My periodic visit with the Ortho Surgeon...
 

Well, today was my "every now and again" recheck with the OS so he can try to convince me to have more body modifications done.
He and his (hot) nurse did all the routine checks and form-fills... and there was really nothing newly evident of which I wasn't already acutely aware. Doc looked at my old lumbar films, and winced; then he looked at my cervical films from 23 months ago, poked around on my neck, and did a lotta "hmmm's." The he said "Why don't we get some fresh cervical films?" So, I trotted off to the radiology department, where four lovelies were anxiously awaiting my arrival; four snaps of the shutter later, I was on my way back to the Ortho doc's office with an envelope of films under my arm... Up on the fluorescent film reader (the clinic still hasn't graduated to digital radiographs) my misshapen C-vertebrae told their grisly tale: C3-C4 spondy (worse than it usetabe) C5-C6 vertebrae decided to elope, and C7-T1 were also spondylolisthetic and disc-free. Again, the doc says "hmmm..." Then he says "Why don't we do another MRI? I don't like what I see at C3-C4... there's too much slippage of C3 forward over C4, and your last MRI showed an alarming amount of stenosis there."
I got a prescription for the requisite Valium, and I'll get a phone call from the hospital's MRI scheduling office shortly...
Sigh...

Sounds like my visit. Disgusting isn't it? It's hard to keep a good attitude when our bodies are falling about way to early.

I have everything but the slippage. I'll be need a new neck again myself. Every level but top one has stenosis from the arthritis and ligament. Even the ones that I've already had decompressed and fused. In three years, the canal has filled back up. I guess we need to just schedule annual roto rooting.

Linda

Sorry to hear about the bad news, ponyboy. Hope the MRI has better things to say.
Carolyn