Does scoliosis surgery really help quality of life? Weaving together daily experiences with patients and families with Joy in the Journey.

Wow, we had a HUGE amount of interest in my blog last night.  I just got home from surgery and a hospital meeting and only have a few minutes to share before I have to get to bed for big surgeries tomorrow.  Whew I am tired, but it has been a great day!

My hope in the weeks to come is to weave together my ongoing wonderful experiences I am having with patients and families together with my excerpts of my talk I gave at Cornell University recently, where I shared about "Finding and Maintaining your Joy and Idealism through your medical career journey" with the Phi Delta Epsilon Society for pre-meds.

One of the big take home messages you will likely learn, as I have, is there is MUCH we can learn from out patients and families to grow our own hearts and souls, and to both experience and grow in compassion and faith.

Today I did a big scoliosis surgery, and also did a second opinion for a lady in her 20's who had scoliosis surgery done a few years ago, and now had broken rods, and collapsing posture, and back pain.  I made some room in my schedule for her early morning today, and showed her how kyphosis was a big part of her deformity -- 78 degrees  -- in addition to the scoliosis and broken rods.  We're going to get a CT scan done, to look for pseudarthrosis, but given her spinal collapse and pain, she could likely benefit from a revision surgery, restoring her posture, correcting both the kyphosis and scoliosis and replacing the broken hardware with a stronger construct and new fusion.  There is hope!

I also saw one of my patients from Florida who is 2 weeks postop after having a proximal junctional kyphosis fixed due to her osteoporosis at the thoracolumbar junction.  Her posture now is beautiful and she is walking so much better and standing up straight with much less pain already. She is heading back to Boynton Beach, FL after short stay in rehab here in Raleigh, NC.  

Here are a few patient stories from this past week which should be an encouragement.

Sandy shares a special piece of artwork she did for me recently, which in part touches again on the fact that modern medicine and faith can work together.

More to come.

Have a good night!

Lloyd A. Hey, MD MS

http://www.heyclinic.com