Hi, I am recently recovering from my third spinal surgery. The last one was 3/20/14. My surgeon has the reputation in our area as the Dr. who fixes the supposidly number one spinal surgeon in U.S. MY surgery went very well 6 hre vs original 3 hrs, lossr a lot of blood and my current surgeon said in 30 yrs of practice he had never seen such a messed up spine. My first surgery 10/2004, a procedure called Pro Disc was used entering through my stomach for pain the clearly could not be helped other than through the back. Second surgery 5/2010 was Disectomy and fusion l3-l4, l4-l5, current dr said based on mylogram i had in october the fusion never took, the dr performing the surgery should have noticed immediatly due to dent where fusion took place and surgical x-rays. needless to day I continued with the same ortho dr until 10.2013 and ended up with total revision of both prior surgeries, found cage had broken from second surgery and screw was protruding outside bone. During those 4-10 yrs either site where metal was involved rubbed together creating schrap metal thus causing serious nerve damage that he suspects will take up to one year to hea. Spinal nerves affected are not a normal bluish color, they are jet black. Finally my question! My spine surgeon works w/ a pain mgt group. No affilliation, pain center rents office sppace from my drs surgical group. After three month of finding corrects meds and dose for my pain, ( out of pocket 1000.00 for meds my insurance did not cover but dr felt would work best as I have been on opioids for off and on 10 yrs). Go in for first follow up with surgeon 6/13/14, looks good ,siatic nerve will be most pain etc. Asked if I needed refills on meds, said yes I would run out before app t w/pain mgt dr 6/25/14, dr told receptionist to refill. Next thhing I know nurse gives my husband letter stating the pain mgt group will no longer treat me and to find new group? I was completely blown away, when asked why , I was told I violated the Narcotic document which I recall signing but not really paying attention to why or what may prevent office from treating me. I have called numerous times for an answer or some explanation, same answer violated narcotics document. How? Every time meds did not work for me I gave them back to the office for the staff to desroy. I was cut off yesterday at a current dose of 30mg MS Codone 3x per day and 10,g oxycontin 1-2 every 4-6 hrs. my rx s were filled 5/28/14 90 ms codone 3x per day amd 180 oxycotin 10mg 1-2 every 4-6 hrs for brak through pain. Many other medical issues arose from surgery 25lbs overnight weight gain knees down to feet. Many differemt drs made changes to amount and dosing schedule and pain clinic claims they see not such notes. Surgeon has me scheduled for 2 ultra sounds for upper/lower ab, pain clinics eply we are two separate practices. Now I will end up in wd s correct. Isn t the a high med dose to just stop meds without weaning down? Please help me, I am so scared, I begged this pain dr to keep meds low so I would not experience wd s from other peoples horror stories. Do I have any recourse?
Hello, I think we see that surgery is not very effective for disk disease. There does not have to be FDA approval or even a controlled trial for a surgical procedure to become standard practice. When controlled trials are done there has to be a fake surgery and even then it is hard to (1) fake the surgery and (2) have everyone not snicker under there hands at the people who got the fake surgery and give the whole thing away. When this has been done, with for example knee surgery, mostly the surgery has been found to be far less helpful than people thought. Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further. Regards, Dr. Matt Wachsman