More Surgery in My Future.

Well, I had my appointment this afternoon (May 31st), and as I expected/feared, I need more surgery. Both my x-rays today and my latest MRI shows a considerable disk problem at L3. My x-rays show a fish-tailing of the L3 over the L4, and the MRI shows compression into the nerve canal. There's also something going on at L2, as well, but there's no threat there - it's just a small bulge.

The reflex response in my right knee is getting more faint which means nerve transmission is growing less and less down my leg into my foot. Dr. H. tells me he's only had thirteen patients that have had three level lumbar fusions besides me, and I'm only the second who has had more problems so soon after the first surgery. He can give me no reason for the quick deterioration after my first surgery nor can he give me any guarantees that this will not happen again.

What I found interesting is that I'll have my old fusion instrumentation taken out during this surgery. Since I'm fused quite well at the original levels operated on (L4,L5,L6) there's no need for the screws and rods anymore. Because he'll be fusing L3 to L4, he'll have to get rid of the old metal at L4 to be able to do this fusion right. Also, the new fusion will be higher up the lumbar spine, so I probably won't need a brace for another three months (YIPPEE!) because the mechanics of the spine in that location make it easier to hold it all together after the surgery. Dr H. says this should all go well, since I had no problems last time, and it may be an easier post-op than last time. That's the good news, I guess. I just have to decide when to do it.

I also spoke with Dr H. for a long time about the standard operating (forgive the pun) procedure for answering phones at his office. Long story short, we had an extremely productive talk, and I'm confident this problem will be resolved soon.