Maria, a couple of nights ago, as we were driving to the dog beach, Diane asked me about you. I told her how well you were doing and that you were again, too good to do the surgery. As we talked about what that means with so many of the people I deal with, I added that many of us believe that we are in too good of shape to do the surgery, while we accept unbelievable restrictions on our lives. Also, we don't know how much further damage we do because we continue to abuse structures (facets, etc.) because of collapsed disc spaces and inappropriate spinal kinematics. Another factor is that we live, waiting for the sneeze, slip, or jerk of the leash that's going to put us on the floor and out of commission for minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or will have us looking for emergency surgery.
I'm not suggesting that I know the answers to the questions. We all know about Anastasia regrets as she was feeling better than ever before her failed ADR surgery.
You'll know when... I'm not tired of your story... I delight in your tales of dancing and doing things that were thought to be impossible months ago. I shudder when I hear about your setbacks and I suffer with you when I see you in person and you can't sit without wincing.
I wish we had better options. As I've said a thousand times... we have few options and they all suck. We don't know for sure which one sucks less, and the only way to find out is to roll the dice. I still think that for the most part, the stories are good, but I know too many of the patients with ongoing problems to be naive about the decision. Again... you'll know.
I hope to see you soon... the margarita recipe gets better and better.
Mark
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