We also saw Julie and her husband and son Caleb, who we talked about a few months ago. She had a really severe kyphoscoliosis at bottom junction of her Harrington Rod requiring a very complex pedicle subtraction osteotomy and reconstruction. Her whole family radiated lots of positive energy in our clinic — her husband, much bigger than me, gave me a huge bear hug and told me that “you have given me my wife, and Caleb’s mom back!."
We saw Suzanne back, who had severe kyphosis and thoracic spinal stenosis with myelopathy. She is standing up straight, and looking and feeling so much better.
We saw John back, after his 2 level ACDF doing well. You can hardly see the small scar on the left side of his neck, just 3 months out from surgery. We use a special microsurgery minimally invasive technique, taking great care to stay in the skin lines, which allows the small incision to blend in nicely over time to be practically invisible. His arm and neck pain is gone. His wife was a scoliosis guest of ours, who works as a nurse.
Vladamir was in with his wife, doing very well after his degenerative scoliosis and spinal stenosis repair, which has allowed him to get back into walking again.
It was great to see Gail back for follow-up after her flat back anterior-posterior reconstruction, looking and feeling great.
This week I also saw one of my physician patients named Bill who came back to see me from Michigan who we fixed with a severe kyphosis. He was very psyched and surprised when I offered to give him a ride back to the airport to RDU, which is on my way home (something I’ve been able to do quite often!). I picked Bill up from the Residence Inn, which is one of the many hotels right near Hey Clinic and Duke Raleigh Hospital where many of our out of town guests stay. Bill gave the Residence Inn very high marks, and recommends it highly. He arrived late the night before his appointment, and asked the lady at the desk where he could go for some fast food. The woman behind the desk actually took Bill into the kitchen and fixed him a huge sandwich and got him a drink, even though it was slightly after midnight!!
Bill and I enjoyed the extra few minutes of sharing on the short 18 minute drive from Hey Clinic. When I first picked him up at his hotel, however, he did give me some grief about my car — a 2004 Diesel Volkswagen Jetta. Bill told me he was expecting something a little more upscale / sportier, and shared a picture of his classic convertible red BMW on his smartphone. Oh well. Sorry Bill --- I like my environmentally friendly VW, which gets 48 miles per gallon, can burn bio-diesel, goes 600 miles on one small tank, and gets me where I want to go with all 100 horse power! Despite my lack of a cool car, we shared about our kids, and spending time boating and going to beach growing up. At the end of the day we would probably all agree that family and friends are more important than cool cars.
We enjoyed having Katrina this week with us in clinic — hopefully one of the things she learned, in addition to anatomy and pathophysiology is that all of us at Hey Clinic really enjoy what we do, and enjoy getting to know our guests over time. It is also a great joy to see people back after surgery doing well, and thankful to the many people who helped them get there.
On Sundays, we rest up and take a look at the week ahead --- several adolescent scoliosis and kyphosis surgeries this week. More news to follow. Hope all of you have a great week ahead.
Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com
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