Very confused. Please help!
 

I have a long, long history of back problems, starting from a very young age. At 9 I was put in a back brace for scoliosis, and at 15 had spinal fusion. To make a painfully long story short- I have had severe chronic pain ever since. I now see a pain management specialist, but what I would really love, is to just get some concrete answers & hopefully some direction as to what I can do and where I can go from here.

I saw a new ortho dr a while back, which did not go as I'd hoped. I was rushed through my appointment, and left feeling so shut down. Actually, I left in tears, but that might be just because I'm an emotional mess when it comes to my back- and very sensitive! The doctor told me my MRI results "showed nothing significant and led to no signs of any actual diagnoses." Here's the problem: I went in to pick up my records for an upcoming disability hearing, and when I read his report on the visit, it clearly states the opposite of what he told me. Under "MRI Results" reads, " reveals transitional segment acute deformity." What does this mean? I can't seem to find anything online that I trust. Under "Diagnoses" it states: "Transitional Segment Disorder" as well as "Scoliosis status post spinal fusion.
" I know what that 2nd part means, but again, what is this 'transitional segment disorder' business?

I really, really REALLY appreciate any help on this. I'm just so lost and disappointed in this doctor. I feel betrayed by someone I thought was trustworthy, and someone I'd sincerely had a lot of faith in. This man even went so far as to tell me not to make another appointment with him, seeing as how my results were completely negative and there was nothing he could do. Thank you in advance, I am so grateful to websites like this-- a place I don't feel so out of place!

Michelle

The 'transition' is from the sacrum to the lumbar spine. When I hear 'transitional segment' it usually refers to either having an extra or one less lumbar vertebra. It gets very confusing because we see the 2 lowest lumbar vertebrae as L4 and L5, but the numbering becomes ambiguous.

My guess is that there is a defomity of the vertebrae that is causing the scoliosis. I had a client with a wedge shaped S1 that started his spine upward at a VERY significant angle. In order to keep your head above your body, there must be a compensatory curve back towards center... hence the big S shape that we see as scoliosis.

For scoliosis and complex deformity reconstruction surgery, I often recomment Fabien Bitan in New York and Serena Hu at UCSF. They both have extensive experience. Bitan is a past president of the pediatric scoliosiis society.

I had a 17 y-old client with a deformed transitional segment that caused scoliosis. He reconstruction surgery by Dr. Hu was amazing. I wrote about it here:

http://www.ispine.org/forum/ispine/1...ordinaire.html

Good luck!!!

Mark

PS.... welcome to the forum!

re your doctor visit
 

Michelle
Sorry to read that your appt. left you feeling so badly. Perhaps even tho the surgeon/doctor said there was nothing he meant nothing that he could or would do anything about.

Hopefully you'll see someone else such as the surgeons that Mark recommended that would be more helpful.

Hope your disability hearing went in your favor ~

take care, Maria