees. It took me months thinking about that to make the decision to go to surgery, because I have pain every day, but not a horrible pain. I can manage it with rest, special stretching exercises every morning and the help of an osteopath. Hard to choose going from a well known pain to… an unkown condition, with lost flexibility. But I don’t have to explain, everybody on this forum has experienced it… My decision to undergo surgery rests on the fact that the curves (and pain) are getting worse with time, despite of my efforts to maintain a good physical shape. In 2001, the curves were 60 (lumbar) and 45 (thoracic).
My experience with doctors is similar to Spinetime’s experience : all my life, the doctors I’ve seen didn’t seem to take scoliosis for a serious condition. None of them (and I don’t talk about generalists only, but about orthopedists as well) told me that I could have a surgery, they all told that the surgery was only for adolescents and that from the end of growing, scoliosis does not increase. Without Internet, I would continue to believe them, even if they are wrong, as I know it now. 2 years ago, I decided to search by myself a solution to the increasing pain in my back. I found an SRS doctor working in Montreal, met him, asked for a second opinion in France, on the recommandation of members of a french scoliosis forum. Both told me that surgery was an indicated treatment in my case.
I have 2 questions :
Does a surgeon who is hypercompetent with children or ados is necessarily as good with adults? Am I right to think that anyway, adults who go to surgery are far less numerous than adolescents, so no surgeon do surgery on adults only? Is adult spinal surgery a specialty of its own? (hmm, that makes more than 2 questions ☺). The surgeon I have chosen has done two fellowships (Pediatric Orthopedic, Spine Surgery and research in San Diego and a fellowship as Clinical Chief – Orthopedic Pediatric & Spine surgery–, at the Hôpital St-Vincent de Paul, France), both in pediatric surgery. He is very involved in research about scoliosis. He sees adults too, but I’m curious to have your feelings about that.
My other question is related to long-term outcomes of surgery. As many of you, I undergo surgery with the hope that it gives me a better chance to preserve my health in the future (I’m 53). I have read a lot of posts from persons who are very happy with the surgery at the end of recovery, and also a lot from persons who had surgery when they were adolescents and need a revision surgery in the middle of their life because they have problems as their back get older. What is the stability of the outcomes of the surgery I’m planning? Will its benefit last for a long time? It’s of course an important issue to me. I got an answer to this question from the surgeon, but I would like one from persons who had the surgery when adults and have been living with the fusion for some years.
Thanks in advance for your comments! This forum is great!
I’m having surgery next fall. My 2 curves (lumbar and thoracic) are around 70 degrees. It took me months thinking about that to make the decision to go to surgery, because I have pain every day, but not a horrible pain. I can manage it with rest, special stretching exercises every morning and the help of an osteopath. Hard to choose going from a well known pain to… an unkown condition, with lost flexibility. But I don’t have to explain, everybody on this forum has experienced it… My decision to undergo surgery rests on the fact that the curves (and pain) are getting worse with time, despite of my efforts to maintain a good physical shape. In 2001, the curves were 60 (lumbar) and 45 (thoracic).
My experience with doctors is similar to Spinetime’s experience : all my life, the doctors I’ve seen didn’t seem to take scoliosis for a serious condition. None of them (and I don’t talk about generalists only, but about orthopedists as well) told me that I could have a surgery, they all told that the surgery was only for adolescents and that from the end of growing, scoliosis does not increase. Without Internet, I would continue to believe them, even if they are wrong, as I know it now. 2 years ago, I decided to search by myself a solution to the increasing pain in my back. I found an SRS doctor working in Montreal, met him, asked for a second opinion in France, on the recommandation of members of a french scoliosis forum. Both told me that surgery was an indicated treatment in my case.
I have 2 questions :
Does a surgeon who is hypercompetent with children or ados is necessarily as good with adults? Am I right to think that anyway, adults who go to surgery are far less numerous than adolescents, so no surgeon do surgery on adults only? Is adult spinal surgery a specialty of its own? (hmm, that makes more than 2 questions ☺). The surgeon I have chosen has done two fellowships (Pediatric Orthopedic, Spine Surgery and research in San Diego and a fellowship as Clinical Chief – Orthopedic Pediatric & Spine surgery–, at the Hôpital St-Vincent de Paul, France), both in pediatric surgery. He is very involved in research about scoliosis. He sees adults too, but I’m curious to have your feelings about that.
My other question is related to long-term outcomes of surgery. As many of you, I undergo surgery with the hope that it gives me a better chance to preserve my health in the future (I’m 53). I have read a lot of posts from persons who are very happy with the surgery at the end of recovery, and also a lot from persons who had surgery when they were adolescents and need a revision surgery in the middle of their life because they have problems as their back get older. What is the stability of the outcomes of the surgery I’m planning? Will its benefit last for a long time? It’s of course an important issue to me. I got an answer to this question from the surgeon, but I would like one from persons who had the surgery when adults and have been living with the fusion for some years.
Thanks in advance for your comments! This forum is great!
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