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Old 12-31-2007, 04:32 PM #1
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Default revision in NY

If you had to have a complicated revision, who would you have do it? Any suggestions or ideas? If uncomfortable posting your experiences, you can pm me.

I'm in NY, but would actually travel if there's a reason to.
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--- LYME neuropathy diagnosed in 2009; considered "idiopathic" neuropathy 1996 - 2009
---s/p laminectomy and fusion L3/4/5 Feb 2006 for a synovial spinal cyst
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Old 12-31-2007, 08:09 PM #2
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LizaJane,

As you may or may not know, Dr. Fabien Bitan did my lumbar fusion in April of 2006. He fused L1 to S1 in two separate surgeries...First he fused the front in an eight hour surgery and then the back in another eight hour surgery. I have no regrets about this surgery...I am not completely pain free LizaJane, but Dr. Bitan is the only surgeon that would agree to help me with the horrible daily pain I lived with and I had seen about 17 of the best, top docs in three states...He is a fantastic doc...with top notch credentials....

I had the cervical spine fused in August of 2005 in Philadelphia. I have begun to have problems with the cervical fusion about a year after the surgery, but the surgeon would never address the situation and always just seemed to ignore my complaints of numbness in the hands and pain in the shoulders and down the arms....Anyway...

I have now asked Dr. Bitan to look at the cervical spine. Dr. Bitan is much, much easier to talk too and while I am not going to say that he never loses his temper...I have not seen it and he never has with me...My surgeon in Philadelphia throws temper tantrums and acts like a child that does not get his own way...I have grown tired of dealing with his outbursts...He is angry too that I allowed Dr. Bitan to do the lumbar fusion. He thought I should only have a spinal cord stimulator....so every time I see him he brings up the lumbar fusion making it very difficult to talk to him and very uncomfortable. The last time I saw him I simply said I was there to talk about the cervical spine...period...


I have a great deal of respect for Dr. Bitan and I think he does for his patients. He invites me to come to look at my films with him and discusses things he sees on the films, pointing out different things. I think if I were you, I would schedule an appointment with Dr. Bitan. You need to have a second opinion...I believe Dr. Bitan to be very honest with me and to date has been right about every thing that is wrong with my spine. You owe it to yourself to see him...He is a top doc as well and has top, top credentials...Check him out....


http://www.bitanmd.com/
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4/06 - Lumbar Fusion - L1, L2, L3, L4, L5, S1
Anterior with cages and Posterior with rods and screws.

8/17/05 - Cervical Fusion - C4-5, 5-6, 6-7 - Anterior and Posterior Fusion with plate in front and rods and screws in the rear - Corpectomy at C-4 and C-5 and microdisectomy at C6-7.

1/4/05 - Lumbar Laminectomy -L3, L4, L5, S1, S2 Obliteration of Tarlov Cyst at S2. Failed surgery!

Last edited by GJZH; 12-31-2007 at 08:40 PM.
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Old 12-31-2007, 08:41 PM #3
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Default thank you

I'm going to follow up and see if I can see him.

The big thing about Dr O from today's visit, is that he was intent upon operating upon my films, and making them look correct, and never asked about my pain. When I asked him about epidurals, he said they would never work for me, as I have back pain, not sciatic.

But he's wrong. My pain is butt and leg, and hip; only with bending. It's way worse than the "back" per se. When I told him that he looked shocked, but didn't actually take it in. He didn't examine me.

So the only thing I know I'm going to do for sure is get the myelogram. If it turns out there's something else there that's causing the pain, that's the only way we're going to know. MRIs don't show much with all the instrumentation in place.

At least this is my undrstanding. But I do feel thrown into crisis mode again, and I have to get out of it.
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--- LYME neuropathy diagnosed in 2009; considered "idiopathic" neuropathy 1996 - 2009
---s/p laminectomy and fusion L3/4/5 Feb 2006 for a synovial spinal cyst
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Old 12-31-2007, 09:08 PM #4
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Default Follow the plan

Liza Jane,
If you remember, my husband had spinal surgery about 5 months ago. We saw orthopedic surgeon, then a neurosurgeon. But the neurosurgeon took the xrays, MRI that we already had and then ordered a myelogram. He didn't mention surgery until he had all three films in hand. I feel you are right pursuing the myelogram. My husband is now pain free for the most part. He is faithful about doing the exercises the PT prescribed.

Have you ever had a sacroilliac joint injection? So much of the pain you describe follows the pain description of my sacroilliac joint problems.

Billye
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Old 01-04-2008, 01:20 AM #5
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I agree with Silver Lady...I just had SI injections and they helped tremendously....I suggest you try those injections before going under the knife...I am calling my PM doc again to get these injections...They helped to get rid of all of my hip and leg pain....
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4/06 - Lumbar Fusion - L1, L2, L3, L4, L5, S1
Anterior with cages and Posterior with rods and screws.

8/17/05 - Cervical Fusion - C4-5, 5-6, 6-7 - Anterior and Posterior Fusion with plate in front and rods and screws in the rear - Corpectomy at C-4 and C-5 and microdisectomy at C6-7.

1/4/05 - Lumbar Laminectomy -L3, L4, L5, S1, S2 Obliteration of Tarlov Cyst at S2. Failed surgery!
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Old 03-31-2008, 03:39 PM #6
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Default Back again

I shouldn't really be posting here until tomorrow, as I'm seeing Dr O tonight. But I've had my myelogram, and since it was hard to get back to Dr O (2 months), I saw my old Spine guy, Dr N. He said that clearly an AP fusion needs to be done, including L2. But he thinks my pain is from either the L5 lower facet, or S1 disc, and would want a discogram to decide whether to fuse S1. He's someone I can talk with, and the feeling I got is that the surgery is for pain, in his view, and not to prevent pedicle fracture, but that this is not going to get better, only worse, over the years. So while I can tolerate the degree of pain now, I'm planning on going ahead.

Today I have f/u with Dr O, who seems to specialize in revisions. I never got around to checking out Dr Bitan, forgot about it until yesterday, when I read this forum once again. I wonder if I should? Is he a revision guy also? Dr O ONLY does revisions, and everyone I talk with in the medical community calls him the go-to guy for this.

So it might be L2 - S1. I hear that fusing L5/S1 is more problemmatic than other levels. Is that so?

Also, does anyone know how they can identify my pain generator more specifically? I have a feeling they want to inject the disk, and if it hurts, declare that my generator. But I'm pretty sure there are a bunch of places they could touch and I'd feel pain. How do they figure it out?

Thank you,
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--- LYME neuropathy diagnosed in 2009; considered "idiopathic" neuropathy 1996 - 2009
---s/p laminectomy and fusion L3/4/5 Feb 2006 for a synovial spinal cyst
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Old 04-01-2008, 10:16 AM #7
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Default discogram

Fusion scheduled: A/P lumbar, from L2 down to maybe S1. Decision will be based on discogram. I have to have a discogram at all levels. Has anyone had this? Can you tell me what to expect?
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--- LYME neuropathy diagnosed in 2009; considered "idiopathic" neuropathy 1996 - 2009
---s/p laminectomy and fusion L3/4/5 Feb 2006 for a synovial spinal cyst
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Old 04-02-2008, 12:46 AM #8
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LizaJane,

I had a discogram done from T11 to S2...Not a pleasant experience...but I got through it...I had one discogram done in NYC and another in Philadelphia...U of PA...If I were having it done in NYC ...I would use Dr. Bakshi...He is absolutely the best...I just had a cervcial discogram done with him...I was scheduled with another doc in the city and it turned out to be a nightmare...I actually crawled out of the CT Scanner, walked up to the doc told him I was leaving then called Dr B and told him the Doc was incompetent and left.....so the only doc that I will allow to do a discogram in the city is Dr. Bakshi....He is kind, compassionate.....and makes the discogram as painless as possible...His staff is wonderful too...His office is off Park Ave...around Lenox Hill...you go from his office over to Lenox Hill for the CT Scan...

Dr Bakshi is actually with Dr. O...so I imagine Dr. O scheduled a visit with him anyway....Dr. B did a discogram...a Spec CT scan...Ct Scan....

http://doctor.spine-health.com/doctor/SanjayBakshi/
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4/06 - Lumbar Fusion - L1, L2, L3, L4, L5, S1
Anterior with cages and Posterior with rods and screws.

8/17/05 - Cervical Fusion - C4-5, 5-6, 6-7 - Anterior and Posterior Fusion with plate in front and rods and screws in the rear - Corpectomy at C-4 and C-5 and microdisectomy at C6-7.

1/4/05 - Lumbar Laminectomy -L3, L4, L5, S1, S2 Obliteration of Tarlov Cyst at S2. Failed surgery!
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Old 04-02-2008, 08:54 AM #9
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Actually, he scheduled the discogram with my pain guy, Dan Richman. He's done my epidurals. Dr Richman is an anesthesiologist turned needle jockey, so I'm hoping he is good at keeping this pain-free. He's also in-network.

http://www.hss.edu/physicians_richman-daniel.asp

He's had the same training as Dr B, but as not-so-distinguished places.

I tried to get a private myelogram and Dr St Louis, who was said to be "the best" wouldn't take my Oxford.

The HSS folk have been.

Had a qi gong healing session yesterday for butt pain, as I'm taking qi gong classes, and thought it would be interesting. It made an immediate difference in the pain.
I have no idea how is, but my take is it's similar to using magnets for pain, but clearly better. Weird that these things can actually work.



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Originally Posted by GJZH View Post
LizaJane,

I had a discogram done from T11 to S2...Not a pleasant experience...but I got through it...I had one discogram done in NYC and another in Philadelphia...U of PA...If I were having it done in NYC ...I would use Dr. Bakshi...He is absolutely the best...I just had a cervcial discogram done with him...I was scheduled with another doc in the city and it turned out to be a nightmare...I actually crawled out of the CT Scanner, walked up to the doc told him I was leaving then called Dr B and told him the Doc was incompetent and left.....so the only doc that I will allow to do a discogram in the city is Dr. Bakshi....He is kind, compassionate.....and makes the discogram as painless as possible...His staff is wonderful too...His office is off Park Ave...around Lenox Hill...you go from his office over to Lenox Hill for the CT Scan...

Dr Bakshi is actually with Dr. O...so I imagine Dr. O scheduled a visit with him anyway....Dr. B did a discogram...a Spec CT scan...Ct Scan....

http://doctor.spine-health.com/doctor/SanjayBakshi/
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--- LYME neuropathy diagnosed in 2009; considered "idiopathic" neuropathy 1996 - 2009
---s/p laminectomy and fusion L3/4/5 Feb 2006 for a synovial spinal cyst
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Old 04-03-2008, 07:15 AM #10
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Hi,

I don't usually post here but I happen to go in by mistake and saw my doctors name so I thought I would give some feed back. I have been with Dr.Richman for many years he is a extremely smart doctor, very gentle and a wonderful person and is not just my doctor but has become a friend. He has truly seen be through some of the darkest days of my life and has really helped me in so many ways. He is definitly the correct doctor for pain management and the Hospital itself is also wonderful I have had many surgeries and procedures without a complaint to speak of. Good Luck......


H
Quote:
Originally Posted by LizaJane View Post
Actually, he scheduled the discogram with my pain guy, Dan Richman. He's done my epidurals. Dr Richman is an anesthesiologist turned needle jockey, so I'm hoping he is good at keeping this pain-free. He's also in-network.

http://www.hss.edu/physicians_richman-daniel.asp

He's had the same training as Dr B, but as not-so-distinguished places.

I tried to get a private myelogram and Dr St Louis, who was said to be "the best" wouldn't take my Oxford.

The HSS folk have been.

Had a qi gong healing session yesterday for butt pain, as I'm taking qi gong classes, and thought it would be interesting. It made an immediate difference in the pain.
I have no idea how is, but my take is it's similar to using magnets for pain, but clearly better. Weird that these things can actually work.
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