Just had the JHO Procedure
 

Hi, last week I had a Anterior Cervical Microforaminotomy with spinal cord decompression on c5 - c6. I am in a lot of pain and recovering is slow. I still need to have c3 - c4 done which has aggravated my migraine headaches for many years and have ongoing DDD in my neck and thorasic spine so I am not certain when or if I'll be pain free any time soon.
Dr. JHo and his team were excellent -- they run a first rate operation (no pun intended), almost seperate from Allegheny General Hospital. Minimally invasive does not mean minimal pain, but it is incredible. I think a doctor at the Cleveland Clinic compared it to building a ship in a bottle. I have an incision on my anterior neck about 2" long; my posterior neck and right arm have been throbbing and pounding less I medicate myself. In 6 weeks i will have a foloow up MRI to check the status of my surgery. I am hopeful that time will decrease the swelling and pain.

Welcome!

I wish you a speedy recovery and good management for your pain during that time.

It's good to have you here. :)

KD

Hi, Tish! :Wave-Hello: Welcome to NeuroTalk!

Geez, I hope things will calm down for you now.

There are a few discussions underway concerning those procedures in the spinal disorders forum found here: http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum22.html


Feel free to join in anywhere and let us know if we can help you navigate the forums.:)

Tish,

Hello and welcome to NeuroTalk. Great to see you have come to be with us. You will find a great number of caring, supporting members here willing to help each other as they can. I see AMN has given you a link to see into.

Again welcome, looking forward to seeing you around.

Darlene:hug:

Hi Tish, Please let me know how you are doing. I have an appointment April 2nd with Dr. Jho and still have a lot of thinking to do as Dr. Kang at UPMC want to do a traditional fusion on me. He says I am not a good candidate for MIS (Minimally Invasive Surgery), but the Laser SPine Institute at my consultation said I was. My insurance is just not good outside of Pa. except for emergencies. I have c4,5,6 fused and my relief was immediate except for the recovery, but I did well in 2005. Often other levels or problems will come out later as did mine.

I am glad to hear positive things about Dr. Jho as he is criticized by a lot of doctors, but then again his surgery doesn't cost as much as a traditional on the they would make less money. I do trust Dr. Kang totally and he is a great surgeon of the highest skill and character, but I hope I qualify for Dr. Jho's procedure. I figure I can try his way and if it doesn't work out for me I can always have the standard procedure done by Dr. Kang.

I will be watching the thread here. Take care, david

Welcome
 

Hi Tish,
I'm so sorry to hear of your pain. I too have fusions in my cervical spine. It looks as if I may be looking at another one, so I'm very interested in reading this thread. Hope your pain settles down soon.

Billye