It's official Stenum Money gone

[longroadahead]

There are more than a few Sternum nightmares out there. Reading all of these have convinced me if I decide to have surgery I am better off here in the US. All though the M6 does look promising.

Then I will read about all the US nightmares out there and swear off surgery for good

[jsewell]

Longroadahead,
Hate to tell you i had a US nightmare. with a great surgeon. DrRegan. He just did not want to admit his accidental damage to a certain nerve that helps a lot with respiration. Although i out of 2 discs were removed and the one painful upper upper one is no longer generating any pain,I was left with only 45% lung function. So we never know what will happen.
I have not kicked myself in the butt over that one as my spinal surgeon could have done a thoracotomy and worked on other discs that are problems in the same area.
Then i ended up haveing a partial thoracotomy to see what was going on with my lung anyway.!!!!
Keep plugging along.
judy

[cherylstewart67]

Mark, from what I have read, there are several others using the M6, right? I had made contact with a surgeon in California that was going to be doing some trails at Stenum. I had the paper work, lots of it, to send in for consideration. But after becoming a member here and reading all about the nightmares there, I trashed the documents. I must hold on to hope that something is in store for us here.

[cp7959]

My "discomfort" is some degree of nerve irritation at the C5/C6 distribution. It flares when I move my arms around to much. This started after my Stenum surgery.

I'm actually now fused at C6/C7, C5/C6, C4/C5 and ADR at C3/C4. I guess I should be grateful that my symptoms are manageable. My surgeon believes in time my nerves will calm down more. We all want our normal selves back.

Funny part is I was in much better shape before going to Stenum. Because my fusion at C6/C7 in 2002 was no problem and recovery was a breeze, I thought the same would be on the Stenum ADR surgery. So I went to Germany with very minor discomfort. And came back in very rough shape. So I "screwed up".

Getting the C3/C4 ADR in the States, again no problems, recovery was very quick. Also the revision to fusion was a breeze at C5/C6.

So my frustration is that if I was just patient and stayed home I would be so much better off physically and financially. But the world of "ADR" sounds so sexy, I jumped on the band wagon.

As for the Stenum nightmare stories. Stenum really is a nice hospital and the staff is outstanding. The problem is the surgeon. Very quick procedures and in some cases that may be OK. However, in more complex, multi level, or stenosis the risk factor increases regardless of surgeon. But the "Stenum, pedal to the medal" surgery opens up for a greater risk for problems.

As Huey Lewis and the News would say "All I want from tomorrow, is to make it better than today".

[mmglobal]

I think Heuy Lewis says, "I want a new drug!"

The 'drive thru surgery' mentioned is horrific. The worst case I know if is a 3-level cervical case with severe degeneration, large osteophytes; the whole 9 yards. Operative time for a 3-level was 70 minutes. This is a joke. The important part of the surgery (posterior decompression) was not addressed at all. The patient wound up paying for a 2nd surgery to have the m6's removed and replaced with ProDisc-C's with good result. However, that came after additional YEARS of spinal cord compression, suffering, more permananent damage bacause of the wait, etc...

I wish we could say that they have learned about their problems, but what I see is a steady stream of these outrageous, hurried, and careless surgeries that are incomplete at best.

I will always backpeddle and say that I know many stenum successes, just like I know horror stories from all the surgeons I know and love. However, there is a difference between the horror stories that will sometimes occur even in the best of circumstances; and the horror stories that are directly attributed to the cavalier attitude that lets them complete what should be a 4 hours in 70 minutes.

There is nothing wrong with the M6. It is not my disc of choice for several reasons... especially in multi-level configurations. Having said that, IMHO, all the discs are likely to be successes if properly implanted in a properly selected patient. For some reason, some doctors experience high incidence of HO (auto fusion, heterotopic ossification), while others experience almost none.

I have to go... sorry I've not been here much. My responsibilites overwhelm my capacity to work... still quite limited. I do worse at home than on the road. I'll be traveling again next week... hopefully I can catch up with the forum then.

Mark

[Jarrod]

Hey guys,

I thought I read somewhere that if the decompression to the foramen was not done completely that u could get foramentomy done from the posterior side of the neck. And is the myleo ct the only way to see if the formen is decompressed enough for th nerves. I had dr. Clavel tell me he throughly cleaned out my foramen opening because this is where my arm pain was comming from but I still have symptoms weak extensor muscles in the hand and some forarm irritation with flexion of the neck. I'm only 3 months post op so I hope I still have room to improve

[jsewell]

Hi Jarrod
i know the foraminotomy can be done from the back of the neck. I just picked upl my OR report and my doc did everything he could to open up my cervical and thoracic spine. The part he did do the foraminotomy on was already fused from 3 years ago, but I needed extensive work and he was there so it was all taken care of. It was done on C4-7.
HOpefully in a few more months your pain will subside.
My nerve pain from this past surgery is pretty much gone at a little over 2 months, but we are all different. It was generated from my neck falling off the spinal column, so much different.
judy