Surgery is Scheduled

Well, I decided to schedule the surgery. I will go under the knife on July 12th at 7:00 a.m. It will be at Shawnee Mission Medical Center.

I expect to be in the hospital 3~5 days. The doctor will do an anterior fusion. We asked about the disc replacement and the doctor said that he refuses to do that procedure. Already in Florida, there are billboards saying to sign up for a class action if you have had this implant. So, no replacement for me.

He predicts that it will greatly reduce my pain. My discogram showed a pretty severe pain on only one level of my spine. This makes me a good candidate for the fusion.

I will post more when I get the phone calls from Shawnee Mission for more detail on my surgery.

Discogram is Over!

The Discogram is over. They gave me some Vercet (spelling?) to block my memory and relax me. So, I don't remember much. I do remember the doctor triggering my back pain by the injection though.

I'm not feeling the best tonight. It feels like he did a tap dance on my back. They did give me some Vicodin for the pain. I got some good narcotics after the procedure because it hurt like a booger.

Anyway, I'm done with the test and now he mentioned some new options. Since the other disks are healthy, he mentioned a disk replacement instead of a fusion. We will go to Kansas City again on June 23rd to his office to discuss.

I have 3 options:

• Live with it
• Disc replacement
• Disc fusion

Thanks to everybody for their prayers and I appreciate your support.

Aflac came through after all

I checked with AFLAC to see if there could be some kind of extension granted (AFLAC says that you have to have your surgery within 1 year of the injury). They said that they would have to check and "get back with me". Well, they said that I need a letter from my doctor saying that they have tried all conservative treatments.... and that the surgery is for the same injury that occured.

I don't even have to submit this letter until after the surgery. So, at least I won't get hosed on that.

Thursday approaches....

Discogram is scheduled

They finally scheduled my discogram. I will go to Shawnee Mission Medical Center to have it done on Thursday, June 15. I am told that this is a most unpleasant procedure.

I will try not to think about it for the next couple of days.

The chances of having surgery before the Aflac deadline is not good. So, I guess that's good that I don't rush into it just to get the benefit. But, on the other hand, it stinks that if I do have to have the surgery, I will miss out on about $2000 cash.

Oh well. C'est la vie.