2 Years Post 2 Level ACDF With New Type of Pain

Viewing 6 posts - 25 through 30 (of 45 total)

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next

Author

Posts
CowboysFan
Member

August 20, 2013 at 1:23 am

Post count: 19

#9248

Dr. Corenman,

Could you suggest a specific person at Dr. Millett’s office whom I should talk to in order to get my info and films in front of him? I called his office about a week and half ago and I eventually left a message with one of his assistants (Sue?), but I have not heard from anyone just yet. The receptionist I talked to seemed confused by my request, as I suspect that they do not get requests like mine very often.

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Many thanks,
Michael

Donald Corenman, MD, DC
Moderator

August 20, 2013 at 6:58 pm

Post count: 8660

#9249

Please call my office and I will have my nurses personally forward your contact information to Dr. Millet.

Dr. Corenman

PLEASE REMEMBER, THIS FORUM IS MEANT TO PROVIDE GENERAL INFORMATION ON SPINE ANATOMY, CONDITIONS AND TREATMENTS. TO GET AN ACCURATE DIAGNOSIS, YOU MUST VISIT A QUALIFIED PROFESSIONAL IN PERSON.

Donald Corenman, MD, DC is a highly-regarded spine surgeon, considered an expert in the area of neck and back pain. Trained as both a Medical Doctor and Doctor of Chiropractic, Dr. Corenman earned academic appointments as Clinical Assistant Professor and Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and his research on spine surgery and rehabilitation has resulted in the publication of multiple peer-reviewed articles and two books.

CowboysFan
Member

August 22, 2013 at 10:15 am

Post count: 19

#9262

Thanks, Dr. Corenman, very much appreciated. I will contact your office tomorrow.

tlloveland
Member

June 4, 2014 at 3:07 am

Post count: 1

#10946

Hello Cowboys Fan,

I am hoping you are still available. I am having the exact same symptoms. Please reply if you’re still a member.

Sincerely,

Tammy Loveland

CowboysFan
Member

June 4, 2014 at 11:50 am

Post count: 19

#10950

Hi Tammy,

Which symptoms are you having, the neck pain and headache symptoms or the shoulder symptoms?

The shoulder symptoms led me to have arthroscopic surgery on the AC joint in my left shoulder in 2013. The surgery was called a distal clavicle excision and debridement, where bone spurs in that joint were shaved off and where close to 1/2 an inch of the back end of my collarbone was taken off in order to create more room in that joint. I went through 2 months of physical therapy after the surgery and I have had no pain at all since February and can do almost everything that I used to do before the shoulder started giving me problems. I found a top notch orthopedic surgeon in my area and have been thrilled with the outcome.

I have meant to stop by and update the community, but life has kept me quite busy.

If you are talking about the neck pain and headaches, I have tried everything humanly possible and nothing has helped. I am planning on having my prior neck surgery re-done in the next few months, I won’t know the date until I see the surgeon in a month. The first surgery was an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion and plate fixation, so the re-do will be a posterior fusion, where the surgeon will go through the back of my neck. The post-surgery recovery will be longer, as the muscles in the back of the neck are cut during surgery, so I will have to wear a neck brace for a couple of months.

AndybytheSea
Member

June 10, 2014 at 7:03 am

Post count: 3

#11012

Hello CowboysFan,
Your post ACDFc5-c7 pain scenario sounds similar to my own. Including the Shoulder and clavicle pain Amazing.
I read the whole thread and Dr Coremans insightful responses with great interest.
Have had 3 c spine ops including the posterior surgery you are now considering.
*I can completely relate to your concerns*! and look forward to following your outcome.
Unfortunately my revision posterior fusion was a salvage ( crisis surgery) . The operation, hospital stay recovery was absolutely beyond excruciating. Perhaps the most traumatic experience of my life. Regrettably I remain in severe pain still looking for answers.
My pre op ( revision posterior / anterior global fusion )sit was a bit different more complicated than most -so no doubt you will have better odds. Although I had a great revision (second) spine surgeon, as a salvage urgent surgery , doc could only could do so much…I was fortunate to have an existing connect with revision surgeon, as he stepped up to clean up my first failed surgery; ACDFC5-C7 (different Surgeon) ..where my hardware failed 2 months out- screws fractured and backed out into esophagus and bone was eroded by the loose implants.. nerves were squished by displaced grafts. Astonishingly this all went untreated by first surgeon despite my concerns about increasing symptoms and obvious dangers of broken spinal hardware. I finally changed surgeons as I feared for my life. (I was terrified as even a lay person could see my screws were backing out and broken on
plain X ray. Parts were migrating moving by the day)
Despite my current surgeons best efforts with revision posterior fusion (and his excellent care )
I am now left with a twisted kyphotic mess residual from initial surgery( windshield wiper effect of toggling screws which cut out my bone and affected my spines global balance and alignment.)
(Btw postop I was incredibly careful with my activity level and wore BGS too. I have always been healthy a Non smoker health fitness buff.who would think titanium could crumble? It turns out the placement and size of initial anterior implant was not appropriate to my anatomy and worse, when things went south,initial surgeon avoided me, and his PA did not put me in a brace or instruct me to limit my activities)
…I truly feel just lucky to be alive! To have listened to my instincts/body and sought appropriate care before becoming paralyzed.
You are obviously well studied and thorough- stay that way! One can never be careful enough or too informed when it comes to the spine! For anyone reading this, considering spine surgery;explore all options and take the time to fully research surgeons and treatment alternatives . Utilizing resources such as this spine forum and learning from others experiences may make the difference in your quality of life. The input by caring knowledgeable doctors like Dr Coreman is invaluable. (And greatly appreciated!)

Thanks for your thorough and detailed posts CowboysFan. Glad to hear you also followed your instinct, even though you were told there was a solid fusion you felt, knew differently..and were correct! Something was wrong. Medicine is not an exact science but communication and information is crucial.
Your determination lead to the recognition diagnosis of your non fusion that now you can address. Fantastic that you have an excellent surgeon. I empathize with you and wish you the best of outcomes with your surgery.
Keep us posted and good luck!
Btw Hope my rambling comments did not stray from thread, I am new to the forum and usually do not post much online. I fear I wound up sharing much when my intent was more to thank as your story struck a cord.:)
Author

Posts

Viewing 6 posts - 25 through 30 (of 45 total)

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Next

You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

Donald Corenman, MD, DC

Average rating:

81 reviews

Eric S

Sep 26, 2021

by Eric S on Donald Corenman, MD, DC

Successful pars repair at 46 years old

Back in November of 2018 (at 46 years old) I came from Vancouver BC to have a pars repair done with Dr. Donald Corenman at the Steadman Clinic in Vail Colorado. I'm finally posting this review nearly three years later in late 2021. The reason I waited so long was I wanted to know the final result before I posted my review. Unfortunately in that time Dr. Corenman has retired. Nevertheless, I want to post this review of Dr. Corenman and his staff at the Steadman Clinic in their excellent treatment of my L5 pars interarticularis.

I fractured my pars at age 42 back in 2014 when rolling on the gym floor, and was denied treatment by the Canadian healthcare system, probably due to my age. First my GP told me there was no surgical option for a pars defect, which was quite incorrect! I tried to live with it, but the symptoms worsened (periodic random spine slippage and weeks of resultant pain after just bending over to tie my shoe, so I eventually learned to mostly squat and hardly bend). When I finally consulted with Canadian spine surgeons, I was told they believed my pars defect had been congenital (since birth). This was absurd, considering I had done extreme martial arts (including jiu jitsu) for years prior, as well as 5 years of reinforcing steel full time in my 20s, probably the hardest job on the back you can find. No pars defect like mine would possibly have allowed this--ergo it was impossible that I had had the defect since birth. I did however have an asymptomatic congenital spina bifida occulta that made me more susceptible to a pars fracture. In 2014 in one instant, I went from having the strongest back people I knew said they'd ever seen, to being unable to safely bend over and tie my shoe without a non-negligible risk of my spine slipping randomly (which would lead to weeks of pain after each occurrence). This was due to the unilateral L5 pars defect, otherwise known as spondylolysis. It was when lying in pain on the floor 4 years later after maybe the 6th spine slippage event post injury, that I had had enough, and resolved to have surgery. If Canada's "universal health care" said no, I would make lemonade from lemons, and find the very best surgeon in the world at pars repairs. That was Dr. Donald Corenman. Dr. Corenman back in 2018 ran a website https://neckandback.com/ that dedicated many pages to the science of every aspect of pars repairs, from eligibility (good discs on MRI), to best surgical techniques (minimal open compared to minimally invasive), best imaging to use (i.e., O-Arm with Stealth imaging vs. older fluoroscopy), the ideal amount of BMP to use and why not use too much or too little, and much more, all to do with pars repairs, pages upon pages of his site just on the pars, with scientific references and his own extensive expert opinion. As a health research statistician, I was very impressed with this. It was in stark contrast to the websites of other spine surgeons which barely gave the pars a word or two, focusing almost exclusively on fusions. I had found the best surgeon in the world for pars repairs, and so after Dr. Corenman personally screened my MRI to ensure my discs were healthy, I booked the surgery.

Being 46 years old at the time of surgery in 2018, with a 4-year-old pars fracture from 2014 combined with a congenital SBO meant my pars fragment was somewhat atrophied, but it was "very solid", said Dr. Corenman in the operative report. Nevertheless, it was challenging with two things to fix, the pars and SBO, and OR time was around 4 hours. Recovery over the following months was guided by a very clear "Spine binder" from the Steadman Clinic with strict rules of "no BLT" (no bending, lifting or twisting), and illustrated physiotherapy guidelines. They even warned patients to avoid fish oil supplements, which could excessively dampen inflammation and hence slow bone healing. They answered many questions I had during months of recovery, with responses coming from the very supportive Lori Fugate (then director of Dr. Corenman's practice), and Ehrich Bean (then physician's assistant at the practice), as well as a couple calls with Dr. Corenman himself after two of the CT scans. Ehrich Bean offered great advice for taking the spine binder conservatively due to the nature of pars repairs vs. fusions. The final post-op CT scan I had was a couple weeks ago at 34 months post-op, and Dr. Corenman had retired, but I got a very positive and informative call from Eric Strauch (current PA at the Steadman Clinic under Dr. Corenman's replacement there, and who had also worked with Dr. Corenman previously). The staff at the Steadman Clinic were extremely supportive all the way through the process. I should mention, the local Canadian spine surgeon did offer me very good post-operative support including antibiotics as needed to deal with a mild surface incision-site infection early on, booking numerous x-rays when I felt something was amiss, as well as booking all four of my post-op CT scans. I am very grateful for that support also.

My final result shows plenty of solid bone across the pars and a healed SBO, with my vertebral body now a solid bone ring instead of being broken at two places as it was pre-op. Does my spine hold up in the real world? You bet! I have recently dug and moved several yards of dirt and sand and gravel by myself (shovel and wheelbarrow!) to fix our water main, pulled roots from the yard, moved several "portable" (these are HUGE) air conditioners up several flights of stairs my myself, and lifted weights. I now run 2 miles (3.2 KM) several times weekly with a hard 100 meter dash in the middle. I bend deeply before each run I go on, with no spine slippage. My spine feels amazing. I can bend over to do exercise, or real word tasks, with no risk of spine slippage.

My sincere thanks to God, Dr. Donald Corenman, Lori Fugate, Ehrich Bean, Eric Strauch, and the Steadman Clinic, as well as the Canadian spine surgeon who offered me excellent post-operative care back in Canada. You have all given me a new lease on life.

Sincerely,
Eric S

Robert S

May 11, 2021

by Robert S on Donald Corenman, MD, DC

Back Fusion Surgery

I had my entire lumbar spine fused in November of 2018. I had scoliosis , with pinched nerves that were so painful I could hardly walk - and standing for more than a few minutes was impossible. Even sitting was painful.
The fusion surgery produced immediate relief! And the recovery was much easier than I expected.
To this day I can do all the activities I love from hiking, to standing in a stream fly fishing to riding my bike long distances - or just walking down the street with my wife.
Kudos to Dr. Corenman and his staff, (including the two Erics) for taking such good care of me!

Leslie R

Jul 9, 2020

by Leslie R on Donald Corenman, MD, DC

TLIF

I had my TLIF surgery on 6/24/2020 by Dr. Corenman, I can not say enough good things about the Dr or his staff. I was always treated with respect and explained everything throughly, that made it easy for everyone to understand. I highly recommend Dr. Corenman and the Steadman Clinic.

Submit your review
First Name, Last Initial:
Email:
Review Title:
Rating:	1 2 3 4 5
Review:

Check this box to confirm you are human.
Submit Cancel