LONG history of back pain - Part 2
PART 2 - HEADING TO GERMANY
The most difficult question an individual needs to ask him or herself is a subjective one: “Am I bad enough?” For many who are completely bed-ridden and unable to live an even semi-normal life, the question is answered for them. They have no choice but to go through with it. For me, only recently have I been able to answer that question. For me, it's more of a matter of tolerance over time. As mentioned in my “Part 1”, chronic pain has been a part of my life for 17 years. So basically 50% of my life has been influenced by lumbar pain, in varying degrees.
This brings me to Zeegers. I've always wanted to see him for some reason. There might be only 1 other DR who has performed more ADR surgeries than Dr. Zeegers, but Zeegers has been doing them for over 20 years. Plus, the other Dr. uses “Pro-disc”, which requires cutting the Vertebrae, inasmuch as the device has a “keel”. The Active-L Device, by contrast, has two small “teeth”. Both are for stability, but the thought of my lumbar getting cut is scary: the maxim “measure twice, cut once” is probably better left with wood-workers.
At any rate, my eventual decision wasn't too difficult to make. Once I spoke with Zeegers personally I felt quite good. My wife and I also communicated with him via Skype. Talking to Mark Minter many times also helped solidify my decision. So Mark eventually called and left a classic message: “You gotta be careful what you ask for.... I have a feeling we're gonna be touring the winter Christmas markets in Bonn.” He reminded me that, even though we had scheduled a couple of months in advance, things will soon “move fast”. And they have certainly moved quite fast! [I've written this much while on the plane from Amsterdam to Atlanta, only 11 days post-op! What follows was completed at home.]
So I was scheduled for surgery on Tuesday, December 14th, 2010. I would fly into Cologne on Sunday, do imaging on Monday, and go under the “scalpel” on Tuesday. My wife booked us to be in Germany for 2 full weeks. We would return on Christmas day, assuming there would be less people traveling. Apparently many others were thinking the same thing.
My 3-legged flight to Germany was difficult. The Twin Cities received 20 inches of snow in 1 day, so they re-routed us to St. Louis, MO. Delta was good to us, giving us free lodging and meals. The second leg took us to Atlanta, but weather conditions caused me to miss my 3rd leg, which I had to wait another 24 hours to catch. That night I stayed in a Motel 6. “We'll keep the lights on for you”... so the cockroaches scatter, I thought to myself. I was more despondent than anything. And I was starting to doubt my “medical tourism” adventure. “Am I really gonna do this?”, I thought.
The 3rd leg of my journey didn't suck too bad: they bumped me to first class, on AirFRANCE, mind u! Boy, they treated us like kings. Despite this, I only slept for 1 hour. But I was cozy, nonetheless. I Arrived at Frankfurt later than anticipated, 2 days later, in fact. My wife and Mark were in a private taxi on their way to get me—slowed by traffic, naturally. Finally I met up with them. MY WIFE HAD LEFT ONE DAY after ME, BUT SHE HAD ARRIVED ONE DAY before ME! So then we embarked on the final (4th?) leg of the journey. I has holding up pretty well, all things considered: my adrenaline must have compensated for my jet-lag. The drive from Frankfurt to Bonn was LONG, and I had grown weary of any more SITTING.
MEETING THE LEGEND
So after 72 hours of travel we finally arrived. They did some blood-work right away, and gathered some information for the Anesthesiologist. I did all imaging there at the Beta Klinik: X-ray, CT scan, and MRI of my complete spine. There was definitely a language barrier here, so it felt a bit odd. I got to shower one last time before meeting Zeegers. He was shorter than I had expected, and I might have been taller than he expected : ) He went over my case from memory, having gone over it extensively. He did all the physiological tests BEFORE looking at the imaging films. He was already expecting a 2-level problem at L4-L5, L5-S1. So when he looked at the MRI his suspicions were confirmed: L4-L5 was still a problem (despite 2 prior operations), and L5-S1 was both degenerated and herniated. I had no idea that my L5-S1 disc was a pain-generator. (Interestingly enough, my Chiropractor had recently told me that the painful area that I put my finger on was NOT L4-L5, but L5-S-1.) Then he went downstairs to get his own “second opinion” from a neuro-surgeon. This really impressed my wife, who later asked rhetorically: “how many doctors with 20 years of experience will consult with another doctor?” Whether this uncommon or not is not important, but Zeegers did demonstrate an openness which was reassuring to all of us, Mark included.
Another matter which impressed my wife and I was the lack of “pressure” to have the surgery done. Pardon the expression, but Zeegers admitted that he was not “surgery horny”--I think a more PC way of saying it in the US is “scalpel happy”. In any case, at some point I felt like I wanted to be the one pressuring him! He wasn't using reverse-psychology or anything—he just wanted the decision to be 100% MINE, not his, not my wife's, not Mark's, not the MRI's, etc.
So I signed the papers and off to surgery I went. Trust me, I've signed enough papers to know that they could be summarized in a few sentences: 1. this can help u. 2. this may not help u. 3. potential side effects: everything--including, but not limited to, death. 4. don't sue me. So even if I had arrived 2 days earlier, my decision to go through with it would not have been affected. I had already made that decision a few months earlier—I had dreamed of ADR 6 years—I had longed for it for 17 years!
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LONG history of back pain - Part 2
12-28-2010, 01:33 AM
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