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  • Mike LaGrone's new boutique hospital

    I recently had a fusion done from L2 to L4. While it doesn't seem complicated, the new hardware had to be connected to the old, much larger hardware, I had pretty severe spinal stenosis, arthritis, sciatica, radiculopathies, and a whole lot of scar tissue from about a thousand rhizotomies.

    I went back to the surgeon that did my salvage surgery in 1999, where I am apparently known as their "the legend" patient, because of how difficult that surgery was. I was not excited about the hospital stay though, my husband and I has a rather bad experience with a nurse stealing my pain meds. But that was 20 years ago, I'm sure better security measures were put into place since then.

    But much to my surprise, I didn't have my surgery at that hospital as a new 'boutique' hospital has been opened. It only has 20 beds and the most beautiful operating suite I've ever seen! I think all the patient rooms are singles. Every nurse is hand-picked and they were all fantastic! My call button never went unanswered because every nurse only cares for a couple of patients- you literally get almost all of their time! On my first night, my nurse stayed in my room with my sister and I the entire night. There are no students or residents or fellows parading through your room with no introductions. They let you sleep for most of the night- they quietly come in and check monitors, but they don't wake you up every two hours to take your bp and temp. They do that before you get up to use the facilities or if you need meds.

    The nurses offered to roll in a bed for my husband or sister, whichever one was with me for the night. Both of them felt the leather recliner was really comfy, so they just slept in that.

    If you have never experienced a boutique hospital, I can't recommend them highly enough.

    This hospital is absolutely AMAZING!!!!! And of course Mike LaGrone continues to be one of the best scoli surgeons out there. But this hospital made the trip to Amarillo totally worth it!
    "The plural of anecdote is not data" --Frank Kotsonis

    Ph.D. in Bone Biology
    Harrington rod and Leuke sublaminar wires 2/1986, fused T4 to T12.
    First revision 3/1987 fused pseudoarthrosis, placed CD instrumentation from T10-T12.
    CD instrumentation removal 10/97 following breakage.
    Leuke wire removal 4/99.
    Salvage surgery; Harrington removal 1/2000, fused to L2.
    Ruptured disc, fusion extension to L4 3/2016.
    Surgeons: David Bradford, Francois Denis, Mike Lagrone

  • #2
    Prf

    You have had some work done. Wow!

    And by some of the guru’s of scoliosis....This hospital sounds pretty nice.

    I am interested in scoliosis history because I was there, a Luque wire candidate back in the day....

    And I waited because of skiing, and technology.....

    Can I ask you a few bone related questions? How much blame would you place on our bone, its formation, remodeling, lack of integrity, on scoliosis? There have been different scoliosis theories, but can we point a large red arrow in this direction?

    Glad you chimed in...

    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

    Bending and twisting pics after full fusion
    http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/showt...on.&highlight=

    My x-rays
    http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/attac...2&d=1228779214

    http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/attac...3&d=1228779258

    Comment


    • #3
      Hi Allison...

      It's been a long time. Sorry to hear that you needed additional surgery and hope that you're now fixed.

      --Linda
      Never argue with an idiot. They always drag you down to their level, and then they beat you with experience. --Twain
      ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Surgery 2/10/93 A/P fusion T4-L3
      Surgery 1/20/11 A/P fusion L2-sacrum w/pelvic fixation

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by LindaRacine View Post
        Hi Allison...

        It's been a long time. Sorry to hear that you needed additional surgery and hope that you're now fixed.

        --Linda
        Hi Linda!
        It has been a long time. Sorry I've been gone for so long. I hope all is well with you:-) Thank you, I hope it's the last one as well. I really do.
        "The plural of anecdote is not data" --Frank Kotsonis

        Ph.D. in Bone Biology
        Harrington rod and Leuke sublaminar wires 2/1986, fused T4 to T12.
        First revision 3/1987 fused pseudoarthrosis, placed CD instrumentation from T10-T12.
        CD instrumentation removal 10/97 following breakage.
        Leuke wire removal 4/99.
        Salvage surgery; Harrington removal 1/2000, fused to L2.
        Ruptured disc, fusion extension to L4 3/2016.
        Surgeons: David Bradford, Francois Denis, Mike Lagrone

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by titaniumed View Post
          Prf

          You have had some work done. Wow!

          And by some of the guru’s of scoliosis....This hospital sounds pretty nice.

          I am interested in scoliosis history because I was there, a Luque wire candidate back in the day....

          And I waited because of skiing, and technology.....

          Can I ask you a few bone related questions? How much blame would you place on our bone, its formation, remodeling, lack of integrity, on scoliosis? There have been different scoliosis theories, but can we point a large red arrow in this direction?

          Glad you chimed in...

          Ed
          Hi Ed, nice to virtually meet you!

          As for the Leque wires, it's good you waited. They're more problem than they're worth really.

          As for your bone question; my thesis is on bone remodeling. I don't think it has much to do with scoliosis. I think that's been the easy direction for clinical researchers to take because it's so much easier than molecular biology. Remodeling issues are systemic; too much and you have osteoporosis, too little, osteopetrosis. Collagen defects in the remodeling, you get OI. But you get these things everywhere, in all bones. Not just some.

          No, the answer will be in our genes. And unfortunately, that research is much more difficult. I've written my hypothesis before in this forum, albeit a long time ago. I think it will be a mutation in a symmetry homeobox gene, specific to the spine and is up-regulated by hormone changes that take place during adolescence. I think that we will find that all scoliosis' are congenital. We're all born with it. Many diseases that manifest later in life are being found to have this trait, I think AIS is one of them.

          And even if it is a remodeling issue, that won't be the end of the story, just the beginning. The answer will still have a genetic basis. You don't get bad remodeling without a DNA mutation somewhere, except in the case of osteoporosis; but even that may have a genetic cause as there are specific traits that we see that disease in more than others.

          I wish we would stop funding these proposals that look for a physical cause like remodeling. It's just wasting time and money. We need to look to our genes.

          Ok, bring on the haters. This is why I quit coming here- people that didn't know anything about science were spouting the most ridiculous hypotheses. I mean, it was NUTS!!! And eventually, when people pointed out the holes, the argument (lower-case argument, not Argument) would dissolve into personal attacks. So I was done. I hope that's changed. I guess this post will be the litmus test.
          "The plural of anecdote is not data" --Frank Kotsonis

          Ph.D. in Bone Biology
          Harrington rod and Leuke sublaminar wires 2/1986, fused T4 to T12.
          First revision 3/1987 fused pseudoarthrosis, placed CD instrumentation from T10-T12.
          CD instrumentation removal 10/97 following breakage.
          Leuke wire removal 4/99.
          Salvage surgery; Harrington removal 1/2000, fused to L2.
          Ruptured disc, fusion extension to L4 3/2016.
          Surgeons: David Bradford, Francois Denis, Mike Lagrone

          Comment


          • #6
            Allison, Thanks for your answer.

            So, if its solely up to our genes, does this determine who will have a pseudarthrosis? Funny how they happen to most ages, and Dr Lenke has reported finding them around 8 years post. Can we fuse to an extent, and un-fuse years later? I am not looking for a cause, mostly looking for answers leading to adult scoliosis fusion problems that relate to discs and bone growth and integrity. You know, the stuff we have to worry about (smiley face)

            There is a lot to wonder about living with scoliosis or any disease. I have always believed we are all congenital.....

            I missed your posts years ago either because I was recovering or sidestepping threads that contained attacks. Sidestepping is a better alternative. We have to put our horse blinders on when we do our surgeries, its something that I do here.

            We have to get back on track on this “boutique” hospital....which sounds great! This can be appreciated by those that have difficult hospital experiences....

            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

            Bending and twisting pics after full fusion
            http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/showt...on.&highlight=

            My x-rays
            http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/attac...2&d=1228779214

            http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/attac...3&d=1228779258

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by titaniumed View Post
              Allison, Thanks for your answer.

              So, if its solely up to our genes, does this determine who will have a pseudarthrosis? Funny how they happen to most ages, and Dr Lenke has reported finding them around 8 years post. Can we fuse to an extent, and un-fuse years later? I am not looking for a cause, mostly looking for answers leading to adult scoliosis fusion problems that relate to discs and bone growth and integrity. You know, the stuff we have to worry about (smiley face)

              There is a lot to wonder about living with scoliosis or any disease. I have always believed we are all congenital.....

              I missed your posts years ago either because I was recovering or sidestepping threads that contained attacks. Sidestepping is a better alternative. We have to put our horse blinders on when we do our surgeries, its something that I do here.

              We have to get back on track on this “boutique” hospital....which sounds great! This can be appreciated by those that have difficult hospital experiences....

              Ed
              Hi Ed:-)

              As for your pseudoarthrosis question, potentially, but it probably has environmental factors and programed cell death (apoptosis) issues as well (I would guess). If we take an autotransplant from the iliac crest, there may be only a certain number of times the cells can divide before they die. When they die, they stop making bone. Since they weren't supposed to be there in the first place, there is no gene to tell those cells to keep making hip bone on a spine. So they die after a certain number of replications at a foreign site. That's one hypothesis. Another is constant exposure to environmental factors; even nanocontaminants could play a role. We all know that most spine surgeons won't even do a fusion on a person that smokes, but we're all exposed to those chemicals through the atmosphere every day through a person's trailing wake (which is VERY significant), your neighbor's house, and even just overall atmospheric contaminants. That's another theory. It could be a combination. Who knows? Interesting question though.

              Have they found a difference in the time to pseudoarthrosis between allo and auto transplants? I actually don't know.

              But yes, his hospital (Mike is part owner) is FABULOUS!!! Even the food was great! And the nice thing about Amarillo is that since it's such a regional medical hub, most of the extended stay hotels are set up for patient recovery, so you don't have to go to a rehab center. I stayed another ten days at one of those hotels with my husband; the manager had all my breakfasts brought to my room, they called every day before the maid knocked, and they encouraged me to walk in the hallways. They were all very sweet.
              "The plural of anecdote is not data" --Frank Kotsonis

              Ph.D. in Bone Biology
              Harrington rod and Leuke sublaminar wires 2/1986, fused T4 to T12.
              First revision 3/1987 fused pseudoarthrosis, placed CD instrumentation from T10-T12.
              CD instrumentation removal 10/97 following breakage.
              Leuke wire removal 4/99.
              Salvage surgery; Harrington removal 1/2000, fused to L2.
              Ruptured disc, fusion extension to L4 3/2016.
              Surgeons: David Bradford, Francois Denis, Mike Lagrone

              Comment

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