Moonraker

Thank you so much for your response! This has been a nightmare. The surgeon who did my surgery left Spine Team one month after my surgery so I was bounced around to different people each time I went back for an x-ray follow up. After being brushed off by them. I had sought help from another place and they had me do a series of tests including a myelogram and when I met with that neurosurgeon to go over the tests he said the bone spurs which were never shaved down was the cause of my pain and sent me to pain management to get injections. At that time it had been roughly 9 months after surgery and said I was still healing and I would probably need another surgery in the future but I needed to wait. He said we need to buy me time basically. After the series of 2 injections (which kind of helped with swelling) I asked to do physical therapy again and have been pretty much ever since with a manual therapist to help with pain. I have sent my MRI and CT scans to other doctors which have been recommended to me and they straight up told me no I don’t need surgery and wouldn’t even see me. I have been trying to get someone to order me new sets of scans for over a year now and even my pain doctor told me it wouldn’t matter even if I had a loose screw and that I will never be pain free again but refused to give me even muscle relaxers. It has been a very humbling and frustrating experience to say the least. I went in to Texas Back Institute and was told they would just do X-rays and send me off for MRI and so forth and then I would meet with a neurosurgeon to go over the results. After getting the initial X-rays done they came back in and asked me to do a few more where I turned and looked up and then down. A neurosurgeon did then come in and speak to me on my initial visit and told and me he can tell I have not fused and can see halos around some of the screws (and even showed me the images which I was so grateful for!). This has been the first time in nearly 2 years of searching for answers anyone has actually listened to me and took the time to look at my images. After the new MRI and CT scan he told me I had 3 loose screws. He had measured how far my neck was moving and showed me those as well which I was blown away by the amount of information he was able to provide after all my experiences. He said the movement is far too much and gave me the numbers of how far it should be moving compared to now. He suggested facet injections to see if I got any relief and this would build a case for us to make sure surgery would help and so forth. They did help a lot but only for about 1.5 weeks. After I had the injections I saw Dr. Ju again and still felt better and he suggested we wait to see how long it lasts and follow up a month later to do more X-rays and see if the movement has changed as in getting worse and see how I’m feeling still from injections. Now I am back to higher pain level and meet with him next week were I plan to discuss going through with the surgery. I am 37 year old female and don’t want to live this way and hope I can get better quality of life. But I am scared. Sorry for so much information it’s just I have not had much luck with anyone giving me advice or guidance and I am just thrilled you have responded with such wonderful information. I appreciate you taking the time to read all of this. It means so much to me I can’t even begin to express my gratitude toward you and this forum. If I understand correctly I can send copies of my X-rays and MRI Ct scans as well? I would love to have another experienced set of eyes look over them if possible. Thank you so much Dr. Corenman! You have already helped me more than you know!!!!