I'm sorry i did not respond sooner, i just read this.
Well at the end of it all DrRegan did remove T7-8 with his VATS procedure. It is now pain free. WAs not for months though so don't get discouraged if you have the surgery and it is not instant relief.
He was also to do the same surgery on T11-12. He could only get out half of the disc as they had to reinflate my lung do to oxygen issues. It ends up i have found out (my own research and hours at pulmonologists) that at the time of removing T7-8 my phrenic nerve was damaged. it conttols the diaphram muscle. I was left with only 45% lung capacity . makes it hard to go up a flight of stairs and i was a mountain trail runner. My lower disc is still painful. he then turned me over and removed all the thoracic hardwear my surgeon had put in to stabalize my spine and hopefully remove some pain. My surgeon wanted more thoracic discs removed but Regan refused unless i went through discography again. My insurance co. left me with the bill refusing to pay for it in the thoracic spine so i did not need a repeat of that.
AFter surgery in the PACU they had problems with my breathing, then i stopped altogether and was put on a respirator , in lots of pain as no pain drugs could be given and stabilized after many hours and sent to ICU for a few days.
REgan's assistant came by in my room and in 2 days told me to go home. I could not walk more than one or 2 steps without my oxygen saturation dropping, i was severly anemic and could barely breathe. A primary care doc appeared and told me i could not go home. I was relieved.
The nurses refused to look at my incision which was totally covered , actually just about my whole back was totally covered. DrRegan's assistant did not come at all the next 9 days i was in the hospital. No one came to see me at all. I complained to every dept possible. They all said they would help. Finally the pulmonologist and primary care doc decided they would not discharge me until REgan appeared. They called him with every # they had. I had daily conversations with his office asking me if he had come by. He never came. The hospital found him in OR's and told him he had to come by. Still did not.,
His office called to tell me about my follow up visit at 10 days. Well i was still in the hospital. They told me after he was going out of town for 2 weeks and that would be too long without someone looking at the incision. He still never showed.
I called my spine surgeon and toldl him what was going on. So i saw him the day after Christmas and he checked my incision and removed all the covering. He always uses glue so i have nothing to hide the incision and i can see it too.
I went to see Regan about 3 times in his office asking what happened, he said nothing happened. Finally when i went to give him one more try last summer and ask him if i was now kyphotic do to the hardwear removal he asked if i was the one who lost a lot of blood? Llike i was awake to know?
He said no way did i have kyphosis going on. Then he sent me for an xray , came back and said you sure do have kyhosis. I guess he never looked at me, only the xray.
Also my spine surgeon , who had sent me to the world's best, wrote him a letter as well as saw him in person and apparantly let him have it for treating me so poorly or not treating at all. Regan's comment that he told me was that i had psych issues going on.!!!!!! Yes, i am on antidepressants. What that has to do with not breathing i don't know.
Anyway you guys asked for some more info and this is still very tender in my heart that a doctor could not care at all for a patient.
But he is a good surgeon, i have no pain at the T-7-8 area. I hear he is expensive and can tell by the bills i am suddenly receiving. I had him operate when he still took BC. I always wondered if his assistant at the time, DDrBady actually removed that disc and injured the nerve. I had a wonderful anesthesiologist at Cedars and the nurses do come when the button is pushed!! dR Marshke is the primary i had. So there was lots of good.
I have found one of the 2 surgeons in the US that work on the phrenic nerve, i have sent him all my pulmonary info and he thinks he can help me get some function back so all is good.
I would love to sit down and talk to DrRegan, but i doubt he would do that for me.
Good lluck i don't know what the other procedure is and what is easier for you to get to, but i wish you all the best for relief soon. Ask away any more questions or pm me or i could call you, let me know. You are much too young to be dealing with this
judy
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