My 12 week post-op with Dr Hu

April 19, 2011

As you all may remember, I have been VERY worried about my back " creaking " . It

started about 3 weeks after my posterior surgery in December. It has been

getting louder & more frequent. I think I got my answer yesterday. Just my

luck...after driving for 300 miles, I guess the position I was sitting in...I

couldn't get my back to " creak " for Dr Hu if my life depended on it!!! Thank

God, she is a surgeon who actually LISTENED to what I was saying. While

reviewing my films, she was very pleased with the appearance of my

fusions...that's the good news. So anyway...I finally pointed my finger at the

film & said " the creaking in coming from right here " . If I was playing a game

of darts...my finger would have hit a " bullseye " . My finger landed on a piece

of hardware that I didn't even know was there. She said that she " rarely uses

it " . " It " is a small stabilizer bar that is used as extra support of the rods.

Kind of like the cross bar on the letter " H " . I can't believe that I never

noticed it before. So anyway, her educated guess is that the stabilizer may not

have been tightened enough...thus causing the creaking. So my fears were

confirmed, just in a different way. I was terrified that I had another failed

fusion & that somehow it was my fault from performing some activity the wrong

way. It's not a failed fusion, but just as potentially dangerous to my

recovery. Dr Hu confirmed that even though it isn't casuing me problems

now...it has the possibility of leading to rod breakage is the future. She

agreed with my assessment that ANY movement in the construct is bad. So I am

going to be in a " wait & see " mode for a while. I am supposed to be VERY

watchfull of ANY loss of correction & ANY increase in pain. Even though I got

some " not so good news " , I think I respect Dr Hu more now than ever before (if

that's possible). It was a team effort between us to figure out what was going

on. I can't tell you how much I appreciate the fact that she didn't blow me off

or try to give me a line of crap about it being my body getting used to the

hardware (like my last surgeon did). So my chances of needing a " fine tuning "

surgery are higher now...and I'm OK with that. She did such a fantastic job

cleaning up my last surgeon's mess, that I have no complaints. I had a feeling

from the very beginning that it might take one more surgery. So that is the

" not so good news " . The " good news " is I am strong, healthy, & my fusions look

good!!! Time for me to spend my day resting. Doing a 600 mile round trip in

one day is EXHAUSTING !!! Have a great day everybody.....Kathy

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