I’ve always held two jobs on my feet, probably 72 hours at least a week. One day I made a quick move and I fell and injured my back. I went to the doctor. The doctor recommended physical therapy and painkillers. Six months I was in constant pain. My lower back was just throbbing. The pain was shooting down my leg, hitting my feet like fire.
After six months of nothing working, I went to see a surgeon. He recommended a spinal fusion. After surgery, I was in so much pain, I would rather be dead than alive. Over the next two years, I had five spinal fusions. For the past six years, I’ve lived in utter agony. I can’t work. I can’t walk very far. I can’t take care of my grandkids very well. I live on pain medicine. I look back to this day and wonder if that was actually a necessary surgery for me. I’m running out of hope, and I’m wondering if anybody out there has an answer that can give me my life back.
Nancy joins us, and you had this initial spinal fusion surgery. You did get a second opinion, correct?
Yeah, but the only problem was, with my insurance, I was tied into the same group of people. So the doctor that did my surgery, it was his colleague. It was his partner.
Yeah. So it really kind of might not have been considered a second opinion.
Exactly. And with my insurance, I couldn’t go outside of that circle. The pain now is at least 100 times worse than what it was before surgery.
And I think that’s really one of the stories, or one of the things that Nancy’s story highlights, which is sometimes the very thing you’re going to seek to provide relief ends up causing way more pain than you ever had in the first place. I’ve always talked about it’s, it’s really not about getting a second opinion, it’s about getting a good opinion. We actually sent Nancy to our friend, orthopedic spine surgeon Dr. Hooman Melamed, for another opinion.
It all started basically from a simple operation back in 2006. After my surgery, they did an x-ray and they found out that some of the hardware was out of place. After the second fusion, I could stand up straight, but then I had a fracture above my fusion. I kept saying, I, I’ve got all this fluid coming out of my back. They decided I had an infection.
Then they took you back to surgery to wash it out.
Mhm. So that was the fourth surgery.
Okay.
They said they had to take the hardware out and replace it, I guess. So there entailed the fifth surgery.
We’re going to need CAT scan to look at the screws, the hardware, x-ray to look at the alignment, why you can’t stand up straight, MRI to look at discs around, make sure there’s no infection.
So we did the, the x-rays. Normally, you’re supposed to have a nice S-shaped curve, kind of going like that, where the skull here is lined up with the pelvis. You can see your spine is going this way.
Right.
Look at this screw.
Right.
So it’s already going into the disc in here. That screw obviously is not supposed to be in there. This is the CAT scan here. Down here, I’m not so sure, to be honest, if this bone is all the way fused. You look at it from the back, and there’s a nerve that sits around here. That’s why you may be feeling a pain going down the left side. And then if you look at the MRI, you can see this, this does not look normal like these other guys here. I’m going to take a look at all the tests, look at everything, and then I’ll be in touch with you.
I’ve got more information from you than anybody. I feel like there’s hope, so I want you to do whatever.
And Nancy, you may or may not know this, but Dr. Melamed, he was unable to join us today. He wanted to be here, but he has a prior teaching engagement. He did inform us that during your consultation, he spoke to you about some health issues that you have…
Yes.
…that need to be addressed. And they would need to be addressed before he could perform any sort of procedure or surgery. Lab results showed you are malnourished.
That’s right.
He also told you you have osteoporosis, history of a spine infection. And if you are able to work on those and, and, and make sure that is all okay, Dr. Melamed has offered to perform the back surgery he believes that will reduce your pain, allow you to get back to playing with your grandchildren. So, if you’re able to accomplish that and get those things in order…
When you accomplish this, I will. I will.
He is willing to offer you this operation. How does that sound?
Oh, that’s, that’s fantastic.
