The Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery

74 yo who had adolescent scoliosis "in dark ages" now w severe pain

2012-01-31T03:53:00.001-05:00

From Evernote:

74 yo who had adolescent scoliosis "in dark ages" now w severe pain

In between adolescent scoliosis surgeries yesterday, I saw this very healthy 74 yo woman who is now really suffering with long-term consequences of untreated and un-monitored progressive scoliosis.

This lady used to hike all the time all across country in every state except Nebraska!

But in recent years, her quality of life has taken a real "nose dive" with increasing severe low back that makes even basic activities of daily living unbearable.

In addition to her large scoliosis, she has also developed a spondylolisthesis also w stenosis at L45.

This is a good example of the long-term consequences of scoliosis which can eventually greatly affect quality of life. When treated earlier as an adolescent or younger adult, such deformities can be treated less invasively, and improve quality of life as well as posture many years in advance. Realignment of the spine in earlier years can help prevent the lower collapse which can lead to stenosis, spondylolisthesis, and the need for larger surgeries all the way down to pelvis.

While surgery is still quite possible in the older adult, there are greater risks due to osteoporosis which can lead to spinal fractures, as well as increased medical risks, and slower recovery times. This is yet another reason why scoliosis and kyphosis should be tracked throughout life with regular X-Rays and exams with at a scoliosis center or spinal deformity physician/surgeon to look for any signs of curve progression. It is also to look for signs of decreasing quality of life and neurologic function like spinal claudication, which can occur in the older adult with progressive spinal stenosis.

Even though this lady may have developed her scoliosis initially in the "Dark Ages" of scoliosis over 60 years ago, before the dawn of spinal instrumentation, there is still hope for better quality of life now. It is also important for all adults with scoliosis and kyphosis to be periodically checked, usually once every 5 years for older adults, and once a year or so for adults under 25 to try to determine if curves are progressing.

While we enjoy caring for people with spinal deformity of all ages at Hey Clinic, there are definitely advantages to stay on top of this problem earlier rather than later.

Dr. Lloyd Hey

Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery

http://www.heyclinic.com

HEY CLINIC

13 yo double curve scoliosis fixed.this morning. Adolescent idiopathic double curve 71 and 59 degrees.

2012-01-30T21:51:00.002-05:00

Surgical time 2 hr 40 min

Ebl: 350 cc.
Blood transfused: none.
Complications: none.
T4-L3 INSTRUMENTATION AND FUSION
Surgical Team:
Circulating Nurse Extraordinaire: Nurse Kelly
PA Assist: Rachel Robinson, PAC,
Scrub Techs: Sandra and Motorcycle Dan "Scrubs"
Cell Saver: Carolyn
Anesthesia: Dr. Atasoy.

Tunes: Sandra's choice -- Pandora with Nicole C. Mullen Radio. Afternoon choice was Dan's, which was 80's Rock and Roll.

When we showed mom and dad the X-Ray (see above), after surgery with her corrected spine, they both said "WOW!!!" out loud! That's always awesome to see the parents reaction.

Physical therapy student Jessica Pincus was our student observer for the day and had a blast with us. She was definitely fully engaged in the surgery and asked lots of good questions. She will actually be helping to take care of these adolescent patients tomorrow, with a much deeper understanding of what the treatment is all about. This picture was taken right after surgery when the incision was closed and sterile dressing applied, ready to turn.

In between surgeries, I saw two consults, one of which was a 74 yo woman who suffered with a progressive deforming thoracolumbar scoliosis for years and years. Now she has a 70 degree curve, and a spondylolisthesis and severe spinal stenosis..... She said she developed scoliosis in the "dark ages" 60+ years ago, which is why she was never screened or treated. There is still hope for this patient, but it sure is easier and safer and better to fix when you are younger. What a contrast from my morning and afternoon surgery today.

This afternoon we fixed a 12 yo with similar double curve. Her EBL was 500 cc, and received no blood transfusions. Surgical time 2 hr 45 minutes.

Both of these young ladies went to our Duke Raleigh Hospital orthopedic floor to private adjoining rooms, where there are large rooms with pullout bed for mom or dad to sleep, and another large foldout recliner if both parents want to stay! ICU is rarely if ever necessary postop. Both will be up and walking around tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning I see a second opinion for kyphosis surgery in an adolescent patient before going off to surgery.

Time to get some rest.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
HEY CLINIC

http://www.heyclinic.com

55 yo retired school principle w moderate low back pain w adolescent idiopathic scoliosis

2012-01-27T09:39:00.001-05:00

From Evernote:

55 yo retired school principle w moderate low back pain w adolescent idiopathic scoliosis

Never diagnosed w scoliosis as a child or adolescent. Diagnosed on her first job physical exam.

She also had spine fracture from being thrown in a tornado 150 feet e upper thoracic fracture age 27. That has caused some increased kyphosis.

We will be treating her back pain conservatively with a special back brace, special scoliosis physical therapy and home exercise program, and follow-up with us in a year with repeat X-Rays. Hopefully we can get her quality of life up into acceptable area, and her curve could remain stable. In meantime, she knows we are here if she needs us, should she have another bad back pain flare with her scoliosis.

Dr. Lloyd Hey

Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery

http://www.heyclinic.com

15 yo young lady seen for second opinion this morning with painful thoracolumbar scoliosis for second opinion

2012-01-25T14:01:00.002-05:00

Saw this young lady with her mom in clinic. She was seen elsewhere and told not to worry about her scoliosis, because her curve was only in the 20 degree range.
However, patient had reported significant low back pain that was greatly affecting her quality of life, and nothing was suggested for that.

When I saw her today, she had a 2 inch trunk shift to the left, causing her "hour glass" to be out of shape, with one hip appearing to stick out on the right. Her motor strength and sensation was normal, but she did have thoracolumbar hump on scoliometer.

Her X-Rays confirm that her curve was 26 degrees, which isn't huge, but because of the location of the curve, she did have nearly a 5 cm trunk shift to the left. I explained how this type of trunk shift can be associated with back pain. Note the green lines drawn along outer edge of pelvis, and relationship to her rib cage! On one side, it is shifted over 4.5 cm.

We got her started on a conservative program, including seeing a special scoliosis physical therapist for home training program, a special lightweight back brace, NSAID medications, and follow-up to recheck her trunk shift and scoliosis progression.

We also talked at length about the importance of tracking this curve as she gets older, since these thoracolumbar curves with large trunk shifts can lead to progressive painful curves in adulthood with severe progression of lumbar disc degeneration. If the curve does continue to progress, or if pain worsens despite conservative treatment, scoliosis surgery can help get her "hour glass" centered again, and thereby center the loads better so the back muscles don't have to work so hard. It can also decrease the loading on the lower lumbar discs, which might save her from needing a bigger scoliosis surgery as an adult, which might even have to include the pelvis/ilium.

Patient and mom were very appreciative and definitely understand better why she is hurting, with good conservative treatment plan underway.
Adolescents CAN have pain with scoliosis, even if the curve is below the 40 degree range. Conservative treatment is often effective to help the pain and allow them to get back into their active sport life and school life.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

31 yo woman w severe kyohoscoliosis fixed this am

2012-01-24T12:36:00.002-05:00

This 31 yo woman came up from Charleston, SC with her husband and mom.

Charleston is a beautiful city, about 5 hours away by car.

Today's surgery:

T2-L2 INSTRUMENTATION AND FUSION
EBL 650 CC
COMPLICATIONS: NONE.

Mom and husband Kevin were blown away by how great the post-reduction x-ray looked compared to her severe kypho-scoliosis preop.

GREAT MORNING.
SAW 13 YO SCOLIOSIS SECOND OPINION EARLY MORNING AS WELL.

Now back to clinic after a little lunch to see 2 more scoliosis consults and a scoliosis postop.

This afternoon, I'm operating on another 31 yo young lady from South Carolina -- This one from Polly's Island -- with a lumbo-sacral L5S1 spondylolisthesis.

DR. LLOYD HEY
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery

Raleigh, NC USA

http://www.heyclinic.com

Jackie doing great, walking great just 2 days after his complex revision extension instrumentation and fusion.

2012-01-18T17:24:00.001-05:00

He'll be heading home tomorrow morning!

Dr. Lloyd Hey

Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery.

http://www.heyclinic.com

Woman and daughter drop in to Hey Clinic yesterday 15 years after complex cervico-thoracic kyphoscoliosis surgery to say "thanks"

2012-01-18T05:54:00.004-05:00

Kathleen, now 89 years old, and her daughter literally dropped into our clinic late yesterday afternoon. She lives many hours away from Hey Clinic, but was visiting an ophthalmologist in Cary to have eye surgery. She was telling the surgeon there about me and the surgery I performed for her years ago. She then told her daughter that she wanted to go and "see Dr. Hey right now" -- so they jumped in the car after their appointment and drove the extra 10 miles to Hey Clinic in North Raleigh.

I am usually NEVER in clinic at 4:30 on a Monday through Thursday, but usually in OR 12 hard at work. But this day finished a little early, after doing an ACDF on a nurse from South Carolina who also has history of kyphosis. I remembered her and her daughter right away! What a blessing it was to see her, and to hear how her surgery changed her life. I was only in practice at Duke Medical Center for about two years in 1997 when I tackled her kyphoscoliosis surgery involving her neck and upper thoracic spine. Her head was literally in her chest, and twisted around about 75 degrees. She could basically not do anything, and was losing weight because she would choke on her food commonly, requiring her husband to do the Heimlich Maneuver. I remembered that she considered suicide her only way out. I also remember spending a lot of time trying to figure out whether it was even fixable or not, and how to handle this in a lady who was over 70 years old with osteoporosis concerns. The sublaminar wire technique with the old Luque box seemed like best option, and was really probably the ONLY option at that point since none of us were doing pedicle screws or lateral mass screws in the cervical spine in 1997.

She wanted to share her testimony with her daughter, which is given with her permission in video below. Her story brought tears to Tracy's eyes, who has worked with me for quite some time here in Hey Clinic --- a real encouragement to all of us at Hey Clinic, and to other spinal deformity surgeons through Scoliosis Research Society (SRS.ORG) to continue to help patients of all ages who have major quality of life challenges.

While I haven't seen Kathleen for over 13 years now, I remember her and her daughter well, and have actually recently been recalling her sublaminar wire and Luque box technique as I have been developing the new "U-Rod" technique, as well as sublaminar fiber wire techniques with more flexible rods to help treat patients with this condition. In fact, tomorrow I have another severe cervico-thoracic kyphosis case in patient with severe spastic quadriplegia. The mom emailed me a couple days ago and asked if I had ever done a "U-Rod" up to C2. I could only recall one going up to C4. Well, in actuality, Kathleen had a "U-Rod" -like construct, or more appropriately an "O-ROD" construct up to C2 with sublaminar wire which changed her life for the past 15 years and has held up wonderfully.

It amazes me how tough challenges, learning, innovation, repetitive experience and follow-up all work together to help figure out the next challenge. Each one is like a puzzle: at the time it can be difficult, but afterward, when you see the end result, it usually brings real joy and satisfaction to see the difference it makes in the lives of real people and their families. That solved challenge then provides greater experience and lessons learned that helps me face the next patient in need with more tools and growing wisdom to know what might be done. Surgery is NOT always an option. and I do not recommend surgery for everyone I see. But the long series of surgeries I have planned out and carried out since starting out at Duke in 1995, and years of training before that in Boston (Children's Hospital, etc) and at Duke have provided an ever-growing toolbox of skills that help me each day to serve better.

It keeps life interesting and rewarding.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Friend of adult scoliosis patient shares her story

2012-01-17T12:05:00.001-05:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Robin
Date: Jan 17, 2012 11:07 AM
Subject: testimonial
To: "Lloyd. Hey"

Dear Dr. Hey,

When I assisted my dear 79 year-old friend for her first appointment at the Hey Clinic, I had no idea what to expect.

I had always thought of back surgery as dangerous and an operation that yielded minor results.

Upon watching you explain how you intended to straighten her spine and give her the option of living pain-free, I was amazed.

You seem to know backs better than you know your own name. I left confident that you may very well be the best spine surgeon in the country.

When I brought my friend Birgit for her surgery, I was almost dumbstruck by the care and detail that was given her. After she was rolled into

the operating room and before I got home, your nurse called to inform me that Birgit was relaxed and surgery was to begin.

Throughout her surgery, I received a call every hour and that was a comfort and relief. It was wonderful to hear your voice while Birgit was in recovery teling me that she did well and should be walking by late afternoon.

I appreciate how well you and your staff took care of my dear friend and can report that she is taller, her face is free from the pain

she dealt with every day and she is visibly happier. The results of her surgery and the blessing of your gift have given Birgit a new quality of life and we both, are forever thankful.

I will never forget how we held hands and prayed for all involved in her surgery, that it would go well with God's guidance. I have never ever experienced that in any hospital or before any surgery.

You are truly amazing and anyone who needs competent, faithful and expert spinal care, should consider you first and foremost.

Thank you so very much,

Robin . CEO and Founder

McDavid Public Relations and MPG, LLC

Kyphosis surgery today for Proximal Junctional Kyphosis (PJK) with new fiber wire technique to prevent PJK at top

2012-01-16T13:13:00.001-05:00

I just finished helping Suzanne, who is a 63 yo woman with history of previous revision T11-Iliac wing instrumentation and fusion.

She did great for quite a while, but then developed proximal junctional kyphosis of 26 degrees at level just above her fusion with severe pain, deformity and thoracic spinal stenosis.

We fixed this today using a thoracic osteotomy, and extension instrumentation and fusion with a more flexible titanium rod, and a special less invasive technique at the top to gently transfer the load to the top T2 segment using sub laminar fiber wire wrapped twice around the lamina on each side to form a "lasso". At recent SRS meeting this fall in Loiusville, many of us from around the around the world brainstormed during a special seminar on PJK to come up with new solutions, and this idea was spurred on by that dialogue as well as discussions with our NC State Bioengineering lab where we are building special computer models (finite element models) of the human spine with instrumentation constructs.

I was able to get a complete correction of that 26 degree junctional kyphosis with use of the osteotomy, laminectomy and instrumentation techniques.

New technique worked smoothly. Brittaney was my assist this morning and did a great job along with motorcycle Dan "Scrubs" my scrub tech, and Sandra, and of course, Nurse Kelly!

We will be tracking the outcomes of this patient, along with our other patients as we continue to seek to improve surgical techniques to increase quality of life while decreasing complications and using scarce resources wisely.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lloyd A. Hey, MD MS
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Comment from adolescent scoliosis young lady from Florida

2012-01-15T16:41:00.004-05:00

I got this comment from "T Bass" from Florida.

t.bass has left a new comment on your post "14 young lady with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis...":

Hi I had a couple questions about scoliosis surgery and I don't really.know how this blog thing works but yeah I am 13 and have been informed that I need surgery on my back I was just told Thursday but the guy could not tell me much cause he was not a surgeon I have started a blog on my scoliosis because my dad recomdemed that I should. Is there anythings I should know about it how long would it take to heal what would I be capable of doing after. Well thanks :)

Dear T Bass,
Thanks for your blog comment! It is good to reach out for people to talk to about your possible scoliosis surgery. If you drop me a message through our "CONTACT US" button at http://www.heyclinic.com, we could possibly talk over the phone with you and your folks if it is ok with your parents. I do this sometimes over Skype with out of town people, which is sorta fun. You could then write up your questions and answers and could post them on your blog. Obviously, my comments will have to be fairly general without seeing you and your x-rays.

It is important to talk to your doctor and/or his/her nurse about the specifics of your surgery, and recovery. However, there is also great information on the Scoliosis Research Foundation (http://www.srs.org) website.

Take care!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com
Raleigh, NC

Heres his mri. Severe stenosis L45 w facet gapping

2012-01-11T13:00:00.002-05:00

Had iliotibial band surgery but still had leg pain

2012-01-11T13:00:00.001-05:00

Check out how big these osteophytes are on right! One osteophyte is draping down to level beloe as body attempted to heal across worn out levels.
Leg pain likely from severe spinal stenosis.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery

Hey Clinic Week In Review: From Urgent Calls at Gas Stations on days off, through smile-filled clinic. Physician Assistant Opening.

2012-01-08T14:45:00.014-05:00

After a very busy couple of weeks around Christmas focused mostly on surgery for our adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients who were out of school and needing surgery, I took a few days off after New Year's to recharge, and get some projects done around the house.

On Wednesday this week, I was on my way to Lowe's Hardware, and fueling up my little diesel Jetta when a call came in from neurosurgeon from Rocky Mount. He had a woman that he saw with progressive severe weakness in both legs to point where she could not walk. I had done scoliosis surgery for this woman years before, and she had done well. Now she had a new problem with a likely severe thoracic spinal stenosis with myelopathy. As soon as the neurosurgeon started to describe her symptoms, a "switch" went off in my mind, which flips me into emergency triage mode. My home repair projects were now off the list: emergent spine repair goes to top of list. From the gas station, I got in touch with patient and family, had them run to pick up the MRI and X-Ray discs, and get on their way to hospital without eating or drinking anything. Call then to the hospital to book surgery, and to Hey Clinic to give them heads up. I arrived at the hospital and switched out of my home project jeans and flannel shirt to my other work clothes: the blue scrubs, size medium, with the blue Crocs. I get to preop just as the patient arrives. I examine her quickly. She can just barely stand on her right leg, and her left leg is completely weak. This is serious. Her husband hands me the discs, which I load into my laptop there in preop. The image to the right pops up on my screen and I see the "villain" -- an extremely tight stenosis crushing her thoracic spinal cord a couple levels above where her scoliosis fusion was done.

We get her back for surgery, and her evoked potential monitoring shows really no signals in either lower extremity. In surgery, I find a HUGE facet cyst coming off her left T10-11 facet joint, which formed a huge egg-like mass over 2cm in diameter, crushing in on her cord. This is by far the biggest facet cyst I have ever seen, at a very dangerous location. I decompressed the two tight levels, and her evoked potential monitoring started to show some signs of life in both lower extremities. Cool. I then extended the fusion up 3 levels to stabilize this zone. Postop she started to improve right away, regaining her feeling and strength over her few days in the hospital. She was discharged to rehab yesterday with nearly full strength in both legs and walking well! A great start to 2012.

I did 2 elective surgeries on Thursday, which included a lumbar scoliosis on a gentleman from Florida, who also had severe multilevel stenosis. He did very well postop, and went home to stay with his sister who lives in Beaufort for a couple weeks. I also did 2 level ACDF on Thursday on a 38 yo with severe neck and arm pain. She did well and went home Friday after staying overnight.

In clinic Friday, I saw a bunch of postops, including several adolescents and young adults who had spinal deformity surgery.

This young lady with severe spastic quadriplegia cerebral palsy is now several months postop from a thoraco-lumbar sacral-iliac wing instrumentation and fusion. She was ALL smiles in clinic, in part because of her new erect sitting posture and much improved comfort and appearance, but also because of her new boyfriend! Love is great. Apparently she got to go to a Duke basketball game recently, which was a lot of fun.

This young lady was back with her family after her adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) surgery with a beautiful posture. It is definitely a family effort and journey to go through scoliosis surgery, and it is great for me to see how each family rises to the occasion to encourage and help their family member through the process.

This lady had adolescent idiopathic scoliosis that was never treated. As an adult, her scoliosis collapsed terribly, causing severe pain, trouble standing and walking and a very abnormal posture. She is now three years out from surgery with a great standing posture.

It is important to continue to have your scoliosis checked as an adult on a regular basis, even if you are "done growing" and your pediatrician may have told you not to worry about progression. With accelerated disc degeneration which can occur with scoliosis, the curves can definitely start to collapse, and do so in an accelerated fashion. This collapse can then also result in severe leg symptoms with spinal stenosis.

This lady had a degenerative scoliosis with severe spinal stenosis, and had trouble even walking around house preop. She now stands up straight and is graduating, and can walk long distances without significant pain.

This young lady had spina bifida / myelomeningoceole as a newborn, with early detethering and meningocele closure and fusion as a child, with some chronic spinal cord deficits. She then had collapsing scoliosis as a young adult, with worsening neurologic status and had surgery with me a couple years ago. It was great to see them back. She has made dramatic improvements with excellent physical therapy, personal drive, and family support.

Here is another one of our postop adolescent idiopathic scoliosis patients back for follow-up visit, with a beautiful posture and doing well in school and with sports/exercise. I have actually done spinal surgery on her mom as well, who was there with her today, and also quite thankful for her own surgical results, before she entrusted her daughter to us for her surgery!

This man and his wife came all the way back from Maryland for his six-week postop visit, in large part because they were just so thankful for his excellent pain relief. For most of our out of State guests, we try to minimize the need for lots of travel by getting imaging done locally and then sent to us, and then talking on phone/Skype and/or via email. This gentleman had severe adjacent level spinal stenosis and spondylolisthesis from a surgery performed in Maryland years ago. Preoperatively he got to the point where he could not do his carpentry and his quality of life was horrible. He was sent to us by a family in Maryland that I had helped with surgery over six years ago. This other family actually helped this man financially to get the surgery done down here in North Carolina -- an incredible act of generosity to help a neighbor.

This young lady from the Outer Banks 3.5 hours away was back with her husband for her six week postop. She had flat back syndrome with collapse below an old scoliosis fusion, and had history of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. She now looks and feels awesome, with her normal "sway" returned to her low back, and is getting back to a much improved quality of life and outlook. Both her and her husband were extremely thankful, and wanted to make the long drive to say "Thanks" to the whole Hey Clinic Team. She has an anterior ALIF at L45 and L5S1 as well as posterior thoracolumbar-sacral-iliac wing instrumentation posteriorly. She is back into a very active exercise program.

This young lady had a severe kyphosis as a young teenager, which I fixed for her years ago. Unfortunately she developed a problem called proximal junctional kyphosis (PJK) above her fusion over past couple years, which is known complication from especially kyphosis and some scoliosis surgeries. I did a revision extension instrumentation and fusion for her, going up to the cervical-thoracic junction. Her posture has now been restored to normal, with also relief of the severe pain she had developed in that upper thoracic area. She is working toward becoming an occupational therapist, and I am sure will be a compassionate and excellent caregiver. Her family has been incredibly supportive of her.

This lady was also back for postop follow-up for her lumbar scoliosis. Her posture now looks great and strength restored.

Saturday I did one urgent surgery on a 38 yo from Wilmington, NC. He is now doing well.
Yesterday afternoon I had a relaxing afternoon with a walk through the Duke Forest with the dogs and family -- 65 degrees and sunny!

Today after church I've been reviewing applicants for an opening we have for a physician assistant (PA) for Hey Clinic. If you know of any good physician assistants who may want to join our team to help us serve our patients, please let us know. You can find more information about the opening on the TAPA website: http://www.trianglepas.org/Home/EMPLOYMENT.

Hope you are all doing well!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Kesia from Radio Shack huge help for new earpiece!

2012-01-07T12:54:00.001-05:00

What's up with all these scoliosis young ladies towering over me? Erin back from College As My Helpful Shadow.

2011-12-30T20:44:00.006-05:00

Saw lots of smiling teenagers yesterday afternoon and today in clinic back with their parents for postop adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) and kyphosis visits. Saw some new families for scoliosis consultation.

To my left here is Taylor, who had a 77 degree kyphoscoliosis. It was awesome to hear her talk about how her life has changed since her surgery. She's gained a couple inches in height, (now taller than me!), and finds it easier to play her horn in the band since her breathing is easier. She also shared how it has improved her posture and appearance, which has helped her self-confidence. Go Taylor!!

I also saw Jessica back for her scoliosis postop visit. She's going to be a lawyer, and is smart as a whip. We saw her little sister as well who has scoliosis and some kyphosis, but the curves look like they are going to be amenable to conservative management.

I see a consistent problem now.... these young ladies are all now taller than I am! Bumma! Need to find some of my smaller guests.....

NOW I'm feeling a little taller.... Logan, my 11 yo early onset scoliosis surgery patient was back for her six week follow-up visit doing very well getting back into her usual dance and other activities. Logan wants to be a marine biologist.... I want to get her and her family to visit my friend who is semi-retired Professor at the Duke Marine Lab down in Beaufort NC this summer.

Yesterday in clinic, I had Erin shadowing me --- Erin had scoliosis surgery with me five years ago and now is a freshman in college. Erin ended up being able to help several scoliosis families who had lots of questions about possible surgery for their sons or daughters. Erin actually wrote a book about her scoliosis surgery journey back when she was 13 -- a book that has been at Hey Clinic ever since. She used the book in clinic yesterday to show the realities of scoliosis surgery. Erin could then also answer questions ---- including showing how she can put her hands flat on the floor, bending all the way down to the ground even though she is fused from T5-L3! Erin's willingness to help other people and sharing her journey was inspiring. Her mom has also chosen to help several scoliosis families over the past few years, including accompanying one family during their child's surgery. Inspiring loving service to total strangers, who end up becoming trusted friends.

Happy New Year to All!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com
on twitter @drlloydhey

Christmas gift from Lexi's family from Maryland

2011-12-27T22:16:00.002-05:00

Last week I received this wonderful Christmas gift from Lexi's parents, Mark and Michelle from Maryland. I did Lexi's kyphosis surgery last year, and she has been able to return to high performance sports within the first few months after surgery.

In this beautifully framed collection of three photos, we see Lexi swimming, running track / cross-country, and playing lacrosse! All awesome pictures -- Michelle is gifted sports photographer.

They sent it along with a Christmas card which said:

"The pictures in the frame were all taken within six months post-surgery!! She is doing great both in school and on the field. God bless you and your family and your staff. -- Mark and Michelle"

Mark and Michelle -- Thank you for this very thoughtful gift. I love to hang up pictures like this in the clinic to remind all of us how restoring proper alignment and stability not only can allow a stable posture, but can allow people to return to the things they love to do.

I know one of the worries / concerns Lexi and her family had before her adolescent kyphosis surgery was how long she would be out of sports. We start getting most adolescents back into their sports training within the first few weeks after kyphosis and scoliosis surgery. We even have some physical therapists who focus on spinal deformity and work with your local trainers and / or physical therapists if needed to help design a postop program. One of these therapists, Rob Wiese, from Duke Raleigh Hospital, just recently helped one of my postop kyphosis patients from Tokyo Japan ----- Rob taught him special exercises with 2-way Skype Video!!

Thanks again Lexi, Mark and Michelle for your special gift. We look forward to see Lexi's academic/career as well as athletic life continue to grow and prosper! Keep the pictures coming.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Merry Christmas Activities At Hey Clinic.

2011-12-25T16:22:00.009-05:00

We've received so many caring Christmas / Holiday cards from many of our Hey Clinic guests from all over. We've also received many Christmas good wishes via email as well. Thanks to everyone who took the time to share with us. We do hope all of you are having a good holiday with your family and friends. I've been rounding this weekend at Duke Raleigh Hospital for our guests who are still recovering in the inpatient environment, but still have had some time to celebrate Christmas with my family.

We had just a half day in clinic on Friday, letting the Hey Clinic staff head home for the holidays. Friday afternoon, I did an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) surgery for a lady in severe pain and trouble using one of her arms. She did great, and went home the next morning with relief. A good gift!

I got a chance to see one of our adolescent idiopathic scoliosis guests back for follow-up 6 weeks after his surgery. He is doing very well, and is two inches taller -- which makes him way taller than his mom (who is still boss!)

He has been able to resume his normal activities, and is kicking butt in school.

I also saw this gentleman and his wife back for follow-up. He had an extremely severe spinal stenosis and spondylolisthesis and could barely walk preop with severe pain.

He is now walking great, standing up straight with pain relieved, and very thankful.

This lady had a complex revision kyphoscoliosis reconstruction with a history of broken spinal rods with a thoracic fracture. I used a special "triple rod" technique to help reinforce that high load area. She is now well healed, standing up straight, and doing very well.

This gentleman was referred to me by a neurologist, since the patient was losing control of his arms and legs due to severe cervical spinal stenosis.

He has regained the use of his arms and legs, and is celebrating his one year anniversary of his surgery. He actually wept for joy on his first postop visit, and thanked God for his returned neurologic function.

Before surgery, both his arms and legs were very weak and clumsy. His surgery was a multilevel cervical laminectomy with posterior cervical fusion.

Best Christmas / Holiday Wishes to all our Hey Clinic Guests and Families.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery

FW: Kelli: Post Op Update. Our Adolescent Scoliosis Patient From Tampa Florida -- Mom Update!

2011-12-23T18:09:00.000-05:00

Received this note today, which Jill said was absolutely OK to share with all of you! Many thanks to the entire Hey Clinic and Duke Raleigh Hospital Team that makes exceptional care like this happen for our precious guests and families, many of whom choose to travel to receive such care for their loved ones.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

On Dec 23, 2011, at 2:03 PM, "Jill " <> wrote:

> Dear Dr. Hey,
>
> Just wanted to say Thank You once again. We had a smooth flight back to Florida on Tuesday. Kelli is moving around (cruising) better each day. It is going to be very Hard holding her back from the Ball and Glove. She actually said to me last night, "I feel as though I could go throw soft toss with dad right now"!!
>
> As I reflect back on our experience over the past week, I feel a strong sense of relief as well as tremendous gratefulness to you, your staff and Duke Raleigh Hospital staff. The compassionate, caring professionals who worked with Kelli were like no other!! I know you are very proud of your entire team and you should be.....The care Kelli received was EXCEPTIONAL! I have worked as a Registered Nurse and I can honestly say I have never seen a more competent group of health care professionals.
>
> Please express our Sincere Gratitude to Everyone and once again Thank You & Merry Christmas
>
> Jill

------ End of Forwarded Message

Flat back syndrome fix for today

2011-12-22T09:17:00.000-05:00

Scrubbing in for anterior ALIF for this 56 yo w Harrington Rod Scoli fusion flat back syndrome.

I on twitter @drlloydhey.

Everett does great job with presentation this morning

2011-12-22T08:55:00.001-05:00

Everett, premed from NC State gives presentation on DVT prophylaxis at Hey Clinic Quality Meeting. Great job Everett!!

FW: Merry Christmas. Haley's return to dance / ballet 4 weeks after adolescent idiopathic scoliosis surgery

2011-12-21T12:01:00.001-05:00

Haley’s folks sent this nice email and photo for me to share with our staff and followers on the Hey Clinic Blog.
Merry Christmas Haley! You look beautiful!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

------ Forwarded Message
From: Lisa >
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:21:27 -0500
To: Lloyd Hey <>
Subject: Merry Christmas

Hello Dr Hey

We wanted to wish you and your staff a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Our daughter Haley was diagnosed with scoliosis when she was just 5 years old. We spent 8 long years dreading the thought of surgery and tried a number of different braces and forms of physical therapy, trying deparately to change the final outcome.
Unfortunately her curve progressed, her back pain increased and she ended up having surgery in Dec of 2010. We were fortunate everything went well - thanks to you and your staff.

This has been an incredible year for Haley. It's like a weight has been lifted from her spirit. We'd didn't fully appreciate the emotional and physical toll scoliosis had taken on her. Haley was back to school and her passion - ballet - in just 4 weeks after surgery. She is completely pain free and feels like a "normal" teenager. It's also amazing how much her dancing has improved, now that her spine is straight.

Enclosed is a photo of Haley from last weekend's performance of the Nutcracker by Cary Ballet - she was a sugarplum fairy.

All the best
The C’s

------ End of Forwarded Message

14 yo w adolescent idiopathic scoliosis straightened up this am

2011-12-21T11:08:00.000-05:00

Just finished fixing 14 yo w scoliosis straightened up this am. Surgical time 3 h EBL 500cc

Physician Assistant Rachel Robinson finding scoliosis on vacation!!

2011-12-20T12:15:00.000-05:00

Got this text from Rachel this morning!!

I'm even looking for scoliosis & kyphosis when I'm on vacation :) ! Here I am at the smithsonian museum of natural history in DC.

--------------------------------
Dr. Lloyd A. Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

FW: Holiday Greetings! Professor of Surgery postop from Spondylolisthesis and Stenosis Surgery Doing well years later.

2011-12-19T08:35:00.001-05:00

Ares is a Professor of Surgery, who had a high grade L5S1 spondylolisthesis that I fixed for him several years ago now.
He is incredibly athletic and active, and is also very good about staying in touch each Christmas to let us know how he is doing.
I think he’s having a heck of a lot more fun than I am, and he is burning 150 cal more than I can on the elliptical for 30 minutes every morning!

He gave his permission to share this latest update with all of you on the blog.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery

From: FACC Ares
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2011 16:40:29 -0500
To: Lloyd Hey <
Subject: Holiday Greetings!

Dear Lloyd, We Wish You and Your Family Joyous Holidays!

[I am currently doing 500 Cal/30-min on the treadmill daily, and walk for about an hour as well. You did a fantastic back surgery on me, thank you!!!!!!!!!!!! ]

Ares

"Flat Back" Friends and Co-Workers Meet up by chance postop and straight up at Hey Clinic Friday

2011-12-17T22:23:00.002-05:00

We had a lot of great visits at Hey Clinic on Friday, including Cathy, who was back for her postop visit from anterior-posterior reconstruction for flat back syndrome below her old Harrington rod fusion. She’s doing very well and it was good to see her back.

As I was opening the door to see Cathy, one of my other patients named Jennifer was walking the hall, and gave Cathy a big “hello”! It turns out that Jennifer knows Cathy as a co-worker at American Express. After Cathy did well with her flatback surgery, Cathy recommended Hey Clinic to her friend, who also suffered with flatback also due to an old non-instrumented fusion done many years before for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

So we ended up having an unexpected very happy reunion there, and actually got all three of us together for a photo together. It is amazing how often patients find us through friends, family, and co-workers.

Both young ladies have very nice standing postures, and are getting along with a better quality of life.
Friends helping friends.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Nice shirt!!

2011-12-17T14:36:00.000-05:00

10 yo POSTOP scoliosis feeling great after shower!

2011-12-17T14:35:00.000-05:00

13 yo adolescent idiopathic scoliosis fixed today

2011-12-15T13:50:00.001-05:00

No complications.
Nice correction.

13 yo young lady from Tampa w adolescent idiopathic scoliosis to be fixed here in raleigh, nc today

2011-12-15T09:32:00.000-05:00

48 hours after scoliosis Surgey: looking great and straight walking halls-- home today

2011-12-14T14:20:00.001-05:00

They let me share this picture w all of you!
Our 31 yo scoliosis young lady from Monday 12-12-2011!

42 yo woman w painful 58 deg progressive adolescent idiopathic scoliosis fixed! 3h

2011-12-14T11:44:00.001-05:00

58 deg Preop curve now looking very straight!
Ebl 400 cc.
No blood transfusions.
Surgical time 3.0 hrs.

She got her Christmas wish!!

Our 10 yo arthrogryposis scoliosis from yesterday is doing well and slept through night in PICU. Family thankful.

Emergent surgery last night for woman losing use of right hand is doing very well this am with returning function.

10 yo boy arthrogryposis w severe congenital and early onset scoliosis fixe today

2011-12-13T17:15:00.000-05:00

Ebl: 1200.
Operative time: 3 hr 45 min
Many answered pressures for this family!

31 yo woman suffering with painful adolescent scoliosis fixed this pm

2011-12-12T18:09:00.001-05:00

6 week postop from adult scoliosis surgery for origianal adolescent idiopathic scoliosis.

2011-12-09T09:41:00.003-05:00

Mary had scoliosis surgery with us 6 weeks ago.
She is doing great and very thankful, and has come off all narcotics.
Below she gives short video with her husband on her progress and the difference the surgery has already made for her quality of life and posture.

49 yo man w history discecomies w years of severe pain helped today

2011-12-08T19:39:00.000-05:00

L4-iliac windg instrumentation and fusion w revision decompression laminectomies and discecomies and 2 level TLIF spacers.

Surgical time 3 hr 20 min.
Complications: none.

Dr. Hey is tweeting!!! Drlloydhey. Today's Surgery and great visit with Mike Levin from MIT College Days, Theta Delta Chi.

2011-12-07T22:27:00.004-05:00

I just got home after very long day. Whoop tired, but a great day!

Did big anterior posterior scoliosis reconstruction in 44 yo woman today, then a complex proximal junction kyphosis correction this evening using navigation technology from Brainlab and bone cement , pmma. I WANTED TO SEND OUT A VERY BIG THANK YOU TO NURSE KELLY, WHO CAME IN AT 2PM AND STAYED THROUGH DINNERTIME TO HELP US WITH THIS COMPLEX SURGERY TO HELP A VERY NICE LADY FROM SPRUCE PINE NEAR ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA! KELLY, YOU ARE A GEM!

In between surgeries, I saw a 12 yo boy and his dad with new diagnosis of 55 degree scoliosis. My nurse practitioner, Brittaney, asked me to join her for visit when she saw how big the curve was. The boy is big, and growing fast, and hid the curve with his big size. Dad looked a bit like a deer in the headlights, which I can completely understand. Had to be gentle, spent a lot of time. Curve too big for bracing. Gave them a bunch of good info, and both seemed peaceful and well informed by end of visit. We can talk more later. Surgery later this winter, to do what is right in long run. Showed them picture of 55 yo who never had scoliosis fixed on my blog, from Mississippi, who then was suffering with terrible collapse in his lumbar area, and faced strong possibility of not being able to work due to constant pain. This boy also has a very unusual left thoracic curve pattern that we will also work up with an MRI. There may be a congenital scoliosis component to this as well, which we will see better on MRI.

Yesterday spent a LOT of time with another family with a teenage sophomore with a 55 degree congenital proximal thoracic scoliosis, seeking to help them to make choice. Very smart family. Boy is big time athlete.. More to follow.

I've been experimenting w Twitter. Find me at drlloydhey. Might be helpful since it is really hard for me to sit down and take time to write a full blog entry. Met a friend who is a blogger who researches and writes for 4-5 hours every day. Yikes!!! No time for that! I can't tweet while doing surgery, but I have had Howard, my instrument rep Tweet for me on my iPad while I was doing surgery.....I am amazed to see how much some people Tweet -- like Ken Rosenthal from FoxSports.com. Man, that guy is Tweeting every 2 minutes! Wow!

Had dinner Monday night w Mike Levin, a fraternity brother from MIT visiting from California. He contacted me out of the blue, finding me through the MIT alumni website. Wow, it is amazing how fast 27 years has gone by since graduation from MIT! Those were very special years, with very special people that I wish I had stayed in better contact since then.

Mike and I had a great visit! He also inspired me to use the MIT Alumni website, and my old fraternity team photos to reach out to several of my old fraternity brothers, including Dr. Joe Sabik, my big brother, now at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Heard back also from Bruce Schena, my "little brother" out in the Bay Area of San Francisco, who has been very successful entrepreneur and inventor, including doing a robotics startup with Mike Levin. Bruce emailed me back, and has great family, and is still "tinkering" in the machine shop, while working with daVinci Robotics for surgery!

Mike told me about his several successful companies he has helped start, and is on yet another startup now which is going very well in the computer sector. I got a chance to show him Chapel Hill, and also go over to see Duke Chapel and the other "Duke Chapel": Cameron Indoor Stadium for basketball and Coach K!!!!

Mike shared how many of our fraternity brothers have gone off to do successful startup companies, including Mike Saylor, who I've followed in the news, as well as my classmate Pete Diamandis --- the Space guy. We used to call him "Pete in Space!!!" --- and he definitely has kept his focus on space ever since. This was an inspiring group of guys to spend time with. Thankful for Dean Koutsoubis, who first invited me to pre-Frosh gathering at his home before going to MIT, as well as my old roommate and friend Khanh Hoang, who was also my sailing partner on the MIT sailing team. David DiPietro was one of my "little brothers" along with Tom Esselman, now in Minnesota and Bruce Schena as mentioned above. I also sent word out to Joe Parrish, who apparently is doing extremely well.

Hope to connect with more of the Brothers from the Theta Deut Chapter of Theta Delta Chi at MIT. So thankful for the upper classmen who mentored me, like Guido, Dino and Ed --- 3 seniors who shared a Quad with me my first semester freshman year! My bed that first year sat on a door which rested on 4 paint cans. Every night at midnight, the 3 seniors would open up the front window on the Flag Room, and play REO Speedwagon at about 110 dB and yell at people walking down Memorial Drive. I sat at my desk, and wondered if I'd ever pass Calculus! I still listen to REO Speedwagon really loud sometimes and fondly remember those days in college, looking at the Boston skyline from Memorial Drive.

I shared this Fraternity Brother photo with Mike when we got together from 1984, the year of my graduation from MIT. Also found a bunch of other photos, including taking hikes in New Hampshire with the Brothers, and Lindsay Russell, our elder mentor for many years at Theta Delta Chi.

Thanks again Mike for getting in touch.

If any of the other Theta Delta Chi brothers from MIT (Theta Deuts) who are coming to RTP / RDU area, let me know.

Would love to see you and possibly share a meal!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery.
http://www.heyclinic.com

CAN I RUN AFTER ADOLESCENT / ADULT SCOLIOSIS SURGERY? ANSWER: YES! AND WIN!! FW: 1st Place in Thanksgiving 5k 45-49 Females!

2011-11-28T22:01:00.003-05:00

From: M
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2011 21:27:29 -0500
To: Lloyd Hey <>
Subject: Re: 1st Place in Thanksgiving 5k 45-49 Females!

Hahaha! I feel like 34! You're so sweet! By the way, last time you referred to me as "M" on your blog- so let's stay with that for now.
Thanks Dr. Hey! I am so proud!
M

Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless
-----Original message-----

From: Lloyd Hey <hey@heyclinic.com>
To: M
Sent: Tue, Nov 29, 2011 02:18:26 GMT+00:00
Subject: Re: 1st Place in Thanksgiving 5k 45-49 Females!

M,
This is awesome news!
Congratulations!!!

I will put this on blog tonight.

Only one questions: --- why were you allowed to run in the 45-49 yo group when you are only 34?
:)

Dr. Hey

From: M
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:39:21 -0500
To: Lloyd Hey <>
Subject: RE: 1st Place in Thanksgiving 5k 45-49 Females!

Good Morning Dr. Hey!

I hope your Thanksgiving was great and you enjoyed precious time with your family. Well I wanted to pass along another first place run on Thanksgiving day in Raleigh for “Just Think First” 5K.

Stats:
· 1st Place in Females 45-49—1st/ 29 in class-Time- 25:19!

· 22/244 females overall

· 90/440 runners males and females

· 22/244 females overall

I am so thankful! I actually run faster after my surgery! J…I think you made me the “bionic woman”!!!

Many blessings Dr. Hey J
M

------ End of Forwarded Message

--- “M” has shared with us before --- she really does look 34, and continues to do well after having her adolescent idiopathic scoliosis fixed when she was in her 40’s. It’s cool when we see our adolescent patients going back to sports/training within the first few weeks/months after kyphosis and scoliosis surgery, but it is also amazing what a lot of our adult patients do as well. The self-image / posture improvement experienced by these younger adult patients is also a real kick, since many of them have been self-conscious about their posture for a long time. The patient I saw originally from Chicago last week, who I fixed her kyphosis years ago told me it totally changed her outlook and confidence.

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. I did, thankfully, with family. Good break with beautiful weather. Today did very complex revision scoliosis this morning, and an extension fusion for proximal junctional kyphosis on a nurse from South Carolina. Both surgeries went well, but was a long day. Big anterior / posterior tomorrow am, so time for bed!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery.
http://www.heyclinic.com

11 yo with 50 degree early onset scoliosis (EOS) idiopathic curve fixed yesterday. Other patients seen today.

2011-11-22T09:41:00.001-05:00

This young lady’s curve has progressed rapidly over this past year up to 50 degrees, with 20 degree progression since last October 2010!

Fortunately she has grown enough that we can do the definitive scoliosis instrumentation as opposed to the Shilla Technique, which is a special growing rod technology we use for smaller children --- this allows ongoing growth with hardware sliding over time.

Her surgery yesterday went great! Estimated blood loss 250 cc. Her “hump” on the right side was gone after surgery.
This morning she looks great in the PICU at WakeMed Children’s Hospital — a great unit and great hospital.

This morning, I saw a 12 yo boy with 33 degree curve with first diagnosis, and had long talk with patient and mom going over bracing options vs. observation, and gave them several good resources available through our blog and at SRS.org for further info. It is important to think through and educate the families about the pluses and minuses of bracing before starting the process. This boy is in a 50%+ risk category for progression, given the size of his curve and the number of years remaining. The brace can help in some cases to slow the curve progression, but does not actually make the curve smaller.

Mom and patient felt good about discussion.

I was next greeted with a big hug from my wonderful patient originally from Chicago that I fixed years ago with her 90 degree kyphosis. Her story and video is out there on my web archives somewhere! Her kyphosis surgery with me years ago @ Duke solved her neck pain which was a mystery to doctors in Chicago who kept MRI’ing her neck! The neck pain was actually secondary to the hyperlordosis her neck had to do to make up for her kyphosis. She looks great today, and is still very with her awesome posture and pain relief.

Her daughter Charlotte is a Pre-Med at NC State, and is super bright. She does research with us now. Very bright future for this young lady!

Will be doing anterior/posterior reconstruction today for good part of day.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com.

12 yo girl with severe 75 degree congenital and idiopathic scoliosis fixed last Wednesday.

2011-11-22T09:08:00.001-05:00

Last week we straightened up Emory, who is 12 who had complex congenital scoliosis measuring about degrees at Wakemed. Due to complexity of her deformity, I did extensive preop planning, including 3 dimenensional analysis of her cervical and thoracic spine using special software. I actually presented her case at Boston Children’s Hospital special Fellow Reunion Conference right before the Grice Dinner and Lectures. Many thanks to Dr. John Emans, and others who helped give their input!

Intra-operative O-Arm Navigation and 3D analysis was also performed. I took the preop 3D analysis I did for each pedicle level, and actually arranged them into a PowerPoint presentation which I then printed and posted on the wall in the operating room! That was very helpful. Surgery was T1-T12 instrumentation performed along with several osteotomies. WakeMed OR team did great.

Her surgery went well, with 3 night stay at WakeMed Raleigh Children’s Hospital, going home on Saturday doing well.
This surgery helped with her severe shoulder obliquity caused by the severe scoliosis.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

55 yo w painful collapsing degenerative scoliosis and stenosis fixed this am

2011-11-15T11:26:00.000-05:00

23 degree Preop curve w Spondylolisthesis and stenosis.

L1-iliac instrumentation and fusion w multilevel laminectomies.

Surgery time: 3 hrs 10 min.
Ebl: 800 cc.
Complications: none.

FW: playing soccer pics 4 mo post op (returning to sports after adolescent idiopathic scoliosis surgery)

2011-11-13T19:26:00.000-05:00

------ Forwarded Message
From: Judy W
Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2011 19:07:35 -0500
To: Lloyd Hey <>
Subject: playing soccer pics 4 mo post op

Here's a few pictures of Brynna playing soccer. Her team won the U16 Girls NC Challenge State Cup today!

Thanks for the fantastic success of the operation. 7/7/11. You are welcome to use these photos.

Judy W
------ End of Forwarded Message

Judy --- thanks so much for sharing these great photos, and giving your permission to share them on the blog.
Congratulations Brynna!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Janelle Doing Ballet Hey Clinic after Shilla Procedure Early Onset Scoliosis

2011-11-11T22:10:00.002-05:00

Here's Janelle's Video Doing Ballet down hallway of Hey Clinic today!!!
Janelle is just about a year after Early Onset Scoliosis (EOS) with Shilla Technique with Dr. McCarthy at Arkanas Children's -- a surgery I got to participate in, and learn from!
Dr. Lloyd Hey, Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Question: Is it possible to do ballet after a Shilla Procedure for Early Onset Scoliosis?

2011-11-11T21:56:00.006-05:00

Janelle answered this question as a definitive "YES!" today in clinic, as she danced right down the Hey Clinic hallway this afternoon.

Janelle and her family were back for her one year anniversary from her Shilla Procedure I performed with Dr. Dick McCarthy out at Arkansas Children's Hospital.

She is doing just great, and her posture looks super.

Janelle also made me a wonderful drawing while she was in clinic. It shows a beautiful fall scene here in North Carolina, with beautiful tree, sky, sun and bushes. She signs her artwork beautifully as well!

We definitely encourage the arts at Hey Clinic!!!!

Thanks for the great picture, Janelle!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Do. Done. 17 yo w AIS fixed today

2011-11-10T15:23:00.000-05:00

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery

17 yo w adolescent idiopathic scoliosis for surgery today

2011-11-10T08:11:00.001-05:00

High thoracic curve.
Mom, a nurse, will be sending out updates during day.
Using 3d navigation in operating room like O-arm from Brainlab.

A Hey Clinic Guest's Story of the Mysterious Spinal "Clunk"

2011-11-06T16:36:00.001-05:00

I received this write up from one of my patients this past week. As she says- -- I had never seen anything quite like this before!! I think you will all enjoy it!
Things have been very busy as Hey Clinic routine. I did two surgeries yesterday on Saturday, but thankfully was able to catch my breath and enjoy the beautiful North Carolina fall weather today.

Hope you are all doing well.
Dr. Lloyd Hey — Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery — http://www.heyclinic.com

-----------------------------------
11/2011

My Back Story: Susan

In early 2010, I didn’t consider myself as someone with “back problems”. Sure, my back would feel tired if I stood for a long time, but I figured that was just a part of being on the high side of my 40s.

In March 2010, I leaned over while sitting at my desk to adjust the small heater at my feet, when I felt something wierd. There was no pain, no noise, but a feeling that I almost got stuck in that twisting, bent over position. It was fleeting, so I didn’t give it much more thought, but it felt strange enough to be memorable.

In the following couple of months, I developed a random “clink” sound in my back when I bent over to reach something in a lower drawer or off of the floor. This “clink” was a precursor of the “clunk” that developed soon after. It was a loud clunk, but it occurred randomly in the spring of 2010. It was loud and uncomfortable enough to mention to my rheumatologist during a routine visit in late May. I described it as occurring in my mid-back and I wondered out loud to him if it could be related to my RA. I was confidently told that it very likely was NOT RA-related since the thoracic part of the back typically isn’t affected by RA. I was not able to reproduce the clunk during that doctor visit, but he ordered an MRI to evaluate it further.

My insurance company agreed with me that this seemed to be coming right out of the blue. So much so, that they opted to cover a flexion/extention x-ray rather than MRI. These x-rays showed displacement as I bent over and arched back.

By this time it was June/July. The clunk was much more consistent and louder and generally more “violent” for me to experience; along with a noise, I experienced a jolt-type sensation with the clunk that seemed to shake me right through my legs, with knees buckling, giving me an instant’s sensation of my legs giving out on me - though I never actually fell down, it seemed darned close a time or two! The noise was loud enough for others to hear from another room. I would be dressing in our closet when my back would clunk and my husband would ask from the kitchen table “Was that you!?”. In July, I was able to get an MRI to further evaluate what in the world my back was doing. Through all of the evaluations, it was noted that it was a pretty strange level of my back to be having problems. The instability demonstrated on x-ray was at T10-T11 rather than in the lower back region. It didn’t seem too strange to me, since that was the area where I always experienced aching and tiredness when I stood for a long time.

By August, I had about had it with the clunk! It seemed to be progressing at a pretty good clip in terms of how loud it was, how often it occurred, how it seemed to shake through my whole body. And then I began to have an odd pain in my lower ribs; like someone was stabbing me with a knitting needle verrrry slowly. No change in position would alleviate that pain. Finally, when I met with my rheumatologist to review the back MRI results, we chose to explore surgical consultation since I additionally described vague urinary symptoms of feeling the need “to go” recently after using the bathroom (and ruling out UTI).

By August, the clunk would occur with laughing and sneezing as well as with forward bending, which I tended to avoid at this point. Fortunately, I learned how to make my back clunk “on demand” so that the doctors could witness it: I would distract myself by pretending to bend over my purse to get something out of it. It worked every time!

I met Dr. Hey in September 2010 and was able to demonstrate “The Clunk” for him with the purse trick. By this time, my mid-back would not only clunk while bending forward, but clunk again while straightening back upright again. Ewww! It was all very uncomfortable!

I was relieved to learn that though Dr. Hey readily stated that he had never seen anything like my condition, he was very confident about how to correct it and offered a detailed explanation with a visual model that helped my husband and me understand exactly what he offered to do for a surgical repair of this awful clunk. I was absolutely ready to do what was necessary to eliminate this quickly progressing problem and Dr. Hey was the surgeon to do it. We immediately made arrangements to schedule this for the following month and voila! I haven’t “clunked” since, nor had any other creepy pains or problems!

In terms of thinking about how or why this occurred at this unusual level of my back; I have a theory that an old injury that was never evaluated became aggravated by age. When I was in sixth grade, while doing intramural gymnastics, I was doing multiple back handsprings in a row. I was in “the zone”!! I could’ve done back hand springs all the way home! Except I realized that I was probably fast approaching the end of the mat and had no confidence in my co-sixth grader spotter to let me know that. When I had that thought, I over arched my back in an attempt to have my hands land on the mat. Instead, my fingers hit the back of my legs rather than the floor and I hit the floor with my chest with my legs over my head and kind of “sproinged” my back in that arched position. The fall definitely took my breath away, but I felt silly for causing this and immediately jumped up and acted like I was fine before the coach noticed my boner of a fall. No specific injury ever occurred from that fall. I didn’t hurt enough to let my coach or parents know what happened - ever. But I can’t help thinking that any slight damage from that fall could have made that particular thoracic level be the “weak link” to cause problems later in life.

Now, thanks to Dr. Hey, the top half of my body is securely attached to the bottom half! All is well healed and no more problems!

Jessie sends us her wedding photos to show her nice posture and incision.

2011-10-31T17:18:00.002-04:00

I just got out of 6.5 complex spinal deformity scoliosis reconstruction surgery, and wandered back to the clinic for a diet Pepsi, see a couple clinic guests, and catch my breath.

When I popped open Jessie’s beautiful wedding photos on my email just now, my energy level definitely came back, and it brought a definite smile. I straightened up Jessie’s adolescent idiopathic scoliosis back in December 2005 (approximately 6 years ago)when she was 22 years old. She’s from the Washington, DC area. Wonderful family.

What a joy it is when our guests take the time to send an encouraging word, and a photo of them back to playing sports, jumping on a trampoline, getting married, or going to the prom, etc.

Thanks Jessie for sharing this with all of us!
You look beautiful!
Congratulations on your big move to San Francisco, CA!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

--------------------------
From: Jessie
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2011 18:22:14 -0700
To: Lloyd Hey
Subject:

Absolutely! I actually asked my photographer to take a picture of my back to show the minimal scar to share with you all. I would be happy to send it your way up accompany the short blurb.

The extra time you take, from consult, through surgery, and to follow-up, meant the world to me and my family. I am certain the confidence I had from your staff going into the surgery allowed for a smoother recovery. Thanks again.

Best,
Jessie

NOT ashamed of her body and scar in wedding dress after scoliosis surgery

2011-10-30T20:43:00.003-04:00

From: J
Date: Sun, 30 Oct 2011 15:09:16 -0700

Dear Dr. Hey,

Many thanks for your help. I look forward to connecting with Dr. Berven.

On a separate note, I wanted to thank you for allowing me to feel confident in my low-back wedding dress. Prior to coming to you, I would have never selected a similar cut because of my scoliosis. Your successful surgery and the extra time you took to give me a careful closure allow me to show my back with pride. I now wear the minimal scar proudly as evidence that I made a decision to improve my back and refuse to feel ashamed of my body. What a wonderful feeling of empowerment.

Thank you again.

Best regards,
J
----------
Absolutely! I actually asked my photographer to take a picture of my back to show the minimal scar to share with you all. I would be happy to send it your way up accompany the short blurb.

The extra time you take, from consult, through surgery, and to follow-up, meant the world to me and my family. I am certain the confidence I had from your staff going into the surgery allowed for a smoother recovery. Thanks again.

Best,
J

On Oct 30, 2011, at 5:40 PM, Lloyd Hey wrote:

You will really like Dr. Berven. We worked together at Boston Children’s and Harvard Combined Orthopaedic Residency Program many years ago.....

That’s awesome Jessie! You made my day!

Catching up. Young and middle aged adults trying to decide what to do about their scoliosis. "Black Clouds" and Preventive Interventions.

2011-10-18T21:57:00.001-04:00

I have seen three patients from South Carolina within the past week, all of whom had scoliosis. H
The last one I saw was a very nice 31 yo woman from Charleston, who came in for second opinion for possible surgery for her scoliosis.
She had X-Rays with her from 2004, 7 years ago. Since then, her curve has progressed 20 degrees and is now and is now 53 degrees.
She is starting to have some back pain, and is just a little self-conscious about her posture.
She’d like to start a family soon and have children, and she was at the appointment with her husband who is very supportive.

She had don a TON of research on the Internet, and felt very unsure going into our appointment what she wanted to do.
My nurse practitioner Brittaney and I went over her whole story, physical examination and imaging and answered all of her questions.

Given the large amount of curve progression she has had as an adult (5 degrees per year is a lot), and the current curve size, I thought it made more sense to get the scoliosis fixed now when she is younger, and avoid issues down the road when life is more complex during pregnancy and after pregnancy with kids! Her lower lumbar area right now looks quite good, and fixing the curve when she’s younger could result in a shorter surgery with less fusion.

We talked a little about the “Black Cloud” of decision and worry that seemed to be hanging over her --- which I’ve seen many times before. Her husband definitely smiled and agreed with this assessment of his wonderful bride! It is definitely worth the time to research your scoliosis, find out your options, and find a surgeon and hospital you are peaceful with. But at some point it’s good to just decide what you feel is best for the LONG RUN (like through the rest of your whole life --- maybe 50+ more years ) rather than spinning your wheels and just being overwhelmed with worry.

One thing for sure this case illustrates is the importance of following your scoliosis over time, even after you are an adult.
That X-Ray she brought with her from 2004 from South Carolina was so helpful to prove that her curve is collapsing and progressing as an adult.

Today I did huge scoliosis surgery on a 55 yo lady, who has developed very severe progressive back pain til the point she can’t work. Her X-Rays show that her lumbar area is collapsing and degenerative, even though her original adolescent idiopathic scoliosis was thoracic only. I did T3-L4 instrumentation and fusion, which could have been fixed with 3 levels less if fixed before this lower curve became degenerative and collapsed. Sometimes I actually have to fuse all the way down to pelvis when there is severe collapse and stenosis below. Her surgery went well, and we got a very nice correction, but I would have rather fixed this curve at age 15, 25, or 35 or 45 rather than 55. But 55 is still better than 65 or 75! Her bone quality was still quite good, and she only had 700 cc blood loss. Surgery was about 4.5 hours. She was able to go to a non-ICU bed postop.

Just after doing her scoliosis surgery, I met a very nice 51 yo woman with a painful 38 degree scoliosis, who also has severe right arm pain with a C56 C67 disc herniation and foraminal stenosis. Her scoliosis may be actually making her arm pain worse due to the angle of her upper thoracic spine, which might close down the neural foramen on the right side. She’s in agony with her right arm pain and actually has triceps weakness. After one more shot at conservative treatment, we will likely fix the C56 C67 disc herniations with an anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF), and then may end up needing to address her scoliosis which is also becoming painful for her, even though her curve is not huge.

This afternoon I fixed a giant lumbar disc herniation at L5S1 which a lady in her 20’s had been suffering with for over a year! Yow. That sucker was huge, and was tenting the S1 nerve root. She looked great in recovery room.

Tonight talked to mom from Arizona about her 14 yo daughter with scoliosis who had sent me some films to look at. Look forward to see them for consultation sometime this fall.

Now it is definitely time for bed. Really big scoliosis in the morning to fix, then a guy with severe thoracic myelopathy with a T10-11 severe spinal stenosis.

Duke Raleigh Hospital had their Talent Show this evening. I saw some of it, but missed seeing our Motorcycle Dan do his rendition of “Country Boy” on his guitar.... “People say I’m No Good, Crazy as a Loon.....” I remembered most of the words to the song as we all sang along at end of surgery yesterday listening to Pandora. Nurse Kelly was impressed with my singing as much as Dan’s!

Hope you are all doing well. Will try to be more consistent with writing.....but it’s tough. This is not my main job! I met a blogger this past weekend who writes for 4.5 hours every day!!! Yikes!!! I would get no sleep period! :)

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Re: Hello From Georgia. Hearing about Scoliosis on Fox Sports.

2011-10-09T20:27:00.001-04:00

Anne,
So good to hear from you!
You are the second patient who has told me about hearing this on national TV last night!
I think Ken did a great job with his article. If you haven’t read it, check it out:
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/scoliosis-bow-tie-for-srs-represents-special-family-ties-for-ken-rosenthal-alcs-on-fox-100611

Really shared from the heart, and I think it will really make an impact. It even has motivated my 79 yo mom to go back and volunteer to do scoliosis screenings again!

Please give my best to your family and glad to hear you are doing well.
Hope you can drop by to see us at Hey Clinic if you are back in the Raleigh area sometime.
I’m doing well, along with the family --- staying busy as usual!

Take care,

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

From: Anne
Date: Sun, 9 Oct 2011 15:37:25 -0400
To: Lloyd Hey <>
Subject: Hello From Georgia

Hi Dr. Hey, I hope you are doing ok. Everything here in GA is great. It's so good being closer to some of my family!

I was watching the Tigers/Rangers baseball playoff game on TV last night. One of the sports commentators (his last name was Rosenthal) was talking about a tie his daughter has designed & it had something to do with scoliosis. He said he had had scoliosis when he was a teenager & his daughter did but that "Dr. Lloyd Hey" had operated on her she she is fine. Not sure if you knew you were mentioned on primetime TV!!!

It made me think of you, so I wanted to say hello! I hope all your family is doing fine. Take care...

Bye,
Anne

Re: A message from my mom to nurses. Her decision to volunteer to do scoliosis screenings again.

2011-10-09T20:21:00.001-04:00

Dear Mrs. Hey,

Lloyd forwarded me this E-mail. It's so great you're doing this. I hope you and your family are well.

Ken

On Oct 9, 2011, at 8:18 PM, Lloyd Hey wrote:

A message from my mom to nurses. Her decision to volunteer to do scoliosis screenings again.
Fellow nurses,

Please click on the website below to read the inspiration for my decision to volunteer to do scoliosis screenings in local schools as I did for 15 years as a nurse-teacher in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Budget cuts in all schools have eliminated positions for nurses qualified to do this screening. Even if the nurses can do the screening, understaffing has eliminated time to do this. I did it as part of the preliminaries for Sports' and annual physicals. The training is very easy... as with all nursing preparation, it takes time to develop skill. But our skill is better than no detection at all. One concern we all have is law suits. I will work on this problem because most of us have no malpractice insurance.

Most pediatricians include this screening in their physicals. Some do not... and some students never see a doctor except in the Emergency Room.

I hope we can make a difference.

June Hey

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/scoliosis-bow-tie-for-srs-represents-special-family-ties-for-ken-rosenthal-alcs-on-fox-100611

A message from my mom to nurses. Her decision to volunteer to do scoliosis screenings again.

2011-10-09T20:18:00.001-04:00

Fellow nurses,

Please click on the website below to read the inspiration for my decision to volunteer to do scoliosis screenings in local schools as I did for 15 years as a nurse-teacher in Oyster Bay, Long Island. Budget cuts in all schools have eliminated positions for nurses qualified to do this screening. Even if the nurses can do the screening, understaffing has eliminated time to do this. I did it as part of the preliminaries for Sports' and annual physicals. The training is very easy... as with all nursing preparation, it takes time to develop skill. But our skill is better than no detection at all. One concern we all have is law suits. I will work on this problem because most of us have no malpractice insurance.

Most pediatricians include this screening in their physicals. Some do not... and some students never see a doctor except in the Emergency Room.

I hope we can make a difference.

June Hey

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/scoliosis-bow-tie-for-srs-represents-special-family-ties-for-ken-rosenthal-alcs-on-fox-100611

Hey Clinic Smiling "Graduates" from Friday

2011-10-09T12:14:00.001-04:00

Here’s some of our “graduates” of all ages from Hey Clinic that I saw on Friday, who also said it was ok to share their team photo on the blog.

As you can see, some of our younger guests are quite the performers!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

North Carolina Orthopaedic Association (NCOA) Research Presentation

2011-10-09T11:04:00.002-04:00

I presented a paper this morning at the North Carolina Orthopaedic Association (NCOA) Meeting.
I wanted to thank all of my Hey Clinic staff who worked very hard to help get this data and analysis together. Special thanks to Rachel Robinson PAC, NC State pre-Med Charlotte Rastas, Jimmy Davies, Emily Fulmer, Jennifer Hardy, Sarah Rivera for their help, and Mike Vorberger from SAS for his help with the statistical analysis and SAS JMP help. All of my Hey Clinic staff, however, are involved in outcomes data collection which is built in to the way we care for patients so we can always be improving quality and process over time.

The bottom line of my talk was that estimated blood loss (EBL) does decrease with surgical experience in scoliosis / kyphosis spinal deformity surgery. There was also strong correlation with number of levels of fusion, and a close connection between surgical time and blood loss.

This is a good example how we can always continue to improve and learn over time for the sake of our patients.

It was good to see many of my former Duke residents and their families at the meeting, including Ed Lilly from Hendersonville, NC who is our upcoming NCOA President. Also good to see Dr. Jim Nunley, Dr. Bill Hardaker and others from the Duke Faculty, and also Jim Mooney who I knew from Boston Children’s. Steve and Libby Lang are also here — always good to see them. It was also good to see Alan Skipper from NC Medical Society. A great meeting.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Fox Sports Writer Ken Rosenthal gets behind Scoliosis Research Society this Weekend!

2011-10-07T21:45:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow, (Oct 8) Saturday night --- you need to watch Fox Sports to see Ken Rosenthal, top baseball writer and sportscaster wearing his custom-made bowtie to help promote scoliosis awareness and research with the Scoliosis Research Society (SRS). He wrote a nice article published this evening on the foxsports.com website which has a link below. I also copied and pasted the article below as well.

Enjoy! Dr. Lloyd Hey, Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery / Raleigh NC USA

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/scoliosis-bow-tie-for-srs-represents-special-family-ties-for-ken-rosenthal-alcs-on-fox-100611

Ken Rosenthal’s FoxSports.com Article October 7, 2011

I first agreed to wear Dhani Jones’ bow ties on FOX in support of different causes and charities, I asked Dhani’s director of philanthropy, Chad Williamson, if they could design one or two ties for organizations that were personal to me.

Chad said "No problem"; Dhani’s initiative, the Bow Tie Cause, is all about telling stories, the more personal, the better.

Well, I almost completely missed a story that was right in front of me, a story that I initially dismissed even though it’s as personal as it gets.

So, after a full season of wearing bow ties each week on FOX, I’ve got a story to tell as we begin our coverage of the American League Championship Series on Saturday night.

It took me a while to figure out what the story was, actually. But I think I’ve finally got it.

It’s a story about getting to the right place.

It is about my daughter Sarah, who underwent surgery in late June for scoliosis, or curvature of the spine.

It is about my wife Lisa, who spent countless hours searching for a surgeon who could promise Sarah a shorter recovery time than the standard six to 12 months.

And it is about my high school classmate, Dr. Lloyd Hey, whose own life experience led him to become that surgeon, unbeknownst to me.

The bow tie I will wear Saturday night represents the Scoliosis Research Society, a non-profit organization dedicated to education, research and treatment of spinal deformity. It was designed by Lloyd’s daughter, also Sarah, who adapted the pattern from the original SRS logo created in 1966. Sarah is an art and psychology major at the University of North Carolina.

My role in all this?

Well, my daughter, Sarah, inherited scoliosis from me — I had my own corrective surgery when I was 17. And yet, even though I had intimate knowledge of the condition, I somehow thought that it did not merit a bow tie.

Scoliosis generally is not life-threatening. The surgery’s rate of success is quite good. And the ordeal is not the same as it was when I had the operation in 1980. I spent three weeks in the hospital, and for six months wore a body cast that extended from my shoulders to my hips.

To me, other causes just seemed more worthy.

But as Sarah’s story unfolded, I realized how wrong I was.

Scoliosis is rare in boys — the ratio of girls to boys with significant spinal curves is 10 to 1. I’m not quite sure how I hit the lottery. All I knew was that my doctor had told me that if I ever had children, to make sure they were checked regularly.

Sarah, 15, is the youngest of our three children. We caught her scoliosis early, when she was 10. She tried different braces. We desperately wanted her to avoid surgery. But nothing stopped her curve from progressing.

You might recall me tweeting about Sarah a few years back — she landed a principal role in the Broadway musical “Ragtime,” when she was 13. The show ran for only about two months, but we moved from Baltimore to New York after our older two children went to college, trying to make it easier for Sarah to pursue additional acting roles.

The scoliosis clock was ticking the entire time.

Sarah slept in a brace — and a rather uncomfortable one at that — even when she was performing eight shows a week. But her curve eventually reached a point where surgery was inevitable. And one doctor after another told us that after the operation, she could not resume physical activity for at least six months.

Well, Sarah is like most teenagers, an active kid. She sings and dances, rides the subway to school, bounces around. To me, a six-month recovery seemed reasonable; Sarah, thanks to an improvement in the surgery, would not need to wear a cast like I did. My wife, though, could not stand the thought of Sarah being down for so long.

We had picked out a doctor to perform Sarah’s surgery, but Lisa was on the Internet virtually every night, reading about scoliosis, looking for alternate solutions.

One night, she popped her head into my office while I was writing. She said that she had found a doctor who worked on high-performance athletes, did the surgery a different way, got people back on their feet more quickly.

I won’t lie — I was a little suspicious, though I knew better than to say so.

“He’s from Oyster Bay,” Lisa said.

That would be Oyster Bay, NY, a small town on the north shore of Long Island — my hometown.

I’ve lost touch with virtually everyone from Oyster Bay, but if that is where this doctor was from, there was at least a reasonable chance I knew him.
“His name is Hey,” Lisa said.

“Lloyd Hey?” I replied.

Lisa said yes. And right away, I knew that she had hit the jackpot.

When Lloyd Hey was 16, he was struck by a car while riding a moped and nearly lost his left leg — and almost his life. He stayed in the hospital for more than three months, underwent 11 surgeries and endured painful therapy.

We were in high school then. Most of us knew that Lloyd had been hurt badly. But even many of us who were friendly with him did not grasp the extent of his injury.

To hold the bones rigid in Lloyd’s leg, doctors attached pins to his bones. A metal frame held the pins together. But the frame could not hold the bones rigid, which only added to Lloyd’s pain and slowed his recovery.

Now comes the incredible part.

Lloyd had a knack for fixing things; before attending Harvard Medical School, he earned a degree in electrical engineering from MIT. He took it upon himself to design a more rigid frame. His father, Albert, an aeronautical engineer, enlisted friends at Grumman to make the critical new pieces out of aluminum.

The new frame worked. About a year after Lloyd suffered his injury, he finally walked again.

The experience inspired him to pursue a career in orthopaedic medicine, and seek innovative ways to help patients. Dr. John Hall, one of the founders of SRS, and Dr. John Emans inspired Lloyd at Boston Children’s Hospital to help children and adults with spinal deformity by developing “frames on the inside.”

I checked out Lloyd’s website and was duly impressed; somebody from Oyster Bay High School had made good! But when I first called my old classmate, I asked him the questions any parent would ask: What makes your procedure different? How do you get dancers and athletes back to their active lives so quickly?

Lloyd explained that the surgical techniques have come a long way in the past 50 years; the hardware is stronger now, the techniques for correcting and holding the spine much-improved. He said that he has continued to improve his own surgical techniques and instrumentation over the years, getting better corrections with less surgical time and faster recoveries.

He was as passionate and sincere as I remembered him. And as I would tell him later, only half-joking, he was about one of three people from my high school that I would trust.

Sarah’s surgery was June 28 at the home of the Hey Clinic, Duke-Raleigh Hospital in Raleigh, NC. The surgery lasted 3-1/2 hours, and there is no getting around it — her initial pain was awful, similar to what I remembered.

The trauma is quite pronounced — Lloyd straightened and fused Sarah’s spine, then reinforced his work with rods, screws and clamps. The first three days were horrible for Sarah. But on the fourth day, we flew home.

Four weeks later, Sarah was dancing again. A few weeks after that, she was completely off pain medication. Now she is back to normal, a sophomore in high school, complete with a much straighter spine.

The only thing worse than seeing your child in pain is the pain that your child actually experiences. Sitting with Lisa and Sarah in the hospital, all the memories from my own surgery came flooding back. And it occurred to me: Scoliosis merits a bow tie. How could I have thought it did not?

A few days after Sarah’s surgery, I sent Lloyd an email explaining to him that I wear a bow tie on MLB on FOX each week to represent a different charity or organization. I told him I wore the ties mostly to raise awareness, and asked for his blessing to wear one for the Scoliosis Research Society.

His response stunned me.

The cause was worthier than I thought.

“Due to federal government policy changes in the last 10-plus years, the routine scoliosis screenings that used to happen in schools around the country have pretty much gone away completely,” Lloyd said.

“These policy changes were not based on good science, and have resulted in a tremendous decrease in scoliosis and kyphosis (hunchback) awareness, which I believe has resulted in much later diagnosis for many children, adolescents and younger adults, resulting in much more difficult surgery, with less curve correction with more risk. It has also resulted in more pain, more disc degeneration, and poorer self-image for many younger people.

“SRS not only promotes scoliosis awareness and care here, but also supports scoliosis work overseas, including doing scoliosis care and surgery in Africa. Literally SRS has a world-wide impact for education and research and care.”

So, there you have it.

I will wear the SRS bow tie Saturday night in honor of Sarah, out of gratitude to Lloyd and in tribute to all those children and adults who are affected by spinal deformity.

My back is straight. Sarah’s back is straight.

It’s time I got the story straight, too.

For more information about the Scoliosis Research Society, go to www.srs.org <http://www.srs.org> .

Getting the SAS JMP help I needed

2011-10-06T21:34:00.001-04:00

Since 1985 as a second year medical student at Harvard, I've been interested in clinical research and statistics. It was in that year that I got first copy of SAS PC on 15 floppy discs and installed it on my new IBM xt computer w the little green monochrome screen and massive 20mb hard drive. I had to write tons of lines of code to analyze the data for my thesis which examined the health status an care for children in emergency shelters. The program would then run all might with my dot matrix printer slowly spitting out the results all night long.

In 1991-2, dr. John hall and staff at Boston childen's sent me to get my Masters in Clinical Epidemiology where I became an outcomes research dude and SAS whiz. Those skills have been a blessing for years of inspiring and helping many students on faculty at Duke.

Recently I've been learning how to use JMP from SAS on my little MAC Air laptop. I ran into major snag and have been really wanting to fin a tutor to help me out.

God answered this prayer this afternoon when mike came in for a scoliosis visit. I asked what mike did for a living and he told me he was statistician at SAS!!! Jackpot!!

So, with his permission I ran and grabbed my laptop, and within about 10 seconds he answered my question and then showed me 3 other cool things. Super awesome.

Mike and i decided to barter for SAS help for spine help! Win-win! He also is getting me the tutoring I need to become a JMP Stud so we can complete several research projects at Hey Clinic.

Thanks so much for your help Mike!

JMP picture

2011-10-06T20:37:00.001-04:00

"You're too old for scoliosis surgery"

2011-10-04T13:08:00.001-04:00

Saw MD yesterday in clinic who had referred a 50 Yo patient w post-polio syndrome w severe scoliosis and severe pain. Was seen at an academic medical center by spine surgeon who told patient "you are too old for scoliosis surgery!". She continues to suffer.

This patient below had kyphoscoliosis surgery this morning. She is 80 years old and in agony w back pain and deformity. She doesn't wish to live unless she gets relief. She is otherwise quite healthy

We did T3-iliac wing instrumentation and fusion for her this morning and she did really well. Surgical time 4 hrs 20 min. Ebl 850 cc. No blood transfused. Got very good correction.

While I would obviously prefer to fix spinal deformities in younger patients, many older guests benefit greatly from having their scoliosis stabilized an corrected.

The "too old" opinion is a bit of a hold-over from the old Dr. Harrington days when scoliosis and kyphosis surgery was done just for children, and adolescents an adults under 40.

14 Yo young lady w 56 degree adolescent idiopathic scoliosis straightened up this morning

2011-10-03T11:52:00.001-04:00

Double curve also w 66 degrees of kyphosis.
T3-L3 instrumentation and fusion w Osteotomies
Surgical time: 3 hrs 12 min
Complications: none
Ebl: 350 cc
Blood transfused: none.

Correction: very good.

Adolescent Kyphosis / Scoliosis Postop Hug from Taylor. The scoliosis JOURNEY.

2011-10-02T10:16:00.001-04:00

Friday was busy in clinic as usual, with lots of smiles and happy reunions with our guests, including many of our adolescent and young adults back for follow-up after scoliosis and/or kyphosis surgery.

Taylor, one of our teenage postop scoliosis guests told her mom that she wanted to give me a “BIG HUG” when she saw me in clinic today.

Well, as you can see, she got her wish. The journey through scoliosis / kyphosis diagnosis and treatment is definitely a real journey for the adolescent and their family. It’s not just important to “take care of the curve”, or the anatomic problem to prevent issues later in life. It’s important to try to make the whole journey a positive experience for the young person becoming an adult, so they emerge stronger, more confident and perhaps inspired to pursue compassionate career / life options as they grow up and have a chance to give back to others. I know my own experience as a patient and teenager definitely had that effect on my life.

What a great encouragement to keep me going through the rest of clinic!

Thanks for the hug, Taylor and letting us share this on the Blog.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Travelling after major adult scoliosis surgery: Seeing the Eiffel Tower!

2011-10-01T16:02:00.001-04:00

My PA Jenny and I received this nice picture from Carol, who I saw recently after her scoliosis surgery doing quite well playing tennis and travelling again.
Many patients have told me that the thoracolumbar iliac wing instrumentation we frequently use for adult scoliosis reconstruction looks like the Eiffel Tower!
Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Date: Fri, 30 Sep 2011 07:12:32 -0400
To: LLOYD HEY
Subject: Fwd: Eiffel Tower picture for Dr.Hey

Jenny, here is a picture of me at the Eiffel Tower, as promised to Dr.
Hey. We had a wonderful time...walked for miles. Enjoy your baby.
Carol

------ End of Forwarded Message

Yes You Can Body Surf and Swim after Shilla Procedure for Early Onset Scoliosis!

2011-09-25T16:41:00.001-04:00

In addition to Pat’s email with tennis photo, I received this nice note from Maggie’s mom, Lisa.
Maggie had a Shilla Procedure done, which is a special growing rod procedure for smaller children with significant growth remaining who have severe progressiv scoliosis.

Thanks for letting us share this Maggie and Lisa and family!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

------ Forwarded Message
From: Lisa
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2011 15:26:41 -0400
To: Lloyd Hey
Subject: Maggie

Hi Dr. Hey and Jenny!

Hope all is well your way! We just returned from vacation yesterday. Maggie had a blast!
I have attached a picture of her riding the waves and brace free!
....
Hope you both have a great weekend and thanks for always being so close by for help! We are SO grateful!
Lisa

------ End of Forwarded Message

Yes You Can Play Tennis After Scoliosis Surgery!

2011-09-25T16:17:00.003-04:00

Boy, I am so sorry I've been so bad about keeping up with the Blog! Shame on me! So much has been happening this last couple of weeks, including going to the Scoliosis Research Society (SRS) meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, and lots of interesting patient stories that I've wanted to share. I've also received a bunch of emails from former and current Hey Clinic guests who actually wanted me to be sure to share their stories with all of you!

One of those stories came from Pat, who had scoliosis surgery with me a few years ago. She's from southern Florida, and had adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), with degenerative scoliosis progressing during her thirties and forties which really brought her quality of life into the poor and getting worse range. She emailed me a few months ago that she got together with her "scoli buddy" who helped her through the whole process --- very fun reunion.

Earlier this month she sent this email below with some short video clips showing her starting to play tennis! I've played a little tennis myself after I was hit by a car as a teenager. Great sport, but I can't really back peddle very well since I lost most of the muscles on the front of my left leg. Pat already looks a lot better than me!

As an interesting coincidence, I was talking to one of my scoliosis surgery patients who is in her 70's the same day I got Pat's email who was telling me how much she enjoys playing tennis again!

I appreciate stories like this that are sent in to us as people share how they are getting their quality of life back after scoliosis surgery. Very encouraging. Thanks for sharing Pat!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Date: Wed, 7 Sep 2011 18:55:26 -0400
To: Lloyd Hey <>
Subject: tennis lesson

Hi Dr. Hey!

Just thought I’d let you know I had my 3rd tennis lesson today!!!!!! Very happy about it!!! I can still hit the ball……………I have to adjust my game but that’s fine with me……………glad to be on the court again. Thank you Thank you!

Pat

15 yo young man w adolescent Scheuermann's Kyphosis 86 degrees fixed this afternoon

2011-09-13T17:09:00.000-04:00

Ebl: 250 cc
Surgical time: 2 hr 45 min.
Procedure: T3-L3 instrumentation and fusion with Smith-Peterson Osteotomies.

Postop location: PACU for 90 minutes then to private large Orthopaedic room for his whole family. Duke Raleigh Hospital.

Correction: very nice. Bradley and his folks will be psyched.

8 yo Olvia, now 6 week postop from Early Onset Scoliosis (EOS) surgery seen today with her letter!

2011-09-08T12:08:00.001-04:00

I just saw 8 yo Olivia and her mom in clinic. I completed her scoliosis surgery at WakeMed Raleigh 6 weeks ago, which is found on the blog. As usual, she greeted me with a huge smile, jumped down off exam table and handed me a personal letter. She just learned how to write a letter in school, including the parts of letter and proper formatting.

She’s doing just great. She loves her new posture and she’s an inch taller. She’s going back to full gym class.

Olivia wanted me to write her a reply letter, and she helped go over the proper formatting for me as well, including what goes in the upper right corner, greeting, body, closure and signature. Very helpful. We discussed whether she wanted it hand written or typed, since I have bad doctor handwriting. She said that she did NOT want me to do cursive, which was fine with me, and that I could hand write it but just try to be neat. I wrote my reply before going into the next patient exam room, and we’ve already got it in the mailbox for her.

She definitely gave us all a big smile at Hey Clinic today!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Week in Review. New "U-Rod" Technique for Proximal Junctional Kyphosis

2011-09-05T16:02:00.000-04:00

Between earth quakes and major hurricanes, Hey Clinic has remained very busy the past 10 days or so since I’ve had a moment to sit down with my feet up to reflect.

Somehow I missed the whole earthquake thing... Although others at Hey Clinic felt it!

The hurricane was a much bigger deal, and still is a very big deal for many of our patients and families not just in North Carolina, but to our north and east.

I mentioned in a previous blog that I’ve been working on a new technique to help fix severe kyphosis at the the cervico-thoracic junction. One of the potential complications from kyphosis and some scoliosis surgeries is that patients can develop a fracture and/or spondylolisthesis/slippage at the top of the fusion. This is called proximal junctional kyphosis or PJK. We see it mostly in our older guests who have more osteoporosis, although I’ve seen it happen in some younger patients as well and even a couple teenagers.

Often the way we fix this is by using a tapered rod, which goes from a standard 5.5 or 6 mm in diameter down to a smaller diameter to allow for fixation to the cervical spine. These rods, however, can appear a bit too weak when you are trying to lever the spine into a better non-kyphotic posture, even though we also do a bone wedge or osteotomy to help free up the spine so it will be able to move.

Wearing my engineer hat, I remembering success many of us had using Luque boxes, which were a very strong stainless steel rectangle we used to use for spine fracture treatment with sublaminar wires. We can’t even get Luque boxes anymore, and the small supply we had at “Big Duke” have apparently been used up! I wondered if we could use a Luque Box like construct to help provide a strong reinforcement at top of the construct which could then be connected to the old hardware. The lower cervical spine could be connected to this frame using sublaminar strong fibrous tapes called “Universal Clamps” from Zimmer, and also pedicle screws as needed in the upper thoracic and possibly C7 as well.

I created a bunch of these “U Rods” using both cobalt chrome and titanium rods from Pioneer, and as mentioned previously, used a large vice and a slightly larger tube to help fashion the U-Rod to the proper shape.

Our first U-Rod surgery was done a couple months ago. I just saw that physician patient back for follow-up, and she is doing extremely well. She was actually bringing her son in for an appointment, who needs scoliosis surgery as well for a large thoracolumbar curve!

This past week I did two additional U-Rod cases --- one in a woman in her 70’s who had PJK at top of a complex scoliosis reconstruction. Her pictures before and after her correction with the U-Rod are shown here in the blog --- a very dramatic correction to her deformity. Before surgery, she could not put her head flat on the bed, requiring 3 pillows for support. At the end of surgery, her head sat flat!

On Friday, I did U-Rod #3 --- for Tim — a young man in his 20’s with spastic quadriplegia. I actually knew Tim’s original pediatric orthopaedic surgeon — Dr. Jim Sanders — from our training years at Boston Children’s Hospital. We’ve stayed in touch through Scoliosis Research Society. When Dr. Sanders moved away from Baptist / Bowman Gray, he asked me to look out for Tim. Tim did great after Dr. Sander’s scoliosis surgery, but after getting a Baclofen pump inserted to help with his spasticity, Tim’s head began to fall forward with proximal junctional kyphosis. It became increasingly painful, and made it very difficult for him to function, including eating, using his computer, or seeing other people. His head was bent down 90 degrees. His head was falling forward and over to the side, and his neck pain was becoming intolerable as well.

Friday I did a pedicle subtraction osteotomy of his proximal thoracic spine, and used the U-Rod technique to help correct his upper kyphosis and scoliosis. I also took out his old Baclofen pump and tubing. The surgery took about 5 hours, plus another hour for me to get out the pump from his anterior abdominal wall. However, it was totally cool when we turned Tim onto his hospital bed --- He was looking straight ahead!

Saturday morning I saw him on rounds and saw Tim sitting straight up in bed. The nurses were treating him to fresh Dunkin’ Donuts, and he had a very big grin on his face I was able to correct some of the thoracic hump on his back as well, which his mom thinks will help him with positioning in his wheel chair.

So the big question is — what should we call this new instrumentation technique? As I was driving home late Friday evening I came up with a name that would at least get a good laugh: the “HEY U!!” Technique. All kidding aside, I really do like the strength that this new technique provides, taking advantage of the solid rod forming a built-in cross-link that can actually be used to mount a sublaminar band or strong fiber wire suture. Sublaminar fixation with bands really helps to spread the load. We’ll obviously follow these first three out clinically, and tweak the technique I’m sure, but perhaps this technique might help another surgeon somewhere else.

The great thing about it too is that it might be helpful even in the developing world, where access to things like tapered rods and cervical lateral mass or small pedicle screw instrumentation might not be available.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

18 Yo young lady w 83 degree painful kyphosis fixed this am

2011-08-23T12:41:00.001-04:00

Surgical time: 3 hr 30 min
Ebl: 400 cc. Cell saver: 115 cc.
Blood transfused: none
Complications: none.

Fusion levels: T3-L3 instrumentation and fusion with 3 apical Smith Peterson Osteotomies.

Correction: looking real good. Hump back gone!

FW: My Two Year Scoliosis Anniversary Today!

2011-08-20T21:24:00.001-04:00

“M” had adolescent idiopathic scoliosis that was never treated until she was 47, when I fixed it for her a couple years ago at Duke Raleigh Hospital.

It is always great to hear these stories of people getting back to life and enjoying a better posture and a better quality of life. Thanks for sharing, M! You go girl!!!

“M” gave her permission to share these photos and email with all of you, and requested us call her “M” here on the Blog.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery.
http://www.heyclinic.com

------ Forwarded Message
From: M_____________________
Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2011 16:37:32 -0400
To: Lloyd Hey <>
Subject: RE: My Two Year Scoliosis Anniversary Today!

Hello Dr. Hey!

Today marks my two year anniversary for scoliosis surgery! In addition, I am attaching a few photos from the second annual Freedom Run, in Wake Forest, on July 2, where I won my division! I placed in the top 25% overall, out of 286 runners! My time was 25:54…not bad for a 49 year old with scoli! Amazing!? …Yes! You are amazing too! Thanks to YOU, I am able to run a 5K again!

I frequent your blog and happy to see that you are enjoying your summer in between surgeries.

I will be making an appointment to get checked soon, to be sure everything is in order.

Take care and God bless,

M_____________ J

------ End of Forwarded Message

Doing well after kyphosis revision extension fusion - video

2011-08-19T08:17:00.006-04:00

I got a chance to see Lynn yesterday for her one year follow-up. She is doing just great. She had a multi-level minimally invasive XLIF fusion, complicated by a compression fracture at top of her fusion with a painful progressive kyphosis.

I performed a thoracic pedicle subtraction osteotomy with revision extension instrumentation and fusion. In the included video, she tells how this has dramatically improved her quality of life and posture. You can see the before and after xrays in our picture together yesterday.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Lynn gave her enthusiastic permission to share this photo and short video with all of you.

14 young lady with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis straightened up Monday, home today postop day 3. Other updates.

2011-08-18T21:51:00.001-04:00

So sorry for delay getting to the Blog. Last week I enjoyed some time off with family and friends, including a family celebration for my in-law’s 50th wedding anniversary. A good time was had by all, and it was great to sit around my folk’s pool up on Long Island and see everyone together.

It was back to work, though on Monday morning, where I was greeted by Harper and her family. Harper is a 14 yo girl who is a big time soccer player. She also has a fairly big time right thoracic idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) which has been progressive and at times painful. Her curve is now over 40 degrees and it has definitely become fairly noticeable. She told me Monday morning that her soccer team won a big tournament this past weekend, and now she was ready to get her scoliosis fixed before going back to school in a couple weeks.

Her surgery went very smoothly. Intraoperatively, I got the pedicle screws in, and then pressed down over the right rib hump. Her curve would correct a bit, but then quickly spring back to it’s original curved state. While I am a big fan for chiropractic treatment for back pain, it really surprises me when I hear the rare chiropractor claim that they can actually correct scoliosis with manipulation. Based on my tests, it seems to just go quickly back where it started off....

We obtained a very nice correction using a special double rod technique and gradual translation and derotation. Her right rib hump gradually disappeared. After locking everything down and inserting the bone graft, we did care plastic surgery subuticular closure and put on the Dermabond and SteriStrips. Her estimated blood loss was around 300 cc, and she received no blood transfusions. Surgical time was a little under 3 hours. I then got a chance to meet with Harper’s parents who were so glad that everything went well, and were excited to see the postop correction of the deformity.

She was able to go to a regular orthopaedic private room after surgery where her parents were waiting for her and could spend the entire stay with her. She is planning to start school on time on August 25th --- about a week --- which believe it or not is quite possible for return to school == 10 days to 2 weeks or so for many adolescents postop. She’ll also be starting back to practicing soccer this fall semester with an accelerated exercise program.

During surgery I had a very special observer --- Brittaney Swift — Hey Clinic’s latest hire. Brittaney is a Family Nurse Practitioner, with extensive experience as a pediatric intensive care nurse in Winston-Salem. She did her nurse practitioner training at UNC. We are so glad to have her on our team, and she’s quickly getting up to speed with help from the rest of the Hey Clinic Team! Welcome Brittaney!

In addition to a busy operating room schedule this week, I got a chance to see several very interesting families. First thing Monday morning, I saw a 15 yo young lady and her mom for a second opinion for scoliosis which has become quite painful. There was a complex health history including possibly Hoshimoto’s Disease. Curves were measured elsewhere over 45 degrees, but to our measure her double curves were in the mid-thirties. Good news for her! We’ll hold off on recommending surgery at this point, and suggest checking other X-Rays in a few months.

Also saw a 56 yo woman referred to me by Dr. Dan Albright from Raleigh Orthopaedics with a very painful scoliosis. This patient obviously had a adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, with right thoracic curve which was never treated. 40 years have gone by, and her thoracic curve has progressed a bit. But the BIG problem is that the lumbar compensatory curve below that curve has gradually degenerated and collapsed, causing increasing debilitating pain which has unfortunately limited her ability to work! I added a green arrow to the picture to show the downward and to the right collapsing direction for her spine. This is why I get so excited about the importance of early detection and early intervention for scoliosis --- it can help prevent big time problems later in life where the “fix” is a much bigger surgery at a time in life where the curve is bigger and stiffer, you don’t heal as quickly and well, and there is more chance for complications. Also, we all know that life gets more complex as we get older, as people depend on us more, rather than being able to lean on our parents and others.

Today I saw a very thankful 50 “ish” woman back for follow-up who had surgery with me a year ago. She had a multilevel XLIF fusion done elsewhere, and then developed a very severe proximal junctional kyphosis (PJK) at the thoracolumbar junction. She was in a lot of pain and had a large hump on her back for this otherwise very attractive lady. She was told that nothing could be done. We did a thoracic pedicle subtraction osteotomy with extension instrumentation and fusion for her. She’s done great postop, and now looks great and feels great! I left her picture and video clip on my camera in clinic this evening, which she said I could share with all of you. She actually runs, and exercises every day and is some sort of a dancing leader in a marching band! She gave me a big hug, and we got a “graduation” picture of the two of us together with her X-Ray. Great way to end clinic.

Was on the phone last night with John from California about his concerns about pain after thoracolumbar instrumentation and fusion for scoliosis a couple of years ago as an adolescent. Differential diagnosis would include pseudarthrosis with loose or broken hardware, adjacent level failure / severe degeneration or pain related to hardware itself hitting muscle or other tissue. Hope you get some relief John.

Our little girl Olivia we did Early Onset Scoliosis Surgery a week or so ago is doing very well recovering at home.

Take care and have a great weekend.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Hey Clinic Early Onset Scoliosis T-Shirt Time. Serving patients and physicians in eastern North Carolina.

2011-08-09T08:29:00.003-04:00

Got this nice email and picture yesterday from Maggie’s mom, our most recent early onset scoliosis (EOS) reconstruction using Shilla technique. Maggie’s family got together with Janelle’s family on Friday, and got this nice picture of both girls in their Hey Clinic T-Shirts. Both families gave their permission to share this photo and brief email with all of you!

I am on vacation this week, which is great. I am also visiting some patients and clinics in eastern North Carolina yesterday and today as well. Met with Dr. Jamie Crosswell, a family practitioner in Beaufort, NC and got him a scoliometer and some diagnosis and screening tips for scoliosis and kyphosis. Increasing awareness for the importance of scoliosis screening and follow-up across the full age spectrum can result in earlier detection and better confirmation of possible curve progression by allowing for accurate measurements over time. This can also result in earlier interventions which may be less or non-invasive.

Dr. Crosswell has generously offered to have me use some of his clinic space to see some of our patients from Eastern North Carolina, where Hey Clinic has developed many relationships with patients and physicians, chiropracters, and physical therapists. I was impressed with Dr. Crosswell and his staff --- he’s compassionate, and always eager to serve better. His staff are well organized, and his clinic is clean and comfortable, right on Route 70 in downtown Beaufort.

I’ve been seeing patients from eastern North Carolina since my early days working at Duke when I had a clinic in Smithfield NC in Dr. Bylciw’s office.

This morning I am heading up to visit a patient in New Bern, NC and then will likely take the rest of the day off and go out to Cape Lookout National Seashore with the family.

Here’s Maggie’s Mom email that accompanied the cute picture of Janelle and Maggie!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com
---------------------------------

Hi Dr. Hey! Our family had the blessing of spending some time with Maggie's family at their home Friday night!!
Katrina and I took this precious picture of the girls in their Hey t-shirts. We wanted to share the joy with you!!

Blessings!!
Lisa

New Friendship Created Through Hey Clinic Scoliosis Network

2011-08-03T11:35:00.002-04:00

Got this nice note from Pat, one of our out of State scoliosis postop
guests, who got together with another one of our guests. There is a whole
supportive network of relationships, that sometimes results in long-term
friendships. Pat and Nancy gave their permission to share this short
email and photo with all of you!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

------ Forwarded Message
From: Pat
Date: Tue, 2 Aug 2011 19:51:30 -0400
To: Lloyd Hey <>
Subject: Emailing: photo (14)

Hi Dr. Hey! Just thought you might like to see the friendship you
created!!!!! Nancy and I finally got to meet after 2 years of
communicating by phone and email! We had a great lunch together. Thanks
again for everything!!!! Pat

One of our kyphosis teenager surgery patients doing great and working as an elementary teacher.

2011-08-01T20:27:00.001-04:00

Got this nice note today from Erin, who is several years out from her kyphosis surgery we did before she went off to college at Appalachian State to become a teacher.
We always love to hear back from our guests as they continue to grow up and move into new chapters of their lives, and send us updates on how their new posture and spine health is a part of their long-term quality of life.

One of the services we offer for our guests is to check X-Rays locally after surgery, and review them at Hey Clinic. This really helps people like Erin who live 5 hours away.... Or some who are even further away, even international. Reviewing films and touching base via email or Skype or mobile is a great way to stay in touch and minimize disruptions for work and family. We always LOVE to see families back at Hey Clinic, but we do work hard to keep the trips to a minimum. Sometimes people plan return trips to do fun things in North Carolina, like visit Raleigh, local college shopping, or go to our beautiful mountains or crystal coastline / beaches.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery

------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 1 Aug 2011 15:22:56 -0700 (PDT)
To: Lloyd Hey <>
Subject: X-Rays

Dr. Hey! So sorry I did not return your e-mail sooner, it got sent to my spam folder somehow. Thank you for checking those x-rays. I just wanted to make sure everything was still looking good. I am doing great! I teach 4th grade at Hayesville Elem. and I am getting married next June. Yikes! I almost sound like a grown-up! My back feels great and I still have no problem with exercise. Thank you so much for all you have done for me. You are awesome! I hope all is well with you! I wish you all the best!

Erin

8.5 Yo girl with early onset idiopathic scoliosis fixed today

2011-08-01T11:50:00.001-04:00

Ebl 450 cc
Cell saver 250 cc
Surgical time: 3 hr 05 min.
Complications: none
Correction: quite good!

We've been bracing little Olivia for a few years, but her curve has continued to progress fairly rapidly.

She is a total joy to our whole clinic. Today she surprised me in PReop with a wonderful fancy ball tip pen that has "best doctor ever" engraved on it! It came in a black box with my name on it. I have never had such a fancy pen. Her hand made card was absolutely precious as well.

One of Our Hey Clinic College Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS) guests shares her trip to Thailand.

2011-08-01T08:15:00.000-04:00

Email I received recently from Samantha with some pictures from her trip to Thailand that she said we could share on the Blog! -- Dr. Lloyd Hey

----------------

My Mom and I went to Thailand to visit my foreign exchange student from a couple years ago. We had a 25 hour flight, which was torture, of course. We stayed in Bangkok for eleven days, went to their mountain house in Saraburi, and also stayed at the beach, Hua Hin, for a couple days. We did everything! Swam in the Thai ocean off their boat, went jet skiing, saw a ton of temples, ate dinner on the Chao Phraya River, went shopping at the floating market, and most impressive, road elephants, it was simply amazing. Everything was beautiful. We were fortunate enough to be present for the changing of the Emerald Buddha's coat at the Emerald Temple. Every wall, statue, and alter is covered in gold leaf, which is breathtaking. I remember walking from building to building within the ancient temple site, in complete awe of the way the sun kissed every mosaic tile, exploding with glittering light.
Riding the elephants was definitely my favorite activity. Elephants in Thailand are like horses here, which I found incredible, for obvious reasons. The elephant we rode was almost eighty years old. I will treasure that experience always. Although rest was very hard to come by on our trip, my back held up very well, all thanks to you and your team.

Without my third spinal surgery, I would never have been able to go on this once in a lifetime trip. Nattacha, my foreign exchange student, had to watch me suffer with a broken rod the entire year she was with us. She took care of me and we became more like sisters than just friends. It was the greatest feeling to finally be able to have fun with her without worrying about my back and all the pain. We walked everywhere all day everyday and I could not believe how well I did. Unfortunately, I broke my toe a few days before we were set to leave, fell over a tree stump at the temple and cut my leg in front of some monks, and got sun poison at the beach, but my back, my back made it through with incredible stability and very little pain. I am truly so thankful to you all. Dr. Hey, you made it possible for me to not only accomplish a great dream of mine, but to more importantly, enjoy it.

My spine will now continue to get better and better all because you have put me back on the right track. I'm confident that if I could make it 9,024 miles to Thailand with my new back, that I can now do so many other things I could not do before. You guys really saved me. You guys are the reason I could reunite with my sister all the way across the world. I thank you all, from the bottom of my heart.

One last thing about the trip, which happens to be one of the very few negatives I have about Thailand, from a scoliosis patient point of view, the traffic was the absolute worst I've ever experienced. If anything was hard on my back it was the traffic, bumpy roads, and constant stop and go. Since we've been home, I never complain about the roads of North Carolina :) which may be a good thing. If you have any further questions feel free to e-mail me.

Samantha

---------------------

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Awesome sunset picking up ice cream.

2011-07-28T20:46:00.000-04:00

Two bi scoli surgeries today which went real well. Second was actually kyphosis and thoracic fracture case w compression of spinal cord. Went well and family very thankful. He was bent way over an could barely walk.

After seeing Mia Postop w her mom, our 13 Yo scoliosis surgery from this morning, I headed home, had nice dinner and then went out to pick up ice cream.

The North Carolina sunset sky is an amazon pink. Driving through the countryside is magical at this hour --- out to Maple View Farms, which is dairy farm that serves awesome ice cream. Great place to go after a long day in operating room 12 --- from focusing on an area about 3 inches in diameter face down for 8 hrs (2 surgeries) to head up looking at a huge blue and pink sky ----- what a joy!

13 Yo girl w 40 degree Thoracolumbar adolescent idiopathic scoliosis fixed this am

2011-07-28T11:56:00.000-04:00

T10-L3 instrumentation and fusion
Ebl: 350 cc
Blood transfused: none
Complications: none
Surgical time 2 hr 30 min

Very happy with correction.
Was able to spare her the longer fusion with less levels since thoracic curve was small enough and flexible enough --- good motivation to fix earlier!

We fixed a 24 Yo w scoliosis last week from Asheville nc area today, which I about 5 hours away, in the beautiful north Carolina mountains, west of Charlotte, Nc. I was there last weekend doing rock climbing at Chimney Rock w my daughter. Amazing experience!!!

Maggie and Me in Clinic on Friday!

2011-07-25T21:43:00.001-04:00

I saw Maggie back for follow-up in clinic with her family on Friday. She’s a few weeks postop from the Shilla Procedure for her complex early onset scoliosis, which also included an anterior 4 segment fusion. She was only 45 lbs when we did her surgery, and had quite a bit of growing remaining. The Shilla Procedure allows her spine to grow along the rods through pedicle screws at the top and bottom of her scoliosis construct, guiding the path for her growth. It does not require the routine revision surgeries for adjustments which are needed for the growing rod technique. Dr. Richard McCarthy was kind enough to teach me this technique with one of my patients, Janelle, who had surgery back in December.

She greeted me with a big smile and a big hug, and gave me a wonderful “Thank You” card she made herself. On the back of the card she said “My back feels so much better!”

She then showed us how she could run down the hall.

What an awesome day.

Thanks for the great card, Maggie. I will treasure it always.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Teenage Carson, looking great after kyphosis surgery, shares a portion of her first book!

2011-07-24T10:09:00.000-04:00

Clinic was great on Friday, seeing many families back for follow-up and a few new families.
I always like to ask my younger guests who are high school or younger “what do you want to be when you grow up”?
Over the years I’ve gotten all sorts of answers to that question. Some of my younger guests who have been through scoliosis or kyphosis surgery share that their experience as a patient influence them to pursue a healthcare career. That’s pretty cool, because that is how I got interested in serving as a surgeon from my experience as a patient as a teenager.

When I asked Carson that question in clinic on Friday, she told me that she wanted to be “a writer or a lawyer”
She then told me that she just finished writing her first book! It is about assissins!

She gave me permission to share a chapter for you to check it out. It is being reviewed by publishers now.

Hope you enjoy it. Wow, Carson, you are a very gifted writer!!!! Thanks for sharing this.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic

Chapter 1: Seventeen Months Before

“The target’s arrived at the extraction point.” Ryan said, watching the girl get out of the car from behind the thick, burgundy curtain of the window. Her blond hair was whipping in the wind, a scowl still engraved on her face from earlier that day. A lazy smile crossed Ryan’s face. She was arguing with her mother about something as she slung a heavy-looking backpack over her shoulder. Homework she’d never turn in.

“You are ready, I presume?” The man on the other end of the line said icily.

“Of course.” Ryan said, striving to keep the irritation at being asked from his voice. “We’ve been ready for the past three days.”

“I should hope so.” The other man said in a voice like the Arctic wind, cold and cutting. “What of the brother?” A shadow slid over Ryan’s face. Yes, there was a problem indeed. He always hated pleading excuses, but sometimes they were necessary.

“He’s coming over at six.” Ryan reported. There was a silence on the phone for the space of a few heartbeats.

“Proceed with the extraction before he gets there, then.” The other man ordered.

“We could wait until tomorrow. It would give us a little more time to get away.” Ryan suggested lazily. The girl had gone inside the house, slamming the door behind her. There was another silence, this one lasting for several seconds as the other man considered this option.

“No.” He said at last, his voice decisive. “Your transportation is already scheduled. It would take far too long to find another way for you to get out of the country. Extract the target before the brother gets there, Ryan.”

“And collateral damage?” Ryan said, refusing to feel slighted. The man laughed.

“You know how we feel about that. No delays, Ryan.” The other end of the line went dead, and Ryan sighed.

“Yes, sir.” He muttered to empty air, rolling his eyes and slipping the phone back into his pocket. “Oi, Dom!” He called, wandering back into the kitchen and away from the window. His partner was at the table cleaning a Glock 17, his large hands capably handling the gun’s disassembled components.

“What?” He asked irritably, not turning away from the gleaming black pistol. Ryan grinned at him.

“The place is clean, yes?” He asked.

“Completely. No fingerprints, too little DNA for anybody to run tests, and absolutely no ID left laying around, as per instructions. Has been for the last three days. Why?” Ryan grinned again.

“We move. In two hours.” Dom did look up then, a small worry spot creased between his brown eyes.

“At five? What about the brother? Did you tell him about the brother?” Ryan tapped the phone barely showing in his jeans’ pocket meaningfully.

“Apparently, we can’t afford a delay.” Dom sighed, and Ryan quickly added, “But the parents are still ours. Think you can take them out in ten minutes?”Dom rolled his eyes, turning back to his pistol.

“Could do it in five,” He boasted. Knowing him, Ryan didn’t doubt it for a second. “The sooner we get this done, the sooner we get paid and go home. Six months on stakeout is far too long to be away.”

“Well, we’ll be back soon.” Ryan said comfortably, stretching against the doorframe. Dom grinned, his teeth a white flash against his dark skin.

“I can’t wait.”

*            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *

Sam dialed his parents’ house number and waited patiently for someone to pick up the phone. He had time to wait: the drive from Virginia to Raleigh, North Carolina was long by anyone’s standards, especially for a frequent commute. A familiar young female voice came on the line. “Sam?” His name had just the barest hint of a question hanging on it.

“Hey, Jamie.” Sam said. “How’d you know it was me?”

His sister laughed. “Caller ID ratted you out again.” She informed him. “Wanna talk to Mom?”

“No, you’ll do.” He teased. “What are you guys doing?”

“I’m busy lying in wait for you.” Jamie said. “Mom’s making a casserole, and Dad’s in the kitchen with her, giving her advice. I give him three minutes to live.” Sam laughed. Their father and mother couldn’t stand to share the kitchen with the other.

“How’s school?” Sam asked. It had begun to rain, the windshield quickly becoming freckled with water droplets. Sam flicked on his windshield wipers, but their steady thud didn’t hide the small sigh Jamie gave.

“It’s fine.” She sighed. Sam frowned. He didn’t have to watch her facial expressions to know she was lying.

“Are you okay? And be serious this time, Jamie.”

“My calculus homework’s murdering me.” She said casually. “I think they bumped me up a level too high this time.” Sam frowned. He doubted that his sister’s problem was with her homework. She had skipped first, third, and fifth grade and was, at his parent’s last report, excelling with almost all AP-level classes. She was following in his footsteps, alright, and Sam definitely recalling his footsteps leading him into a horde of boys with something to prove.

“It’ll do you good to struggle with math with the rest of the mortals for a year.” He told her, resolving to get more information about the way Jamie was dealing with school from a more reliable source, also known as his mother.

“I’ll just finish it when you get here and can help me.” Jamie said. “Speaking of which, Mom wants me to ask you your ETA. Something about keeping dinner hot.” Her tone wasn’t accusatory, but Sam winced anyway.

“Maybe thirty minutes.” He calculated quickly, accelerating slightly so his estimate would only be short five minutes. He heard the muffled sounds of Jamie relaying the message through the phone, and his fingers tightened on the steering wheel as he stared at the road through the now-pouring rain. He hadn’t seen his family for close to four months now. Jamie returned to the phone, dragging him back to their conversation and away from his melancholy thoughts.

“Where were we?” she said happily. “Oh, wait, calculus. Change of subject, please. How’s the FBI? Is catching criminals hard? Is your boss a sadist?” Sam smiled faintly at his sister’s eager questions, her speech accelerating as she thought of more.

“You know, I think I should wait until I’m face-to-face with you to have this conversation. Security and all that.” It was fun to make her wait. Knowing Jamie, she’d be about to explode.

“Loser.” Jamie said absently. “Could you hold that thought? Somebody rang the doorbell, and Mom’s busy with the casserole right now.” Sam felt an irrational twinge of foreboding.

“Jamie, Dad is home, right?” Jamie laughed.

“Don’t worry, brother dear. Both of our darling parents are here, courtesy of your homecoming. Ugh, Dad really needs to fix this deadbolt. It sticks- every- time-” Sam rolled his eyes as he listened to the sounds of Jamie struggling with the door.

“Remember, you push in, and then you turn it.” He reminded her patiently. It didn’t matter that he didn’t actually live with his parents anymore. Sam was the type of person who remembered details with an irritating and unfailing accuracy.

“Got it!” she crowed. “Knew it was just a matter of-” Her voice disappeared, followed by the loud clatter that meant she had dropped the phone. Sam pushed down that twinge of unease again. She had dropped the phone before this, and would probably do so again.

“Jamie?” He said patiently, just before a desperate shriek came over the phone.

“Sam, call 911! Call them no-” The cell phone went dead in Sam’s hand.

“Jamie!” Sam shouted into the useless phone. He pulled it away from his ear long enough to jab three numbers in as his mind worked with cool efficiency. His sister would have been standing right inside the door… And Sam felt the cold slickness of fear sliding over him, the awful certainty that something had gone terribly awry.

“911, what’s your emergency?” answered a cool female voice after what seemed like ages. Sam spat his parents’ address into the phone, then hung up. He revved the engine of his Dodge Charger as he pushed it to a speed far over the limit. It was one of the models of car used by the NC Highway Patrol. It could handle it.

He only prayed that he wouldn’t be too late.

*            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *

Ryan waited patiently on the front porch, the brisk November wind ruffling his cropped hair and tugging at Dom’s jacket. He breathed in deeply as he depressed the doorbell, sending oxygen to every cell in his body in preparation of the coming extraction. Not that he expected much of a challenge from either the target or her parents. No, it was the brother Ryan was concerned about. If this took too long, he might manage to arrive before they were clear, and they certainly didn’t have time for a firefight. The deaths of two Vitas agents were already laid at the man’s doorstep, after all.

The girl opened the door, a portable house phone held to her ear with one hand. Ryan swore silently at this unexpected complication and fired the dart gun in his hand as Dom snatched the phone away from her. Dom tossed the phone down onto the porch and darted past the girl into the house, his freshly-cleaned gun already in his hand. The girl recovered quickly, given her age and the sedatives that were being pumped into her by the dart residing in her carotid artery.

“Sam, call 911!” She screamed. “Call them now!” Ryan smiled as he stomped on the fallen phone, crushing it, before stepping towards her and closing the door behind him. She tried to run, much to Ryan’s amusement. He grabbed her wrists in a blur of speed as the muffled blasts of a silenced gun ensued from the room Dom had disappeared into. The kitchen, if Ryan recalled correctly.

The girl twisted her wrists, sinking her all of her nails into the tender flesh near Ryan’s veins with enough force to draw blood. He swore with pain, not bothering to stay silent now that he knew the parents were taken care of. The sedatives weren’t working as well as he’d hoped: he’d have to use the syringe on her soon. She tried to kick him, and Ryan lost his remaining patience.

“Dom!” He yelled. His partner reappeared, a smile easing over his face. At the sight of him, the girl redoubled her clawing. Strange, Ryan mused distantly. She hasn’t screamed once since I grabbed her. Dom caught the girl’s wrists easily enough as Ryan shoved her towards him.

“You can’t even knock out one kid?” Dom muttered, spinning the girl around so she was facing him, her back to Ryan. Ryan ignored his jibe, retrieving a leather case from his pocket and pulling a hypodermic needle out of it. He slid it into her carotid artery with the ease of long practice. She yelped in pain, shuddering as the cold tranquilizers poured into her blood. Her frantic struggles were already slowing. Ryan withdrew the needle, slipping it back into its case and pocketing it before motioning for Dom to release the girl. He did so, and she fell forwards, doing nothing to cushion her fall. Dom laughed as Ryan scooped her up in his arms.

“Lights out.” He said, his dark eyes dancing merrily. “And with seven minutes to spare, too.”

*            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *            *

It was pouring when Sam pulled up to his parents’ house and saw the flashing lights of several squad cars. The police had beaten him there. He jumped out of his car, running to the house.

A policeman grabbed him before he entered, stopping him. Sam tried to push past him, and the officer frowned. “Sir-”

“My family’s in there.” Sam snapped. “Are they okay?” The man’s face tightened, and he looked away. Sam’s stomach dropped. “No.” he whispered. “Please, what about my sister?”

“There was a girl?” The officer said, surprised. “I’m sorry, sir. We haven’t found her yet. Were you the one who placed the 911 call?” Sam nodded, feeling numb as he stared through the rain at the house. Jamie… “Sir, could you answer a few questions for me?”

They still hadn’t found her seven hours later when they had finished processing the crime scene and put out an APB. Sam was sitting on the porch steps when the officer who had stopped him first approached.

“Maybe she got away.” The officer said, sounding like he didn’t believe his own consolations. Sam laughed harshly. He was in the FBI. It was possible, but only just. And Jamie would’ve been standing right in front of whoever killed his parents. The man paused, hesitant. “Mr. Silven, I need you to come and identify your parents’ bodies.” Sam sighed and got up. It was procedure, nothing more and nothing less. He loathed procedure right now.

Jamie was gone. And there was nothing he could do about it.

14 Yo young man with Thoracolumbar scoliosis and 2 inch apparent leg length discrepancy fixed today

2011-07-18T10:59:00.001-04:00

Got back from Wyoming last night. Awesome trip. Everyone al LE should Hime the Grand Tetons! Close to heaven.

This morning I met w evan and his parents in PReop. Dad asked how often I round (twice a day) and what I actually do on rounds with my PA's: check motor ab sensory exam, incision, pain level, physical And occupational therapy progress, vital signs and labs.

He also told me that his while Sunday school class was praying for me and our whole surgical team. This reminded and humbled me as I left the PReop room that I am just a small part of a caring network that stretches far and wide.

Evan's surgery went great.
PReop, he was really "caddy-wompus" with a HUGE apparent leg length discrepancy o one to two inches. I measured his legs, and they were actually equal. the pelvis was jus compensating for this huge curve.

Evan is growing like a weed, with wide open growth plates. His curve has progressed 21 degrees in just one year to 43 degrees and he has a ton o growth remaining.

Since we caught It early, his curve was more flexible. We got an awesome correction, and was able to keep fusion Shorter, down to L3 as opposed to L4 by working hard do derotate that lumbar segment, and osteotomizing the lower segments to free them up for better correction. This is great news for Evan, since he will have 3 movable discs at bottom as opposed to 2.

Great to be back to the Hey Clinic and Duke Raleigh Hospital team.

Hidden Falls. Awesome

2011-07-16T14:40:00.000-04:00

Inspiration Point, Jenny Lake. Grand Teton National Park

2011-07-16T11:13:00.000-04:00

Just beautiful scene from creation!
Great place to recharge batteries and breathe in the cool dry air.

Gran Teton National Park!

2011-07-14T12:49:00.000-04:00

Moose in Wyoming!!

2011-07-13T22:02:00.000-04:00

Had a good 2 days in surgery and Tuesday, including complex congenital scoliosis in 17 Yo young man.

Now enjoying some family time out in Jackson Hole Wyoming. Sun is setting right now over this huge rushing stream. You can see a huge moose in the background. The mountains are beautiful and air is clear and cool!!

Mike Tells Us Of Amazing SCUBA Trip Truk Lagoon, Pacific: "That's me in all the photos, and I would have never gotten there if not for y'all - Peace! "

2011-07-12T06:18:00.002-04:00

The following are actual pictures of MIKE HIMSELF SCUBA diving at Truk Lagoon!

Photo credit goes to: Wayne Sumrell (Mike's dive buddy) and Robert Purifoy (Owner of Olympus Dive Center, Morehead City)

Mike’s radiant smile made my day on Friday when I opened up the exam room door, and he began to tell me of his amazing, once in a lifetime experience traveling half way around the world (24 hour plane trip!) to SCUBA dive in Truk Lagoon in Micronesia (also known as “Chuuk”. Check out Google Maps: this place is on the other side of the planet in the Pacific Ocean!

Mike had been hoping and planning to do this trip dating all the way back to 2009. However, he had progressive thoracic myelopathy, with a progressive kyphosis above an old spinal fusion. He was having clumsiness in both legs and trouble walking, and his posture was becoming increasingly pitched forward and painful. In August 2010, I performed a posterior thoracic laminectomy decompression and extension fusion with osteotomies to correct his kyphosis. This problem is called “PJK” -- proximal junctional kyphosis — and is a complication that can happen after spinal fusions, especially longer fusions. The reason for this problem is that there are higher loads at this junction point wear old fusion ends and unfused spine begins.

The Truk Lagoon Trip then became a MAJOR incentive to get through the surgery and rehab (as he says, "third only to God and family).

His evoked potential monitoring at beginning of surgery showed that his signals were not good going through the cord. By end of surgery, they had improved dramatically . Since then, he has made a wonderful recovery, and can now walk normally with normal posture and strength.

Mike is an incredibly active guy, and goes SCUBA diving often. However, before his recent spinal reconstruction surgery, his quality of life was unacceptable, and getting worse. For each of our guests, their goals for an acceptable quality of life are different --- for Mike it CLEARLY involved being able to travel and put on a big SCUBA tank and jump into the water without being in agony!

I did some additional reading on Truk Lagoon, and I think I want to go as well! From Wikipedia I learned that Truk Lagoon is in the central Pacific in Micronesia. It has 11 Islands, and has an unusually sheltered body of water in between the islands. Here’s a quote from Wikipedia as they describe the marine environment:

“In 1969, French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau and his team explored Truk Lagoon. Following Cousteau's 1971 television documentary about the lagoon and its ghostly remains, the place became a scuba diving paradise, drawing wreck diving enthusiasts from around the world to see its numerous, virtually intact sunken ships. The shipwrecks and remains are sometimes referred to as the "Ghost Fleet of Truk Lagoon". Scattered mainly around the Dublon, Eten, Fefan and Uman islands within the Truk group, a number of the shipwrecks lie in crystal clear waters less than fifteen meters below the surface. In waters devoid of normal ocean currents, divers can easily swim across decks littered with gas masks and depth charges and below deck can be found numerous human remains. In the massive ships' holds are row upon row of fighter aircraft, tanks, bulldozers, railroad cars, motorcycles, torpedoes, mines, bombs, boxes of munitions, radios, plus thousands of other weapons, spare parts, and other artifacts. Of special interest is the wreck of the submarine I-169 Shinohara which was lost when diving to avoid the bombing. The sub had been part of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The coral encrusted wrecks attract a diverse array of marine life, including manta-rays, turtles, sharks and corals. In 2007, 266 species of reef fish were recorded by an Earthwatch team and in 2006 the rare coral Acropora pichoni was identified.”

Mike emailed me this weekend with a bunch of the photos, which were truly awesome. He also gave his permission for us to share these photos and story with all of you. That’s Mike and I with his X-Ray at Hey Clinic for his one year graduation photo! When I was at college at MIT, I took SCUBA classes, and used to do work diving with my brother Ken to help make money for college and med school. SCUBA diving is definitely an awesome experience. It gives you the sense of flying, and being a part of another world that is beautiful and mysterious. If you’ve never tried it, it is something to definitely consider. Snorkeling can get you part of the way there, but if you get the chance take a dive somewhere. The North Carolina coast actually has excellent dive centers down in Beaufort and Morehead City, which go out to the many wrecks off our coast. Mike specifically has done a ton of diving at the Olympus Dive Center, where Bobby Purifoy works. I’ve done some fun dives now and then, but have NEVER been to a place like Truk Lagoon!

Hearing guest stories like Mike during clinic and via email, and seeing their smile and enthusiasm brings all of us at Hey Clinic great joy and a sense of vicarious pleasure --- this is what QUALITY of LIFE is about! It constantly reminds me how thankful I am for my own recovery from my severe left leg crush injury, which continues me to have an excellent quality of life at work, as well as hiking, biking and working out each day. Out of gratitude to God, and the people who cared for me when I was in trouble, I can continue to “pay back”, by seeking to restore quality of life and better posture to others. What a joy it is for all of us in our Hey Clinic and Duke Raleigh Hospital teams to be a part of this story, and help enable it to happen.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

14 yo adolescent idiopathic scoliosis fixed today

2011-07-07T17:23:00.000-04:00

We've been so busy past few weeks w adolescent idiopathic scoliosis and kyphosis surgeries that I haven't had time to blog!

Here's one from this afternoon. Surgical time: 3 hrs.
Ebl: 350.
Blood transfused none.

This am did similar r thoracic adolescent idiopathic scoliosis who did very well w. 2.75 hr surgical time and ebl 200 cc. No blood transfused. Got big hug from mom afterward, and nice handshake from dad!

Dr. Hey's past week in review. Biomechanical Models, Tinkering, and Adolescent Scoliosis at Age 40.

2011-06-26T23:09:00.006-04:00

All 4 of our adolescent idiopathic scoliosis surgery patients went home by Friday this week, having had their surgery Mon-Wednesday! Great families, and all very pleased with the care they received at Duke Raleigh Hospital. My daughter actually helped film David's surgery, and provided a copy for him and his PreMed Sister as they headed home to Winston-Salem. She literally narrated the video, asking me lots of questions, just like they did when I was filmed for the Discovery Channel doing scoliosis surgery at Duke Medical Center years ago. What a joy it was to have my daughter with me psyched to watch me at work. I will never forget that day. It was like my "home world" broke into my "work world" -- it felt almost like a dream!

When my daughter was very young, maybe 4 or 5 years old, used to come on rounds with me at Duke University Medical Center, and used to make get well cards for every single one of my patients in the hospital. She would ask me as we were driving into the hospital "Daddy, how many patients do you have in the hospital?" I would say "7". She would carefully count out 7 pieces of blank paper, then carefully make up a card for reach one, with picture on front and inscription inside which would say "Get Well Soon. I love you. " After we finished rounds, we would always go for a ride on the electric train which connected Duke North with Duke South. She would ride up front and we'd pretend we were at Disney World riding the Monorail!

Well, now that little girl has grown up, and is getting a chance to see what daddy does in the operating room, as she considers serving others in the future in the healthcare field.

I spent a lot of time with a very nice 40 yo woman with a 56 degree long right thoracolumbar curve. She was at Hey Clinic with her husband seeking a second opinion regarding her painful, and possibly progressive scoliosis. She was diagnosed with scoliosis as a teenager, braced and never had surgery. She thinks her curve was around 25-30 degrees when she was done growing.

She did well for many years, but over past 8 years or so has noted increasing lower back and mid back pain. It has increasingly affected her quality of life, so she cannot kayak, take long walks, garden and do some household chores. She thinks her posture may have changed a bit with a bigger hump appearing on the right.

We spent a long time going over all of her films, and carefully measuring all of them and putting them into our database and special scoliosis electronic medical record (EMR or EHR for Electronic Health Record).

We talked about importance of tracking the curve over time. Her curve has progressed 8 degrees over past few years, which is more than the expected 1 degree per year for most curves if they are progressing.

She came into clinic very concerned about risks of surgery, but was also very concerned about the risk of doing nothing, since her quality of life now is not acceptable, and things seem to be progressing.

We answered all her questions, and she's going to think things over. We took over an hour with her, showed all her films up on big screen and discussed in detail what were the benefits vs. the risks of doing scoliosis surgery now as opposed to later, or not at all.

This couple really seemed to appreciate the time my physician assistant and I took to go over her particular situation, and equip them with the information they need to make an educated decision now, or sometime in future.

This also illustrates importance of screening for, and following scoliosis in younger people, especially during the adolescent and young adult years. If this woman would have had her scoliosis fixed years ago before the lowest levels of her spine became degenerative, we could have more likely fixed it with a shorter fusion, preserving the bottom 2-3 discs. As people get into their late 30's and 40's, often those lowest discs have degenerated so much that they must be included in the fusion -- not the end of the world, but it sure is nice to have "a stitch in time that saves nine!" - or that saves some mobile disc spaces.

Also saw a bunch of our smiling teenage scoliosis patients back for follow-up from the large group of adolescents we "straightened up" last summer! They all looked great, and were very happy and very smiley and VERY active with sports and camps and dancing.... What a joy it is to care for any patient, especially these younger folks.

Saw a 26 yo woman who has a collapsing scoliosis almost 90 degrees now 13 years after having her adolescent scoliosis surgery performed elsewhere, which was complicated by intra-operative loss of evoked potential monitoring and wake up test with paralysis. They took out all the hardware and just put in bone graft. She woke up paralyzed, but has made remarkable recovery since then, able to ambulate with cane but some remaining spasticity. Unfortunately now she has severe pain and deformity, since the curves have continued to progress since the fusions done without instrumentation have high likelihood of progression. We're getting CT scan to check quality of fusion, and to take closer look at cause of her progressive pain.

Did urgent/emergent surgery yesterday on woman with progressive spondylolisthesis above scoliosis fusion. Came up with a new technique for correcting kyphosis in both the cervico-thoracic junction and thoracic spine at the same time using a specially contoured "U-Rod" --- using technique similar to Luque Rod technique, but using Zimmer Universal Clamps. She got an excellent correction of deformity, excellent relief of pain, and went home today! In order to create this special U-Rod, I had to do a very special bend using my big vice I brought in from home, and a piece of pipe I bought from Lowe's Hardware Saturday morning that I used as a lever to help make the proper U bend that I needed to match the cervical spine. I then contoured the rod into the proper cervical lordosis and thoracic kyphosis. Once the rod was contoured, it was washed and sterilized and was ready for surgery! This single rod was then placed with the top of the "U" up at C4, and the 30 cm lengths coming down over the thoracic spine. It was attached using the Universal Clamps and the pedicle screw instrumentation.

The overall surgery took about 5 hours, with about an hour and a half setup time. I spend A LOT of time preparing for this surgery, doing drawings, talking to instrument reps, and mentally going over each step of the surgery in my mind. I learned this mental preparation from my Dad, who is a flight instructor, who encouraged me to mentally practice landings and other maneuvers in my mind even before I got into the airplane. It really helped. Friday evening though, at dinner, and even later that evening and night, I could tell that my mind was still churning, working out all the details, and "what if''s" --- woke up even that night going over things one more, until I had it just right.

Really appreciate my physician assistant Rachel staying all day to help, and the excellent staff at Duke Raleigh Hospital who worked together with me as well. We all had a good time together, and got a great job done and really helped relieve some suffering while preventing bigger problems that were brewing, including a spinal cord pinch at the level of the spondylolisthesis.

What a joy it was to see her this morning with her husband -- both with a big smile, as she showed off how well she could now move both arms up over her head without any pain.

As many of you know, I started "tinkering" at a very young age, fixing just about anything: lawnmowers, go-carts, outboards, inboards and more. That led to me "tinkering" with the Hoffman external fixator on my left leg which was not strong enough to hold my complex Grade IIIB tibia fracture still -- leading to new design using triangular structure which was much stronger and helped it to heal. This led to my desire to combine engineering with my patient experience to help future patients who had complex problems as I did, which set my course throuth MIT Engineering, HST Program at Harvard-MIT, and Harvard for Medical School, Residency, Chief Residency and Fellowship at Boston Children's Hospital.

This week we also helped out a young lady who had a pseudarthrosis of a scoliosis fusion. Using our biomechanics lab at NC State with Professor Andre Mazzoleni and his graduate student, we were able to create a finite element computer model using this patient's spine parameters, and were able to measure the relative strength of revising her fusion using anterior ALIF technique vs. TLIF technique. This interesting research revealed that we could get very close to the ALIF strength, but with the much less invasive TLIF technique if we focused on getting the TLIF as far anterior as possible. This would also have comparable strength to the XLIF technique. So, we were able to use the lab to help a physical therapist patient and her MD husband to make a very educated choice on which way to go with their surgery. The TLIF technique worked great, and she went home after just 2 nights in the hospital feeling great!

Many thanks to Professor Andre Mazzoleni and his grad student from NC State University Dept Mechanical Engineering who put in countless hours to create this new computer model to help us in our decision analysis. Look forward to further research together with you which will help patients and surgeons in the future.

After all this, I was pretty darn tired by last night. Got home about 6:30 pm, and had restful day today after rounding this morning at Duke Raleigh Hospital. Slept in til 7:20, Rounded at Duke Raleigh Hospital, had good church service with family and lunch out. Caught up on some things around the house, took a long walk, had a swim, and caught up on email and the Blog!

Hope you all have a great week and a great 4th of July.
We have a busy week coming up, and hope to send you an update later this week before the long weekend.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Flat Back Syndrome Young Lady Tells Her Story after Anterior / Posterior Reconstruction at Hey Clinic

2011-06-26T22:58:00.002-04:00

This past week was a real busy and exciting one at Hey Clinic, after having a very nice week off the week before. We saw many thankful smiling faces in clinic on Thursday and Friday, including this woman and her husband. She had an anterior-posterior (A/P) reconstruction for flatback syndrome including L45 L5S1 ALIF, and posterior L1-Iliac wing instrumentation and fusion with bone grafting and osteotomies. She is now a few months postop, and shares what a difference the surgery has made in her quality of life. This patient is now I believe in her 30's, and had instrumentated fusion as teenager for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), and then had hardware removed. She subsequently developed the flatback syndrome with progressive pain and difficulty walking.

She gave her permission for us to share this video with all of you!

Take care,
Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com
Raleigh, NC USA

Back from Vacation. Scoli Camp Week In Full Force!

2011-06-22T08:52:00.001-04:00

I was on vacation last week celebrating 25th wedding anniversary. Great break.
This week we’re doing “Scoli Camp” at Duke Raleigh Hospital, with 4 adolescent scoliosis and kyphosis surgeries already during our first 2 days!
Patients are doing well postop, getting up and around.
One of my 15 yo patients who had very severe kyphoscoliosis gave me a big smile right after surgery since she could feel that her back was sitting comfortably on bed for first time in years!! She had an 80 degree kyphosis, probably Scheuermann’s kyphosis, combined with 42 degree scoliosis!

Yesterday also fixed up a 17 yo young man with severe 68 degree progressive right thoracic adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. His curve was SO MUCH STIFFER than the 15 yo girl I fixed yesterday afternoon, who had a smaller curve. It really does help to fix the curves when they are smaller, and a bit younger to take advantage of the increased flexibility, less rib deformity, and easier/safer and more complete correction. Sometimes people put off scoliosis and kyphsosis surgery due to concerns about playing sports. With modern instrumentation and fusion techniques, we can get people back to sports fairly quickly, including golf, lacrosse, cheer leading, soccer, baseball, softball, and even highly competitive diving and swimming.

Had a real joy of having my daughter looking in on surgery for past couple of days — she’s been very enthusiastic student.

Have a great week!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Jane's Flat Back Syndrome Story, and discussion of benefit of surgeon blogs.

2011-06-08T13:24:00.001-04:00

I saw Jane back for follow-up this past Friday, 3 months after her anterior/posterior reconstruction for flatback (flat back) syndrome years after Harrington Rod scoliosis instrumentation and fusion.

Here she shares a little with a local reporter writing article about physician blogging. In Jane’s visit with me, she told me that she is a “walking billboard” for successful flat back surgery, and is very thankful for her new posture. Take care Jane, and thanks for giving your permission to share our picture together on the blog. Look forward to seeing you back in clinic. Thanks also for helping Page with her article on blogs.

Dr. Lloyd Hey — Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery — http://www.heyclinic.com.

My name is Jane, and I am a patient of Dr. Hey's who just had surgery a little over 3 months ago. He told me that you are writing an article for Raleigh's Midtown Magazine and thought I could give you a patients perspective about blogs. Let me first give you a little bit of my history. I was diagnosed with scoliosis about 33 years ago and had surgery to correct it a couple years later. The surgery was horrible to say the least and to this day I still have nightmares about it. The surgery was successful at the time but later I developed something called a "flat back" deformity caused by the original scoliosis surgery. I have felt great until the past 3 years and this is when I decided to see Dr. Hey. He diagnosed me with the flat back deformity and gave me options to try first before we considered surgery. The past couple of years I tried the physical therapy and injections. During this time I read his blog almost daily. I was amazed that a doctor who's as busy as he is spends all that time writing this blog. I hard for me to put in to words what that blog meant to me. First, it was so educational. Times have changed so much and I found it so interesting to see how they treat scoliosis patients these days. The surgery, and recovery, for it is completely different from what I went through. I especially enjoyed seeing the before and after X-rays that he puts out there. Second, the life changing stories are so inspirational to someone who is suffering daily from back pain. It really gives you some hope. You see so many different cases and learn how their surgery changed their life. Lastly, I think you can learn a lot about the doctor, not only professionally but personally, just from reading his blog. A doctor that takes the time to document all of these incredible stories has to be a special one. You can tell from reading his blog that he really cares for his patients and their families. The amount of success stories he has written about are just incredible. I was able to tell that he was a very successful, well educated, caring doctor that truly wants to help people by improving their quality of life. After my first surgery I didn't think I could ever get myself to go through back surgery again. By reading his blog over the past several years it has really encouraged me and inspired me. I knew I was going to be in the best of hands from everything I have read. I had the corrective surgery done by Dr. Hey and all the pain I had before is gone. He fixed my flat back and now I have a beautiful posture and shape. I can't help but look in the mirror every time I go by one. I am so grateful for all the time he spent writing on his blog. I don't know if I would have had the courage to "go for it" if I wasn't able to read these amazing stories. I can definitely say that it helped change my life.

Hope this gives you a little patient perspective. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thanks.

Jane

Little Maggie going home today!

2011-06-08T07:03:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was Maggie's mom Lisa's birthday, and it was a great one!! Maggie got a full shower, walked 160 feet and loves her new straight posture.

This is Maggie and I on morning rounds early this am at WakeMed Children's Hospital. The care there was excellent many thanks to the excellent doctors and nurses there including Dr. Duncan Phillips who helped with the anterior approach before I did the Shilla Growing Rod technique posteriorly.

FW: Thank you, and a message for Brittany

2011-06-07T09:27:00.001-04:00

------ Forwarded Message
From: Shelbi
Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2011 09:01:22 -0400
To: Lloyd Hey
Cc: Brittany Harris PAC
Subject: FW: Thank you, and a message for Brittany

This made my week.

------ Forwarded Message
From: <michelle>
Date: Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:55:49 -0700
To: Shelbi
Subject: Thank you, and a message for Brittany

Shelbi,

I am delinquent in thanking you for sending us copies of your last news letter with Caroline featured in one of the articles. It was nice to see the story in print, and be able to share it with others.

About 2 weeks ago, I contacted the office with concerns about Caroline. She was having severe pain in her back, which we believed (and hoped) to be a pulled muscle. I talked with Brittany about my plan to monitor her and have her take naproxen, as prescribed once before by your office, and we discussed a "Plan B" if that didn't work, and a way to get her ready in time to perform in her dance recital this past weekend. I told Brittany I would call if we needed the additional help or an appointment. It was such a whirlwind, I never called....

...but as they say, "no news is good news!" The plan for complete rest and naproxen DID work, and Caroline danced beautifully in 6 different numbers on Saturday! I wanted to thank Brittany for her time in talking with me, her professional advice, and reassuring me with a contingency plan. While Caroline continues to have some discomfort in the knots we discussed a couple of months ago, she is better, and will continue the exercises and stretches she learned in PT, and hopefully, in time, they will go away.

THANK YOU again for being so accessible in our time of distress! You're just another reason we continue to refer friends to The Hey Clinic!!!

Blessings,
Michelle

------ End of Forwarded Message

I am so thankful for our Hey Clinic Team that makes connections like this throughout the day for our guests that make a huge difference.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

------ End of Forwarded Message

Little Maggie Doing Well 6 days after Anterior/Posterior Scoliosis Surgery including Shilla Technique

2011-06-07T00:28:00.001-04:00

Maggie, 8 years old, 108 degree progressive scoliosis, weighing less than 50 lbs, had her surgery 6 days ago with the Shilla Technique at WakeMed Children’s Hospital, Raleigh.

Maggie’s parents wanted me to send these photos and thanksgivings to everyone who has been keeping them in prayer. They also wanted to thank all the caring staff at WakeMed Children’s Hospital, including Dr. Duncan Phillips who helped out with the anterior approach, the excellent pediatric intensive care unit physicians and nurses, and the floor nurses and others at the Children’s Hospital.

I want to express my thanks again to Dr. Richard McCarthy and his staff for helping teach me how to do the new Shilla Technique as a wonderful alternative to growing rods for children with early onset scoliosis (EOS). Janelle and her family from Raleigh travelled to Arkansas Children’s, where I met up with them in December to work with Dr. McCarthy and their team for Janelle. http://drlloydhey.blogspot.com/2010/12/6-yo-janelles-shilla-procedure-w-dr.html

Janelle and her family has befriended Maggie and her family, and have been a real encouragement to them through the whole process. We see that a lot — families helping other families through the whole process. Awesome.

Here’s quick note from Maggie’s mom, Lisa, sharing about their experience at WakeMed Children’s Hospital this week:

---------------------------------------

From: William
Date: Mon, 6 Jun 2011 23:22:40 -0400
To: Lloyd Hey <>
Subject: Re[2]: Maggie

We would be honored to have Maggie's pictures on your blog. There is a sweet peace among us as we are praying this new Shilla tech. can minister to other suffering children. There are no words to describe God's presence through the last week. She sat up in bed tonight and ate 4 pieces of Dominos pizza and we just finished watching a movie. She is talking just like our Maggie. Praise God!! We thank God for the wisdom He continues to give you for her treatment!!!! See ya in the morning!!
Lisa

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

"Hey Dr. Hey!!!" TIMES THREE!! What I seemed to hear a lot in restaurants recently

2011-06-06T23:57:00.001-04:00

So last week was yet another great, but very hectic week, which was completed with my daughter’s graduation from high school on Friday.
After the ceremony, we went over to the Carolina Inn, in Chapel Hill, NC — a very quaint and historic Inn and restaurant.
When we approached the hostess check-in spot, I was greeted with a big “Hey, Dr. Hey!!!” with a big hug from one of my former scoliosis patients from several years ago named Kristen. I had performed revision scoliosis surgery for her when she was 25, and she tells her whole story on my old Blog-site, which includes picture of her in Paris!: http://web.mac.com/drhey/iWeb/Dr%20Hey%27s%20Blog/Blog/C9417E0F-6243-4FB5-B66F-3EE4682812AF.html

My wife, remembering a similar story just recently where the manager at Ruth Chris’ Steakhouse, also a former scoliosis patient of mine gave me this same warm greeting “Hey, Dr. Hey!!” -- my wife assumed this must be the same young lady who took on a new job at the Carolina Inn. Nope. This is a DIFFERENT thankful young lady, former scoliosis patient, who also happens to manage a different restaurant! (See story: http://drlloydhey.blogspot.com/search?q=steakhouse)

Well it was great to see Kristen again. She’s looking and feeling great, and excited about her new opportunity at the Carolina Inn.
We did have an absolutely delightful meal there with our large party of family, including both sets of our daughter’s grandparents. The service and food were excellent, and the price was a great value. The valet parking was friendly, and included with the cost of our meal! The UNC campus is just a few feet away, as well as the beautiful Chapel Hill campus. If you need a nice place to have a special event, or just stay an evening, check out the Carolina Inn and say hello to Kristen at the restaurant. I assure you, you will get excellent care! http://www.carolinainn.com.

Kristen: we wish you well in your new job! Can we have the Hey Clinic Christmas Party there this year?

I’ve been greeted with “Hey, Dr. Hey!!!” at one other restaurant this past week: Sanitary Fish Market in Morehead City, NC. Brittany, one of my adolescent patients yelled out across the restaurant, where she was working at the new coffee bar. They’ve made a lot of improvements to the restaurant over the winter, including new outside deck seating and Jeff the owner told me how new floating docks are coming in soon, which will be great. It was great to catch up with Brittany again. She’s looking and feeling great, and told me how glad she was to get her scoliosis fixed — a real word of encouragement. You can see Brittany’s blog from last summer at: http://drlloydhey.blogspot.com/2010/07/seeing-one-of-our-scoliosis-teenagers.html. By the way: the Sanitary T-Shirts are the best! Go for the Tie-Died if they have them in stock. My favorite dish there is the Bluefish, broiled.

----------------------------
Here is Kristen’s story from the “Old Blog”, which may eventually go away I think — need to check on that with .mac.com!
http://web.mac.com/drhey/iWeb/Dr%20Hey%27s%20Blog/Blog/C9417E0F-6243-4FB5-B66F-3EE4682812AF.html

May 7, 2007

KRISTEN’S YOUNG ADULT “REDO” SCOLIOSIS SURGERY STORY WITH HEY CLINIC, RALEIGH NC — USA

I first found out I had Scoliosis when I was getting a routine physical for track at age 14. What started out as a 30 degree curve soon progressed to a 49 degree curve by the age of 17. A month after my 18th birthday and the start of summer vacation before college I had my first corrective surgery. June 15th 2001 would be the beginning of a long journey for me. My spine was corrected to 20 degrees with the help of one stainless steel rod along with screws and wires. My ribs were broken and moved in order to protect them from crushing my lungs and to correct cosmetic appearances. My life proceeded as normal. I moved to Wilmington, NC and attended college on time and participated in regular activities.

February 2005, I was having quite a bit of discomfort and decided to see a local orthopedic doctor since my surgeon was located in South Carolina. As he came in the room with my x-rays and put them on the wall to show them to me He said, “the two rods look fine”. As you can imagine the horror that came across my face considering I only had one rod placed against my spine. The rod had broken clean in half. As I explained this to the doctor he requested I contact my surgeon immediately. Needless to say the next day I was on my way to see my doctor in SC. After a long trip and much panicking he informed me that the fusion was stable and that everything would be fine.

As much as I wanted to believe my surgeon I felt the need for a second opinion. I found out about Dr. Hey through a family friend that works in the Duke community. He ensured me he was the best of the best.

June 2005, was my first consultation with Dr. Hey. He put me at great ease. He informed me that there was no need to panic, but he would like to keep a close eye on my back and requested I keep a pain log everyday. If my pain progressed he wanted to know! I left feeling a great relief knowing that someone cared about my condition and knew the appropriate steps to take.

August 2005, I moved to Charlotte, NC to start my new life and a new job. A fresh college graduate I was ready for anything. Anything but this. About 2 weeks into my new job I was on a sales call with my boss, As we were entering an office building I came to a sudden halt. I knelt to the ground in great pain. I immediately called Dr Hey. He directed me to come to Raleigh as soon as possible. It was a Tuesday, August 23rd. Dr. Hey showed me my x-rays. He didn’t have to say a word. I am not a doctor, but I knew when I saw the staggered placement of the rod I was having surgery. What I wasn’t ready for was Thursday. Dr. Hey didn’t hesitate when he said we are having the surgery Thursday the 25th. I could not believe my ears. But I knew there was no other choice.

August 25th, the day of surgery. I was hungry!! My surgery was at 2:00 in the afternoon, and if you have ever had surgery you know you can’t eat or drink before hand. Even with my stomach growling Dr. Hey made me and my family feel relaxed. He took our hands as we stood in pre-op and said a prayer for my family and me. I will never forget that prayer. After a long wait my family rushed in to see me and see my new hardware. I thought all of my surprises were through. Dr. Hey came into my recovery room, informed me that the surgery was a great success. He had replaced the broken stainless steel rod with two titanium rods along with 12 screws. He also informed me the fracture had been stabilized. Fracture? What fracture? Apparently, not only had I broken my rod but I had also broken my spine.

It has been almost 2 years since my surgery with Dr Hey and I cannot express enough the endless amounts of gratitude and appreciation I owe Dr Hey and his staff. Dr. Hey is truly a unique doctor. I am a better person inside and out and he is the reason for both.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Hey Clinic's Version of Street Art

2011-06-06T23:00:00.001-04:00

Back in January 2010, we shared with you the cool doodle drawing left behind on the tear-away exam table paper cover, which portrayed me (Dr. Hey as a Rapper -- :

http://drlloydhey.blogspot.com/search?q=exam+table

Well, this young man from South Carolina is now back, a year out from his scoliosis surgery doing well.

When he left this time, more “Street Art” was left behind, and captured here. He gives his permission to share it with all of you.
He was real happy with his new posture, which he expressed in person, but also through his art!

Hope you are all doing well.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Still thankful 33 years later for the surgeons, nurses, therapists and family who cared for me

2011-06-05T17:55:00.001-04:00

Thirty-three years ago today, I was hit by a car, and had a very severe crush injury to my left leg.
Still to this day I remember that day when my life was turned completely upside down, then spent 3.5 months in hospital, 11 surgeries, 2 bouts of sepsis, and the constant threat of amputation.
It was painful, scary, lonely. Would I ever get out of the hospital? Would I ever walk again? Would I ever go back to school?

I am so, so thankful for all of the caring people who took care of me, including Dr. Mark Pitman, the captain of the ship, and his brother Charles, Barbara Bader – a physical therapist. Not sure what her name is now, but would love to thank her if anyone can find her.

I am confident that the passion I have for helping people these past many years as an orthopaedic spine surgeon began (and continues every day) out of thanksgiving for the care and healing I received, and will never ever forget.

Thankfulness is a great motivator to return the favor.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Can you have MRI with spinal hardware including Harrington Rod?

2011-05-30T08:40:00.001-04:00

I received this comment from the blog about the woman 29 years after Harrington rod fusion by Dr. Ralph Coonrad:

“I am 58 years old and I had my Harrington rod put in when I was 15 which was 43 years ago (where has the time gone) at the Royal Southern Hospital in Liverpool. I am now developing other medical complaints which could require an MRI scan, Is this possible. Has anyone experienced this at all PLEASE HELP”

My response to this is that most patients can have MRI’s done after spinal instrumentation.
The only issue is that the images will be a little blurry directly around the hardware, especially if it is stainless steel, which the original Harrington rods and many of the older systems used.
Pacemakers and spinal cord stimulator and intrathecal pumps can’t be used with MRI.
Certain metal clips in brain, etc may also be contraindication, or if you may have any metal fragments in your eye.

CT scan is an alternative way to look for spinal issues in patients with spinal hardware, which still has some artifact, but not as much as MRI.

For this particular person, she/he should discuss these questions with her doctor in context of her medical history and complaints.
I hope you get some answers and relief!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

Kate from Connecticut Shares Thanksgiving on 1st Anniversary of Scoliosis Surgery at Hey Clinic

2011-05-25T22:58:00.000-04:00

About a year ago, we straightened up Kate, who came down from Connecticut for her severe kyphoscoliosis reconstruction.
She had adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) that was never treated, and her deformity got worse and painful during adulthood, with an adult degenerative scoliosis on top of her severe adolescent idiopathic curve.

By her early 40’s, it had really gotten severe, and her quality of life became unacceptable, including caring for and enjoying her kids and family. She also had an extremely visible deformity, which did not help her self image and posture.

Her note below came at a great time on a “rough Monday” --- notes like this really help encourage all of us to keep caring, and keep serving and trying to make a difference. It is really cool when many of our guests end up caring for and encouraging US as well. At the end of the day we are all people, in a web of relationships, hopefully trying to make each other’s journey a little easier. It is humbling, but very cool, and very empowering to be connected our guests and families. Clinic ends up being more like happy reunions and updates where we are just glad to see each other again!

Thanks Kate for sharing this blessing. Thanks for also making the trip to come down and see us again this past Friday with your son (who is obviously brilliant and quite kind!)

The “Trey” she is talking about is our physician assistant Jenny’s new son, who has made a couple of visits to Hey Clinic so far, but neither Kate nor I have seen the little guy yet except in pictures. Hope to see Jenny and Trey tomorrow late afternoon --- we all miss her.

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com

------ Forwarded Message
From: KATE
Date: Mon, 16 May 2011 11:49:02 -0400
To: Lloyd Hey <>
Subject: Blessings

Hey Dr. Hey'

I just celebrated my 1st year of surgery this past Friday, May 13 (not an unlucky thing- actually the world wide celebration of The Lady of Fatima in Portugal). I will see you this coming Friday and I can't get over how many people I meet that remind me that they have prayed for me and how amazing I look- not to brag- although I do about you! Everyone say's. "Did you change your hair?" I say, "Well, maybe a little yes, but I gained an inch & a half!"

Dr. Hey, I can't thank you enough for everything you have done for me. I am totally straight, have no pain (I don't even need to take Tylenol)- once in a while I have a qwirk here and there at night when I tend to over do it which is my nature. I know I need to take it easy, but I am doing so well thanks to your amazing gifts.

Had hoped to see Jenny's little Trey. A Cutie gift from God!

See you soon - Love Kate

------ End of Forwarded Message

14 yo young man w 41 degree adolescent idiopathic scoliosis fixed this am

2011-05-09T10:51:00.000-04:00

Surgical time: 2 hr 45 min.
T6-L3 instrumentation and fusion.
Ebl: 600 cc.
Blood transfused: none.
Complications: none.
Correction: quite good!

Severe adult kyphoscoliosis and stenosis fixed today

2011-05-04T13:02:00.000-04:00

Severe back and leg pain and trouble walking.
T2-iliac wing instrumentation and fusion w TLIF an osteotomies and laminectomies.
Surgical time: 4.5 hrs.
Ebl: 1500 cc
Blood transfused none.
Complications: none.
Correction: quite good!