Welcome Newbies

dshobbies · #1 (**permalink**) 01-15-2009, 09:51 PM

Hi to all,

I just spoke to Mark who wanted to start a welcome thread but I decided to jump the gun and welcome all who wish to join us, both pre and post op, whether on or off the fence and/or anywhere inbetween.

A little history on Mark, mmglobal, the administrator of this forum. Through his business, Global Patient Network (globalpatientnetwork.com) he has helped so many of us traverse this very windy road of spinal issues. He knows more about spines than any other layman and is well known and respected by doctors worldwide. Personally, I think he's a miracle worker in getting appointments scheduled because I was on the slow road until I met him... and then things happened -fast! His gentleness and compassion combined with his knowledge is very calming, especially when this chaotic world gets the best of you.

So, for all of you who are thinking about joining us, why don't you introduce yourself and give us a little backround. I hope this forum provides you with whatever you need. By the way, check out Today's Funny in Community Support for a good laugh.

We look forward to 'meeting' you, Dale

Kathy · #2 (**permalink**) 01-15-2009, 10:40 PM

Thanks, glad to be here. Can't wait to get to know all of you that I don't know and see all the one's that I do know. I'll forewarn all of you that I can be, am usually, long winded and tend to ramble

I try to control it; but always feel like I need to give the background information to tell the story. Within a month, you will probably know my life story! HeHe

I also like all the neat emotion icons, and get a little crazy with them.
A little about me, I am a married stay at home mom of 2 little girls; Emma 5 years and Ava 3 years. I live about 30 minutes north of Dallas, in Denton, TX. I am a patient of Dr. Zigler at Texas Back Institute. I am a canidate for ADR at L4/5 and am just trying to get through all the insurance red tape.
Glad to be here and thanks to all of you for being so welcoming to all of us,
Kathy

mmglobal · #3 (**permalink**) 01-16-2009, 12:42 AM

Kathy, is your house in this picture? We jumped from the North Texas Parachute center, as I remember about 30 minutes north
of Dallas. This is my pre-spiney life, circa 1992??? My accident in 1997 was the end of my jumping. I'm in black and royal with a
silver stripe on my rig at about 8:30 in the formation.

16 way plus camera out of 4 Cessnas. The next jump of the day was a 20-way out of a C-47.... military DC-3... great noise,
great history, great fun jumping an aircraft built in the 30's and hauled troops in WWII

trkdoc714 · #4 (**permalink**) 01-16-2009, 01:06 AM

Hello,

My name isn't really trkdoc714, it's Bob. I'm married with the oldest being 36 and youngest 2 years old. There's several in between and once I inventory them, I'll report back with an accurate count.

My wife has made the choice of having an ADR at C5/6 as opposed to a fusion. Her initial diagnosis was to fuse C4 thru 7 or her head would fall off in a few weeks. We found her a great surgeon who offered her either the single level ADR or fusion. She'll be joining I-Spine tomorrow I think.

I've been having back issues for almost three years. I've seen 5 (oh yeah, I have 5 children) or 6 Ortho or Neurosurgeons. The diagnosis have been: fuse X 2, fuse X 4, there's nothing wrong with you drugs won't help (where was this guy during the college years?), fuse X 1 and Laminectomy X 3. Next month I have an appointment with a surgeon from Stenum. I'll take my films and Xrays to get his opinion.

Well, that's me. I'm glad to be here and relieved to find a more relaxed atmosphere. I'm ready to learn, support and be supported.

Bob

Oh yeah. I can be a little more longwinded than Kathy.

Kathy · #5 (**permalink**) 01-16-2009, 04:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trkdoc714

Oh yeah. I can be a little more longwinded than Kathy.

And you have a slinky spine and I don't. I'm so jealous!

mmglobal · #6 (**permalink**) 01-16-2009, 01:17 AM

Dale... you beat me to the punch... here is my welcome post....

I’d just like to extend a very warm welcome to the flood of new members coming to iSpine. If you are not part of the flood… OK a warm welcome for you as well.

My name is Mark Mintzer and I’m the founder of iSpine; a non-profit organization dedicated to providing quality information and a supportive environment on the International Spine Patient Information Network. I started my ‘career’ as an internet spine patient in 2000. I was 3 years into spinepatienthood (following a bad auto accident in 1997) and was about to have a 2-level 360 lumbar fusion. That would have been my second spine surgery, but fortunately, I discovered the MGH Braintalk Spinal Disorders Forum and became a fixture there, making literally thousands of posts over the years to come. I still post there, but after a string of technical problems, they don’t have the traffic that they used to. (Yes, you can post links to other forums here. Our purpose is to share information, not limit it.)

In early 2003, I recognized the need for a more targeted forum for people who were researching the new technologies. I began the first iteration of this community that was the Yahoo eGroup for ADR_Patients. This was very successful, but the email eGroup did not lend itself well to the types of discussions we were having. This community that was built with the generous sharing of information by a few dozen patients eventually moved over to the ADR/Spinal Tech Talk forum at BPSG. After a year and a half, we moved the community over to ADR Support. I think that Justin (Dr. J) was the first to be banned from BPSG. Harrison, Alastair and I, along with Justin, were the band of 4 forum leaders and soon we were all banned. Shortly after that, anyone who said anything nice about me or mentioned the new forum was banned, and we were joined at ADR Support by dozens of the old crew. (Sound familiar?)

The “banned of 4” moved the community over to ADR Support in December of 2004 and again, we all worked very hard to build the community into the best place on the internet for the new technology information seekers. By this time, I had taken 2 trips to Europe AFTER my surgery and had observed surgery at Stenum, AlphaKlnik, St. Elisabeth, St. Wolfgangs, and Rudolphinerhaus, in addition to several centers in the US. I had already begun traveling with patients for their spine surgery. (Next week, I’ll take my 27th trip to Europe and have now done this with > 50 patients.) I’ve now observed > 200 spine surgeries of all different kinds, have attended dozens of conferences and classes, and have a unique body of experience that makes my input valuable to my clients, and to the online patient community as well. Unfortunately, this experience was deemed to be at odds with the goals of ADR Support and in March of 2006, I was banned. The process was pretty outrageous and many things that were just flat-out untrue were said. An email was sent to all ADR Support members stating, “We believe that clearly separating commercial contacts is the best way to provide transparency within the Forum, as well as clarity and freedom of choice to each individual member.”

I continued to amass volumes of useful information as I attended more conferences, classes and was taking 6 trips each year to Germany for dozens of surgeries. I decided to start a new forum where people could post without fear of being banned. It was apropos to start on September 19th, please read my initial welcome thread. It makes me very proud to spend time in the OR with pioneers of the industry like Bertagnoli, Zeegers, Buettner-Janz, Delamarter, Regan, Yue, Bitan, Yeung, Hoogland, Schiffer and others.

Here on iSpine, you do have a choice. If you feel that there is a conflict between my status as a professional advocate for spine patients, then please feel free to ignore my posts. However, if you feel that the information I post is useful and informative; or even if you think my posts are a load of crap… you can also choose to read them, challenge them. You can even tell me that it’s BS. You can agree, defend, disagree with anyone... just be civil. The one cardinal rule that I insist on is that we all post for the benefit of the patient community. If you have a good experience, share it. If you have a bad experience, share it.

>> There is no entity that is the arbiter of correct and incorrect information. You may disagree to your heart’s content. It is up to the reader to determine the value of the information presented by all members.

>> I will NEVER read your private messages, unless they are sent specifically to me. Surreptitiously reading other people’s communication is just wrong.

>> I will NEVER edit a post, then edit the database to cover tracks. That is just wrong. Transparency is not just a word to bat about... it's a way of approaching one's resoponsibility to those we serve.

This is a tough community. Many of us are in chronic pain, on huge doses of medications, severely depressed and literally have our lives crumbling around us. (These are the folks that are doing well… the severe patients are much worse! … OK, bad joke.) It is not possible to have ANY type of community without occasional dust-up and hurt feelings. Our chronic pain community makes it even more difficult.

So, we’ll have our problems. I’m glad that you found us. I’m sorry about the events in our lives that brought us all here. I hope that you gain a lot of useful information, a sense of community and a ton of support from what we all do here.

Welcome!

All the best,

Mark

PS… please introduce yourself on one of the ‘new here’ threads.

Kathy · #7 (**permalink**) 01-16-2009, 05:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmglobal

After a year and a half, we moved the community over to ADR Support. I think that Justin (Dr. J) was the first to be banned from BPSG. Harrison, Alastair and I, along with Justin, were the band of 4 forum leaders and soon we were all banned. Shortly after that, anyone who said anything nice about me or mentioned the new forum was banned, and we were joined at ADR Support by dozens of the old crew. (Sound familiar?)

What does BPSG stand for? Did you, Justin, Harrison and Alastair all have your own forums? Or did you all start ADR support together? So Harrison was one who was censored and left? And now is doing the same thing to others?

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmglobal

The “banned of 4” moved the community over to ADR Support in December of 2004 and again, we all worked very hard to build the community into the best place on the internet for the new technology information seekers.... I’ve now observed > 200 spine surgeries of all different kinds, have attended dozens of conferences and classes, and have a unique body of experience that makes my input valuable to my clients, and to the online patient community as well. Unfortunately, this experience was deemed to be at odds with the goals of ADR Support and in March of 2006, I was banned. The process was pretty outrageous and many things that were just flat-out untrue were said. An email was sent to all ADR Support members stating, “We believe that clearly separating commercial contacts is the best way to provide transparency within the Forum, as well as clarity and freedom of choice to each individual member.”

So, you all started ADR together? Was it 4 forums made into one? Or new? So, you weren't kicked off for trying to get 'new clients'; but because you were becoming more experienced, learning more and maybe making a particular someone jealous or feel inferior to you? This is just crazy to me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmglobal

Here on iSpine, you do have a choice.

There is no entity that is the arbiter of correct and incorrect information. You may disagree to your heart’s content. It is up to the reader to determine the value of the information presented by all members.

You must be kidding, you aren't the 'God' of Ispine?

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmglobal

I will NEVER read your private messages, unless they are sent specifically to me. Surreptitiously reading other people’s communication is just wrong.

I suspected that this might be a problem at ADR and chose my titles carefully. After the pm's I sent telling we were leaving, I am probably banned by now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmglobal

I will NEVER edit a post, then edit the database to cover tracks. That is just wrong. Transparency is not just a word to bat about... it's a way of approaching one's resoponsibility to those we serve.

Thank you, because it is extremely irritating to be re-reading a post of yours that has been so edited, that it's not even what you wrote anymore. Or having a post locked, just so the administrator can have the last word.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmglobal

This is a tough community. Many of us are in chronic pain, on huge doses of medications, severely depressed and literally have our lives crumbling around us. (These are the folks that are doing well… the severe patients are much worse! … OK, bad joke.) .

Unfortuantely, not a joke. Maybe someday, with this site and many faithful doctors, leaders, patients and others it won't have to be this way for others that walk this road behind us.

Thank you Mark, I don't know you; but already like your personality and humor. Can't wait to get to know you better.

mmglobal · #8 (**permalink**) 01-16-2009, 05:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kathy Earhart

What does BPSG stand for? Did you, Justin, Harrison and Alastair all have your own forums? Or did you all start ADR support together? So Harrison was one who was censored and left? And now is doing the same thing to others?

So, you all started ADR together? Was it 4 forums made into one? Or new? So, you weren't kicked off for trying to get 'new clients'; but because you were becoming more experienced, learning more and maybe making a particular someone jealous or feel inferior to you? This is just crazy to me.

BPSG was Back Pain Support Group. It was a nice forum and probably still is. Same moderator issues as ADR Support. Harrison, Alastair, Justin and I were all prolific posters. When the board got over-moderated (and we got banned), we all moved to ADR Support. Harrison stepped up and said he'd run it. At the time, I felt that with my position in the community, I shouldn't own the forum. (Not my brightest decision.)

Kathy · #9 (**permalink**) 01-16-2009, 04:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mmglobal

Kathy, is your house in this picture? We jumped from the North Texas Parachute center, as I remember about 30 minutes north
of Dallas. This is my pre-spiney life, circa 1992??? My accident in 1997 was the end of my jumping. I'm in black and royal with a
silver stripe on my rig at about 8:30 in the formation.

16 way plus camera out of 4 Cessnas. The next jump of the day was a 20-way out of a C-47.... military DC-3... great noise,
great history, great fun jumping an aircraft built in the 30's and hauled troops in WWII

You might have been in Denton or Gainesville (on the Oklahoma/ Texas border). I used to live in Gainesville and they have a small airport, that was popular with a lot of skydivers. It looks like a lot of fun, not sure I'm brave enough though. Maybe once I'm better, I'll have to do it, just cause I can.