DDD, stenosis and pain, oh my.....

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creolemoon74
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August 17, 2011 at 4:29 am

Post count: 2

#4776

Dear Dr. Corenman,

I am writting to you after finding your informational videos on you tube and I am reaching out to you as I have found myself in a state of desperation and utter frustration.

I am 37 years old and have had idopathic inflammitory auto-immune symptoms since the early 90’s, and most recently diagnosed with Osteopenia in the hips, Osteopenia bording Osteoporisis of the spine, Multilevel cervical DDD with disk dessication, military neck, and moderate to severe arhtritis of the thoracic spine mild lumbar facet arthropathy. I have ghaslty lesions on my scalp and even though I ask, to no avail have had a biopsy.

My first diagnosis was confirmed to be Erythema Nodosum in 1993. 10 years later musculoskelatal symptoms began to emerge, inflammed tendons and joints, these symptoms errupting and resolving at a state that caused minor to medium discomfort.

The doctors here in Ohio, in my opinion, regarding my conditions, carelessly use fibromyalgia as a scapegoat, as my serology is always normal with the exception of an intermittently elevated ASO and mildly out of range CPK. Since 2008 my symptoms have become quite agressive and over the last few years the pain unbarable.

I fractured my T-7 vertabra last year after miscalculating my step when climbing down a step ladder. I landed on my feet hard and ended up with a ” sublte 10% wedging. I saw a spine Dr. who basically blew me off, infact he did not look at the CD’s that I brought to my appointment and took it upon himself to get a spine xray for a head ache the year before. After my T-7 injury, I was streching my arms and felt something snap in my shoulder and to date I have not had any follow up despite my complaints of numbness, burning and tingling, weakness in the distal part of the arm.He told me my condition is “Not Life threating so I don’t know what you expect me to do for you.

Since then, I have now had 2 mri’s of spine and find it curious that each physician who looks at the report as well as the two different radiologist who dictacted the report have grossly different interpretaions;a brain MRI with an incidental finding of a large unilateral nonenhancing focal lesion adjecent to the cuadate head in which the current recomendation is to take ASA 325mg a day. Uh,hello, Mcfly….anybody home? …….ASA = increased chance of another erythema nodosum flare, and since I am currently beating my own records for longest period in remission, don’t want any unsightly and painful bumps on my legs anytime soon.

I would like to know if you , or any one you know of would be willing to look at my MRI images, and compare them? I would also like to know if it is customary to ignore the “postional” image even if it looks kind of crazy? I thank you ahead of time and appreciate any help or insight you are willing to share.

Donald Corenman, MD, DC
Moderator

August 18, 2011 at 1:44 am

Post count: 8660

#4780

Unfortunately, my knowledge of inflammatory disorders is limited to certain specific disorders associated with the spine. Your symptoms are indicative of a generalized inflammatory disorder. The osteoporosis is very unusual for a young individual. You might consider a trip to the Mayo or Cleveland Clinic for a look-over by multiple specialists as your disorder may be rare and difficult to diagnose.

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.

creolemoon74
Member

September 3, 2011 at 11:37 pm

Post count: 2

#4845

Dr. Corenman ,

I thank you for taking the time to read my short novel about my mri woes.

:-)

I am thankful that you are not only focused on your specialty, but also an advocate for those who are suffering. You are a champion and a great value!

I applied for disability, was denied 2x’s but was able to get an expedited hearing. I request the records from SSA to see what is missing and after reviewing my records found some clues regarding my current issue.

Being disappointed finding my clue by reading the SSA file rather than my physicians discussing the information with me, I am still grateful to have the opportunity of discovery.

Look like the official diagnosis is Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disease.

Again, I thank you for being there!
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Donald Corenman, MD, DC

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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.

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DDD, stenosis and pain, oh my…..