spines of steel

[richardis]

very interesting essay:
https://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/b...ent/Linker.pdf

[Pooka1]

I skimmed that.

I have a better appreciation for the nightmare people were facing before modern segmental instrumentation. What a world.

[titaniumed]

I was told by every single doctor I ever met that I would eventually need scoliosis surgery but NEVER ever ran into a “cut happy” surgeon. I sensed a lot of hesitancy in 1975, and I guess this has a lot do to with who it is, and how bad off you are.

I guess I was lucky that my spine was bad enough to cause this hesitancy, but not bad enough to limit my lifespan. I suspect that my L5 caused this, it being a major wedge, knocked off the possibility of a Harrington Rod. Back in 1975 or so, there was talk of the Luque system.....Both of which were born out of necessity due to polio, Harrington in Houston, Luque in Mexico. Brad (Quickdraw) has a Luque done by Dr Bradford in 1983. It uses no screws, it uses wires. Seemed like a great idea at the time until they found out that the wires can eventually pull through bone over many years. The Luque was the only system at that time that could anchor into the pelvis.

The pedicle screw was the next step.

I think I was lucky to skip nuclear war and scoliosis surgery as a child. We did air raid drills as children, and had no clue what this was all about. When scoliosis hit, I also had no clue and learned what I could through the years. We are all learning as we go, patients and scoliosis surgeons. More research needs to be done as the eventual cure will not involve hardware.

Polio is handled with a vaccine......Wouldn’t it be nice if we could do something similar to erradicate scoliosis?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonas_Salk

Ed

[RitaR]

I’d be all for that as I really suffer tonite. And, when your dr doesn’t return your call, what’s the alternative supposed to be?

[nmhtx]

Follow up after surgery

I had surgery in 1974, 2 Hrods implanted, 14 vertebra fused, am now 63 and feeling it. Wondered how you are feeling and doing after your surgery?

Best,
Nancy