The Eagle has landed

Clicking on the picture will take you to a Quicktime movie.If you have Quicktime already(you probably do) Choose "Open with" and choose "Quicktime" when it comes up. (or you can save it to your computer and then view it) It is a large file and will take some time to download.)

Well Dallas is "in the can" as they say. I can't begin to detail the stress and... stress involved with the decisions and coordination in relieving the pain and stress of Amy's L4-L5 disk. After two failed discectomies our KU Med Center back surgeon suggested spinal fusion as the next alternative, due to the limited remaining disk material and the beginning stages of the vertabrae of the back starting to move out of alignment due to the injury. He then went into the details of the 6hr surgery, using 2 pins and 4 screws, accessing the spine from the back and the front. And let's not even go into the details of the recovery process trying to remain as still as possible while waiting for the two vertabrae bones to grow over the rods and "fuse" them together. Faced with this seemingly barbaric option, we asked him of other options. While "live with the pain" was one of them, it wasn't one for us. I had seen firsthand how the pain had affected Amy's health, disposition and outlook. We jokingly asked about an artificial disk that should surely be available and he mentioned that they were experimenting with them but there were too many risks associated with them. Mind you, these discussions were taking place before her second discectomy, and he stated that we were getting ahead of ourselves due to there only being a one percent chance of a re-herniation this time. Last time, there was supposedly only a 5% chance of re-herniation. Amy's brother has had three discectomies, so I am wondering what his odds are? ;-) Anyway evidently Amy is a very lucky girl to hit on 5% odds, and 1% odds. I guess I should take her to Vegas! With Amy's terrible luck with the odds of her back surgeries I began to explore options other than spinal fusion. I searched for experienced orthopedic surgeons that were trying other options and found a couple different artificial disks that were being used in LA, Dallas and Cleveland. The disk have been used in Europe for many years and have been FDA approved in the States since 2001. I searched for someone experienced in using them and the Texas Back Institute seemed like a good choice.

(The slideshow needs explaining and hopefully I will have time to do that shortly. It's also pretty large and may take a while to download.)