This is the only spine forum I currently post as I don't really have anything to offer much with regard to talking about surgeries beyond discectomies and mine were a number of years ago. I was seeking more spine surgery however for a number of years and Mark helped me navigate thru that maze back around 2003 onwards which I greatly appreciate as well as just being a good listener to my moaning and groaning and hemming and hawing all the while maintaining a very neutral stance and just "being there" for me really when I needed someone to be there while I debated the "what to do, where to go, what surgery or no more surgery" whole shebang.
The other forums while having a lot of movement also had a lot of petty arguments that just really didn't need to take place let alone blow up into anything bigger than they did. I found there were people that seemed to like to "one up" others and I felt that was just unnecessary.
Yes Mark's great about not getting into all that and pretty much letting people have their say. Many people have had bad spine surgery experiences and sometimes are just working stuff out of their system. That can take some time so it's nice to be able to have some understanding people replying which sometimes can help to diffuse things a bit and even help a person move on though in my personal experience that just takes one's own time.
The only thing I was suggesting for T1 is that perhaps she might find someone or some persons with similar sort of experiences as I recall back over the years reading on some other spine forums about persons that had been fused down their spine re scoliosis and in fact there was one wonderful lady, Patty, that used to post here that had been fused from her cervical to lumbar spine and last I had seen her it was possible she was going to have more surgery. We have the same OSS in the same city only she had all her surgeries with him and I have had the great fortune to be followed by him since '98 without having had any surgery with him or any more spine surgery. I don't think anyone else would have kept me as their Orthopedic Spine patient that long without having more surgery!
Just one more thing about other spine forums.. Mark and I met on the either the Neurology or Neurosurgery forum at Massachusetts General back I think in 2000 or 2001 (Mark?) and Mark was just getting ready to go to Germany to get his 2 new lumbar ADRs so it was an incredibly exciting time for those of us following Mark's lumbar ADR endeavor! Also it's what made me realize there was something out there other than the 3 level global fusion I was offered back in 2000 and really didn't want to get. I'm just wondering if that forum is still in existence and if one is able to access it. Actually Mass Gen had forums for every condition pretty much so that was very cool. It had some technical problems back a number of years ( at least I think technical) and shut down for a while and after that I never was able to access it again though it might well be in existence and worth checking out if so.
Ok I better go to bed... I got an injection of cortisone today at a Hand Clinic for "trigger thumb" and as you can clearly see at nearly 3:15a.m. I am bit jacked up from it still!!!! I sure hope I can sleep or my back will let me know tomorrow that it's not pleased with me! Or maybe not.. the cortisone probably is helping everything
