[rosedee]

Mark, it was very helpful to talk with you the other evening¬ and it meant I felt much better prepared for my meeting with Dr Zeegers.

Thanks for your post Thelma.

I spent about an hour with Dr Z and we again went through different possibilities to explain the outcome of the surgery. It remains unclear why a technically pefect surgery that was the treatment of choice for the severe presenting problem, with an unquestionably positive discogram has left me not knowing I have had back surgery. He is now wondering whether the problem is with my previous fusion - whether maybe one of the screws has worked loose, or whether the bone never fused, either of which could result in continued movement in the area. The only diagnostic to establish this, apparently, is a Bone Scintigraphy. (I asked about the possibility of an anaesthetic injection of some sort into the fusion area as a diagnostic, which you had raised, but apparently this is not feasible). As it would not be possible to arrange this before my return to UK on Saturday, I will leave as planned. I will then send the scans to him and discuss things further in a telephone consultation. He also suggested I could have more facet joint injections under CT guidance, which would be more accurate than X-ray guidance, though I am not entirely convinced by this. My sense is that this would be the most straightforward explanation for what has (not) happened and would have an obvious solution to try, but there is no real evidence to support it.

Everyone at the Alpha Klinik is telling me how sorry they are, how they have never heard of this before etc etc and I end up feeling a need to reassure them and make them feel better about it! It feels somewhat scary that one of the best and most experienced surgeons in the world is so baffled by what is going on and is not really sure what to suggest. Equally, it is reassuring that he seems committed to working with me to pursue a solution if one can be found. His genuine concern and sorrow is supportive. There is no sense of him washing his hands of me, which is so often the case with surgeons when something hasn’t gone according to expectation/plan.

The thought of returning to London the same as I left is hard and I think the full impact of all this will hit when I am back in the home I have been pretty well housebound in for 2 ½ years. But it is time to go……………..

Just to end on a positive note, I am healing well from the surgery in terms of the incision and my "innards" – obviously there is still a lot of bruising and soreness etc but it is all going in the right direction.