[TheForge] lumbar rebuild

[Wes Marquart]

Congratulations on getting the medical system to do something 
for you and its good to see that some of us are able to get
the rebuilds that become necessary.

Unfortunately, I am still in the fight to get my back redone.

After many years of leg and back pain I finally decided that
enough was enough and that it was time to have the surgery...

So I had a new MRI done on the 27th of August... in preparation
to getting in to see a new Doctor...

The local hospital and doctors (ya gotta love managed care) are
stonewalling me after my latest MRI which I have a feeling that 
they (the hospital) botched...

The initial set I had done 3 years ago showed 4 bulged discs
+ 1 ruptured one with a large extruded fragment pressing on the
spinal cord + disc degenerative disease + arthritis starting...

The new sets' have come back with the results that the disc 
problems have 'resolved themselves' and that I have arthritis in 
the facettes...

I just got back from visiting the people at the radiology department
at the local hospital and they are still saying the same old 'stuff'  
The doctors office is telling me that when I go see the surgeon I 
demanded to speak with again (appointment is on December 17th
(well after she gets back from visiting her family in China) I 
should ask her about alternative treatments.

This is the same surgeon I saw initially in 2004 - the one who 
wanted to schedule for the next week... it should be interesting 
to hear what she has to say then...  Maybe she can explain how 
the damage which was so evident then has Magically healed itself...

Truthfully, I don't even know IF I will even be making the appointment 
in December... being such that my position at my employer at the time
'eliminated' my position on the 30th of August... I don't know how I 
can come up with another two months of COBRA insurance payments to 
see this Doctor...

Sorry to all about the venting... 

Sometimes the pain and the Medical Mafia covering up for their 
pathetic service gets to me.  They don't even have the courage to 
say that the back degeneration [might] be connected with the messed 
up right knee I acquired while in the Army in 1983.  I've been told 
by the local County VA Service officer that if I could get them to 
say that much I could be treated thru the VA...



Wes Marquart


-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Peter Fels And Phoebe
Palmer
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2007 4:40 PM
To: Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: [TheForge] lumbar rebuild

Just got home from LA and a major lumbar ( lower back) rebuild, 
complete with nifty titanium hardware.
Haven't been this painfree in a couple of years..I'm very pleased.
Can't sit up very long yet...gotta go flop again....pete f