VATS fusion T3-4 and T6-7 post-op

[mmglobal]

Slinky, I'm so sorry you have to deal with this. I too suffer from thoracic spine issues and when it's bad... it's really bad. Also, when it's bad, the episodes are not short... they last for weeks and months. I'm sure I'm not telling you anything.

VATS took thoracic spine surgeons from the days of open thoracotomies (crack your chest open... split the sternum... move organs aside to get to the spine), to a much, much less invasive procedure that does not involve the open thoracotomy.

I am considering surgery in the T7-8 area but VATS is no longer state of the art for the surgery I need. I'm considering XLIF. Dr. Regan is also one of the early adopters of XLIF and has been doing them for years. BTW, when looking at the good and bad stories you read about a doctor, it's not like a tally or score sheet. It's important to consider each case individually and to learn to set aside "outliers" that have unique issues that make their cases less relevant or irrelevant to the decision you have to make.

I've been dealing with my T-Spine since 2009. Even before that, I've discovered that symptoms of mine that I had chalked up to my C-Spine were actually thoracic. I've been through a fairly exhaustive litany of diagnostic procedures that you might want to discuss with me. These have included facet injections, costovertebral joint injections and ablations, intercostal nerve blocks, a thoracic discogram and most recently thoracic epidurals. What has been difficult is that we have gotten some pretty amazing results, but have repeated the successful injections with little or no success for the subsequent procedures.

Call me if you wish... number on the ispine and GPN website contact pages.

Mark

[jsewell]

Slinkeycats,
I am sorry you are in so much pain and i do remember it well when i was in your position. I am one of the bad reviewers of DrRegan , unfortunately. If you would like to speak with me you are welcome to pm me and i will send my phone number.
Mark is your best source of info and he is also in the same boat so i would really suggest working with him.
Judy

[Maria]

I've lived with horrific pain (in the past) that was so limiting and just really turned my world upside down and all around and my head too of course. Over the years (like 30) things seemed to have calmed down re my back pain and while I do have some flare ups that are pretty intense still they're nothing compared to what I used to experience.

I still have lumbar issues (that was the worst for me) have some cervical issues and according to my OSS thoracic issues as well which I've only occasionally experienced and pretty briefly though a few times the pain was so sharp and slicing dagger like it just made me afraid to breathe let alone move. Every time I read about people's thoracic issues I shudder...

More recently in the last 2 years my feet have limited me greatly so I have once again been dealing with a condition that is greatly limiting and depressing as well as a result of pain/limitations/the whole shebang.

All I can say is that I do hope you will get the treatment needed to improve your spine/condition/life. I'm sure talking to Mark and Judy both would be very helpful to you. take care, Maria