OT - Surgery

Sending hugs and healing prayers to you.
ME-Judy


"Boca Jan" wrote in message
...
For those of you who knkow me and are wondering what happened, my auto
accident is filling my life right now. The spine doctor is recommending
neck surgery because my headaches are constant. I can only relieve them by
drugging out and sleeping. Not a life....

Surgery is scheduled for the end of November. I wish I didn't have to wait
so long, but they will let me know if something opens up. Next week I
will be going to a deposition addressing the criminal case against the
drunk driver who hit me. It is hard to forgive him because he has changed
my life in a bad way. It is 9 months now and like I said, pain is my life.

I hope he gets jail time to match my pain. There is just no excuse for
drunk driving.

--
Boca Jan
Florida - Land of the Hurricanes
snipsnstitchesatyahoodotcom
http://community.webshots.com/user/BocaJan

A guy in Wichita hit and killed a mother and her 4 year old while they were
crossing the street to get to school earlier in the week.

They announced yesterday the guy had a blood alcohol level of .50! That's
not a typo, half his blood volume was alcohol. The legal limit is .08.
Nobody can figure out why the guy isn't dead from alcohol poisoning.

This is the guy's 6th DUI. He just spent 6 months in jail for his 5th one.
I think the most they can charge him with this is vehicular homicide. He
had a passenger with him who is still in the hospital. The news showed the
perp's prelim yesterday. He was banged up a little,but he was upright and
talking. He still sounded drunk.

It's an awful problem.

Cindy


"Boca Jan" wrote in message
...
For those of you who knkow me and are wondering what happened, my auto
accident is filling my life right now. The spine doctor is recommending
neck surgery because my headaches are constant. I can only relieve them by
drugging out and sleeping. Not a life....

Surgery is scheduled for the end of November. I wish I didn't have to wait
so long, but they will let me know if something opens up. Next week I
will be going to a deposition addressing the criminal case against the
drunk driver who hit me. It is hard to forgive him because he has changed
my life in a bad way. It is 9 months now and like I said, pain is my life.

I hope he gets jail time to match my pain. There is just no excuse for
drunk driving.

--
Boca Jan
Florida - Land of the Hurricanes
snipsnstitchesatyahoodotcom
http://community.webshots.com/user/BocaJan

A little clarification here --- .50 means 0.50 percent or one half of
one percent or .0050 if not referring to percent. It's not 50 percent,
or one half. And .08 also refers to percent; it's the equivalent of
0.0008 if not using percentages. But .50% is still a very high blood
alcohol content.

Julia in MN

teleflora wrote:
A guy in Wichita hit and killed a mother and her 4 year old while they were
crossing the street to get to school earlier in the week.

They announced yesterday the guy had a blood alcohol level of .50! That's
not a typo, half his blood volume was alcohol. The legal limit is .08.
Nobody can figure out why the guy isn't dead from alcohol poisoning.

This is the guy's 6th DUI. He just spent 6 months in jail for his 5th one.
I think the most they can charge him with this is vehicular homicide. He
had a passenger with him who is still in the hospital. The news showed the
perp's prelim yesterday. He was banged up a little,but he was upright and
talking. He still sounded drunk.

It's an awful problem.

Cindy


"Boca Jan" wrote in message
...
For those of you who knkow me and are wondering what happened, my auto
accident is filling my life right now. The spine doctor is recommending
neck surgery because my headaches are constant. I can only relieve them by
drugging out and sleeping. Not a life....

Surgery is scheduled for the end of November. I wish I didn't have to wait
so long, but they will let me know if something opens up. Next week I
will be going to a deposition addressing the criminal case against the
drunk driver who hit me. It is hard to forgive him because he has changed
my life in a bad way. It is 9 months now and like I said, pain is my life.

I hope he gets jail time to match my pain. There is just no excuse for
drunk driving.

--
Boca Jan
Florida - Land of the Hurricanes
snipsnstitchesatyahoodotcom
http://community.webshots.com/user/BocaJan








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Oh, of course it is! How dumb of me. I wasn't a math major but I did take
math. Maybe English is my problem

Cindy


"Julia in MN" wrote in message
...
A little clarification here --- .50 means 0.50 percent or one half of one
percent or .0050 if not referring to percent. It's not 50 percent, or one
half. And .08 also refers to percent; it's the equivalent of 0.0008 if not
using percentages. But .50% is still a very high blood alcohol content.

Julia in MN

teleflora wrote:
A guy in Wichita hit and killed a mother and her 4 year old while they
were crossing the street to get to school earlier in the week.

They announced yesterday the guy had a blood alcohol level of .50!
That's not a typo, half his blood volume was alcohol. The legal limit is
.08. Nobody can figure out why the guy isn't dead from alcohol poisoning.

This is the guy's 6th DUI. He just spent 6 months in jail for his 5th
one. I think the most they can charge him with this is vehicular
homicide. He had a passenger with him who is still in the hospital. The
news showed the perp's prelim yesterday. He was banged up a little,but
he was upright and talking. He still sounded drunk.

It's an awful problem.

Cindy


"Boca Jan" wrote in message
...
For those of you who knkow me and are wondering what happened, my auto
accident is filling my life right now. The spine doctor is recommending
neck surgery because my headaches are constant. I can only relieve them
by drugging out and sleeping. Not a life....

Surgery is scheduled for the end of November. I wish I didn't have to
wait so long, but they will let me know if something opens up. Next
week I will be going to a deposition addressing the criminal case
against the drunk driver who hit me. It is hard to forgive him because
he has changed my life in a bad way. It is 9 months now and like I said,
pain is my life.

I hope he gets jail time to match my pain. There is just no excuse for
drunk driving.

--
Boca Jan
Florida - Land of the Hurricanes
snipsnstitchesatyahoodotcom
http://community.webshots.com/user/BocaJan








--
-----------
This message has been scanned for viruses by Norton Anti-Virus
http://webpages.charter.net/jaccola/
-----------

He has had surgery on his spine twice, neither have worked. They are now
going to try fusing the affected area together, hoping it will alleviate
the pain. At the beginning of Aug they told him it would be at least
April before they could fit him in. Meanwhile he is on pain killers
every day. Somedays are worse than others. His injury is lower than
yours, just below the waist.

I'm not sure whether I should say this or not, but I know I'd feel bad
knowing the info and not sharing it. There is a big problem with back
surgery, I don't know why it seems to be a feature of spine related
stuff, but overall the sucess and satisfaction rates are low, if you're
considering it, you really need to get down to the nitty gritty specfic
details from your surgeon, get the numbers from them, ask them about
long term satisfaction, etc, get the exact technical name of your
problem and the surgery you'll have and go and search for independent
figures - in particular look and long term views of patients, if you're
in pain, the fact the MRI looks better and the doctor declares it a
success isn't all that relevant, unless you have a matched comparision
with a group who didn't have the surgery and find they deteriorated
(which is only a small percentage of back/neck issues).

If your insurance allows it (and these days it should, but I don't know
the legal details), a 2nd opinion is always worth the time and effort (I
borrowed a book from the library that had a great explaination of this,
all backed by research, but when it comes to the crunch, no two doctors
have identical opinions and hearing both can help you pinpoint what is
best for you) - plus sometimes the surgeon you didn't go to first for a
random reason can turn out to be the better one!

There are some instances where surgery has excellent results, somewhere
the results aren't great, but it doesn't do harm and levels of pain and
symptoms can make it worth a try and other times when the chance of
getting worse is high - but we all have a tendancy to put our hopes into
something, I've had multiple joint surgeries, some of which have had
extended recovery periods, I don't just want to know the chances of
getting better, but also the chances of getting worse. Also remember
that all these imaging techniques aren't accurate pictures of what is
going on, there are some things they can't see or don't see all the time
and things can look surprisingly different when they get in there, I
didn't really know to ask that question about my hip, on the basis of
what they thought was there, both doctors thought the surgery had a good
chance, I never asked what were the chances it was different inside, the
surgeon didn't say anything, I think that it really was a surprise when
he got inside, but it changes the outlook to good chance of complete
recovery to no chance of complete recovery but hopefully a good amount
of improvement - that's a question worth knowing the answer to if you
can! I asked a lot of questions before this surgery, I had extra
appointments, I made phone calls, I cancelled the surgery to ask more
questions and there was still more to know - moral of the story, I don't
think it's possible to ask too many questions!

Boca Jan, I hope that surgery is the right decision for you and you get
in quickly with a cancellation, the neurological symptoms sound
horrible, but please get a 2nd opinion as you can't turn back the clock
if you are unlucky enough to end up worse off after surgery.

Cheers
Anne

Jan, I will be sending constant prayers and good, healing thoughts. Hope
the surgery is successful. Let us know the date, and it will be on the list
for all the good thoughts/prayers we can send you.

--
Carolyn in The Old Pueblo

If it ain't broke, you're not trying. --Red Green
If it ain't broke, it ain't mine. --Carolyn McCarty

If at first you don't succeed, switch to power tools. --Red Green
If at first you don't succeed, get a bigger hammer. --Carolyn McCarty

"Boca Jan" wrote in message
...
For those of you who knkow me and are wondering what happened, my auto
accident is filling my life right now. The spine doctor is recommending
neck surgery because my headaches are constant. I can only relieve them by
drugging out and sleeping. Not a life....

Surgery is scheduled for the end of November. I wish I didn't have to wait
so long, but they will let me know if something opens up. Next week I
will be going to a deposition addressing the criminal case against the
drunk driver who hit me. It is hard to forgive him because he has changed
my life in a bad way. It is 9 months now and like I said, pain is my life.

I hope he gets jail time to match my pain. There is just no excuse for
drunk driving.

--
Boca Jan
Florida - Land of the Hurricanes
snipsnstitchesatyahoodotcom
http://community.webshots.com/user/BocaJan

Prayers and healing thoughts on the way.

--
Donna in NE La.
"Boca Jan" wrote in message
...
For those of you who knkow me and are wondering what happened, my auto
accident is filling my life right now. The spine doctor is recommending
neck surgery because my headaches are constant. I can only relieve them by
drugging out and sleeping. Not a life....

Surgery is scheduled for the end of November. I wish I didn't have to wait
so long, but they will let me know if something opens up. Next week I
will be going to a deposition addressing the criminal case against the
drunk driver who hit me. It is hard to forgive him because he has changed
my life in a bad way. It is 9 months now and like I said, pain is my life.

I hope he gets jail time to match my pain. There is just no excuse for
drunk driving.

--
Boca Jan
Florida - Land of the Hurricanes
snipsnstitchesatyahoodotcom
http://community.webshots.com/user/BocaJan

Thanks Anne. The surgery is on my neck. The doctor is the finest specialist
in the area. He said the success rate is 95% for this type of surgery.

My lower back was also damaged. I have a displaced vertebra. He said that is
not as successful because your lower back has to hold up your whole torso
and is harder to recooperate from. He feels that there may be some relief
from the lower back pain when the neck is done because of how the 2
herniated discs are pressing on the nerves. There is no better doctor to get
a second opinion from.

Yes, they are going to fuse the spine. I have seen a model of what they are
going to do and he says it isn't a difficult surgery. He will be going in
from the front .

--
Boca Jan
Florida - Land of the Hurricanes
snipsnstitchesatyahoodotcom
http://community.webshots.com/user/BocaJan



"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
. ..

He has had surgery on his spine twice, neither have worked. They are now
going to try fusing the affected area together, hoping it will alleviate
the pain. At the beginning of Aug they told him it would be at least
April before they could fit him in. Meanwhile he is on pain killers every
day. Somedays are worse than others. His injury is lower than yours, just
below the waist.

I'm not sure whether I should say this or not, but I know I'd feel bad
knowing the info and not sharing it. There is a big problem with back
surgery, I don't know why it seems to be a feature of spine related stuff,
but overall the sucess and satisfaction rates are low, if you're
considering it, you really need to get down to the nitty gritty specfic
details from your surgeon, get the numbers from them, ask them about long
term satisfaction, etc, get the exact technical name of your problem and
the surgery you'll have and go and search for independent figures - in
particular look and long term views of patients, if you're in pain, the
fact the MRI looks better and the doctor declares it a success isn't all
that relevant, unless you have a matched comparision with a group who
didn't have the surgery and find they deteriorated (which is only a small
percentage of back/neck issues).

If your insurance allows it (and these days it should, but I don't know
the legal details), a 2nd opinion is always worth the time and effort (I
borrowed a book from the library that had a great explaination of this,
all backed by research, but when it comes to the crunch, no two doctors
have identical opinions and hearing both can help you pinpoint what is
best for you) - plus sometimes the surgeon you didn't go to first for a
random reason can turn out to be the better one!

There are some instances where surgery has excellent results, somewhere
the results aren't great, but it doesn't do harm and levels of pain and
symptoms can make it worth a try and other times when the chance of
getting worse is high - but we all have a tendancy to put our hopes into
something, I've had multiple joint surgeries, some of which have had
extended recovery periods, I don't just want to know the chances of
getting better, but also the chances of getting worse. Also remember that
all these imaging techniques aren't accurate pictures of what is going on,
there are some things they can't see or don't see all the time and things
can look surprisingly different when they get in there, I didn't really
know to ask that question about my hip, on the basis of what they thought
was there, both doctors thought the surgery had a good chance, I never
asked what were the chances it was different inside, the surgeon didn't
say anything, I think that it really was a surprise when he got inside,
but it changes the outlook to good chance of complete recovery to no
chance of complete recovery but hopefully a good amount of improvement -
that's a question worth knowing the answer to if you can! I asked a lot of
questions before this surgery, I had extra appointments, I made phone
calls, I cancelled the surgery to ask more questions and there was still
more to know - moral of the story, I don't think it's possible to ask too
many questions!

Boca Jan, I hope that surgery is the right decision for you and you get in
quickly with a cancellation, the neurological symptoms sound horrible, but
please get a 2nd opinion as you can't turn back the clock if you are
unlucky enough to end up worse off after surgery.

Cheers
Anne

I really don't have any specific knowledge about any particular spinal
surgery, more that it's a general area where I do know the outcomes are
not as good as anyone would like.

When he says 95% success, I'd ask him to break that down as to what he
means 95% success at getting the fusion to take? Good result, but only
worth it if it's correlated with lessened symptoms and if it's a symptom
based result, at what point in time is that and does he have data for
different time windows, again, it's great if 95% are feeling good at say
3 months after surgery, but if a number of them develop problems in
future it's a less useful figure.

One doctor did say to me that when you fuse a joint in the spine you
often spread the problem out to other areas, so it's a matter of
balancing are the symptoms significant enough that you need to fuse it
to protect the spinal cord, or have you really tried everything else -
that came from an doctor who does alternative things, so it is a bit in
his interest to discourage surgery, so take it with a pinch of salt!

Cheers
Anne

Jan, I wish you the best of luck with the surgery and getting rid of the
pain. Having been the victim of a drunk driver myself, I can certainly
relate to what you're going through.

Memorial Day weekend in 1994, in Minnesota, DH, his brother, me and my
youngest step-daughter who was 4 at the time, had just left the emergency
room. We were making a left-hand turn on a green light when a truck ran a
red light and slammed into us at 55 mph. We were in a full size van, my BIL
was driving, DH was sitting in the front passenger seat holding SD and I
was sitting behind DH. The truck hit where i was sitting. The impact threw
me across the van and almost turned it over. I was wearing my seatbelt too.
Well, we made a trip right back to the ER with me in an ambulance. As a
result I have a herniated disk in my lumber spine and two in my thoracic
spine. The one in my lumbar area compresses the sciatic nerve. I had to give
up nursing and cosmetology both because I can't stand on my feet for very
long now.

The guy who hit us was 24. When police finally caught him, he was charged
with DWI, hit & run, leaving the scene of an accident with injuries, running
a red light, assault, and a couple more things that I can't remember. I
think he ended up spending about 30 days in jail and that was it. Forgiving
him for the permanent change that he made in my life took a long time but
when I finally got to that point it was a weight lifted off me and I
actually started learning to accept it and deal with the pain a lot better.
And I do have pain.

The one I haven't been able to forgive completely is the woman who killed my
precious brother two years ago. Her toxicology report came back showing 3
different drugs that cause drowsiness and dizziness and come with warnings
about operating machinery or driving while taking them. One of the drugs was
a narcotic. She was driving on the wrong side of a 4 lane divided highway.
Now my brother is dead because of her. I don't know who I'm more angry at
though, her for causing his death or the prosecuting attorney for not
prosecuting her.

Anyway, I just wanted to comisserate with you and let you know that I'll be
keeping you in my prayers. I hope all goes well for you.

Hugs,
Mika

"Boca Jan" wrote in message
...
For those of you who knkow me and are wondering what happened, my auto
accident is filling my life right now. The spine doctor is recommending
neck surgery because my headaches are constant. I can only relieve them by
drugging out and sleeping. Not a life....

Surgery is scheduled for the end of November. I wish I didn't have to wait
so long, but they will let me know if something opens up. Next week I
will be going to a deposition addressing the criminal case against the
drunk driver who hit me. It is hard to forgive him because he has changed
my life in a bad way. It is 9 months now and like I said, pain is my life.

I hope he gets jail time to match my pain. There is just no excuse for
drunk driving.

--
Boca Jan
Florida - Land of the Hurricanes
snipsnstitchesatyahoodotcom
http://community.webshots.com/user/BocaJan