Spine Surgeon On Vacation and Treating Serious Fishermen with Spine Problems!

Well, for the first time in many years, I actually took a two week vacation.  Although the weather was a bit on the rainy side, it was really nice to have some time with family and friends, and get some time outdoors.

The first week, I got a bunch of projects done around the house, cleaning gutters, fixing some drainage problems, and such.  I've always been a "Mr. Fix It", and really still don't mind getting my hands dirty, and getting things fixed up and ship shape.

I also roughed it for a couple of days, hiking a section of the Appalachian Trail out along the Tennessee - North Carolina Border with family, sleeping out under the stars (as well as rain and thunder and lightening!)  Went to an awesome coffee shop called the Coffee Company, in Elizabethton, TN for lunch and late afternoon coffee on return trip.

I bought a new backpack for this trip at REI, and was quite impressed how the newer backpacks really mold themselves to the thoracolumbar spine, and also bear the load well on the iliac wings!!  My friend Jim suggested getting a new air camping mattress -- that helped my back too.  We hiked all over the place, across Roan Mountain and adjoining bald-topped mountains, made up our campsite with fire, and saw awesome sunset.  Did not see any bears!  I did, however, learn that I can actually survive without my phone and pager receiving wireless signal for a couple days!  The peace and quiet was actually quite therapeutic!

This past week, spent quite a bit of time on the ocean, getting together with friends and family, and doing other repair jobs.

I spent some time with an expert fisherman named Bob, who has a problem with his low back with spondylolisthesis and spinal stenosis.  Saw him in my Beaufort NC clinic back in June that we started up, and got him connected with some great conservative therapy including special back brace, NSAID's, core exercise program, etc.  A couple weeks later, he sent me an email with a bunch of pictures showing me how he used this new back brace to help capture the smallest Blue Marlin he had ever seen!  After taking these photos, the marlin was released back into the Gulf Stream.  He said the brace really helped!

Over the last 15 years of practice, I've taken care of a lot of athletic and outdoor enthusiast patients with spinal problems, many of which I have stayed in touch with.... many have memorable stories.

I will never forget "Captain JJ"  -- who I met probably 15 years ago when I was on faculty at Duke, and had a remote clinic in Smithfield, NC.  Captain JJ was from Morehead City, NC, and captained the "Blue Marlin" charter boat out of Morehead.  He had a severe collapsing degenerative scoliosis, and severe spinal stenosis and was getting to the point where he could not only not fish, but could hardly walk across the room due to back pain, leg pain and leg weakness and spinal claudication.

After trying conservative therapy for quite a while including epidural steroids, bracing and the like, he continued to do worse, so I scheduled him for surgical consult back at DUMC.

On that day, I remember my clinic nurse called me and told me that "There were some very large gentleman down here who wanted to speak to me" ----  I arrived downstairs and found Captain JJ in the room with 3 huge guys in front of him, arms crossed --- his son and two crew members.  His son said in firm voice:  "What are you plannin' to do with our Cap'n JJ?"  ... and went back to a grimace along with his well-tanned rough-looking crew buddies.

I explained Captain JJ's spine problem, showing them the spine model, and X-Rays, but they didn't seem to understand.

So I used another analogy:  "What if you went down to the Blue Marlin and found that the flybridge was coming loose due to dry rot, and was collapsing.  Would you go back to sea?

"Of course not", he answered.  "I'd fix it and then go"

"Well, your dad's spine is collapsing, and the nerves are getting pinched in between causing to have pain going down the legs and trouble standing and walking", I replied.

I could see the light bulb go on in all 3 crew members, and they softened their stance, and actually smiled a little.  "Well, let's get Captain JJ fixed up then!"

Captain JJ did very well with his surgery, and was back walking and actually back on the water running charters a few months later.  I actually got to fish with him once, and he took my family all out to lunch, introducing us to the Morehead/Beaufort area, and actually was the first to tell me about the National Seashore including Cape Lookout.  It was great to see him back to life.

A few years later, I cared for owner of another offshore fishing boat named Dave, who is in the flooring business.   He's convinced he banged the heck out of his low back with rough offshore running for fishing tournaments, crashing over waves, lifting heavy ice chests, and lugging equipment.  He had a Grade 1 spondylolisthesis with severe stenosis, and after failing conservative treatment, I helped him with an L45 decompression fusion with instrumentation and L4 laminectomy, removing the hugh ugly arthritic facet joints there are L45 and taking pressure off the compressed nerves.

Dave did great after surgery, and actually took me out for a day to fish the Big Rock Fishing Tournament for a day out of Morehead City.  What an exciting day, and a great introduction to offshore fishing.  The Gulf Stream is truly a magical place -- a dark blue, clear river in the middle of the ocean, filled with sea life including flying fish, dolphin, and countless species of fish.  You feel like you are on another planet.

Well I didn't get out to the gulf stream this past week, but I did get to do some fishing, and caught some Spanish Mackerel which we then had for dinner the same night.  Nothing beats fresh fish.  I also got to take some long walks on the beach, and take a swim, and make some new friends while just enjoying the outdoors while "recharging the batteries."

Now it is almost 9:30 pm, and I've looked over my surgical schedule for the next week or two.... and the vacation is definitely over!  We start off at 7:15 am tomorrow morning with a big adolescent scoliosis, then a revision extension instrumentation and fusion.  There are a bunch of scoliosis surgeries on for the next several weeks, and I am seeing scoliosis and kyphosis consults every day this coming week as well.  I am thankful for my wonderful Hey Clinic staff who have held down the fort while I was away.

It will be good to be back at Duke Raleigh Hospital and Hey Clinic tomorrow.  It's been a good break, but I'm ready to go back and see the team again, and get back to serving in the clinic and operating room again.

Thanks for being patient while I took my break!

Hope you are all well.
Thanks Bob for sharing the Blue Marlin photos and for being a good coach!

Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery

Tim's Friday the 13th: Random Acts of Kindness

Got this email and photo today from Tim's mom, which she said I could share with all of you.  Tim you may remember had a "U-Rod" reconstruction to correct his severe cervico-thoracic kyphosis, and is now doing extremely well, able to look the whole world directly in the eye!  He came back to see me a week ago at Hey Clinic on Friday the 13th.  Linda's sharing from the heart is a blessing to all of us, who need to appreciate how wonderful life and love is... as Tim and Linda know!

I look forward to seeing Tim at Duke Basketball game this fall.  Getting help from Iron Dukes to find some tickets for Linda and Tim... and hopefully for me as well!


Linda and Tim:  you need to write a book.... I will buy 10 copies!'
-- Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  Dr. Lloyd Hey, Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery

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My Friday the 13^th Blessings – by Linda

On Friday, July 13, 2012, I took my son, Timothy, to see Dr. Lloyd Hey of the Hey Clinic in Raleigh for his 6 mo. post-op appt. following the spinal fusion surgery he had in January 2012 to correct a 106 degree forward curve of the spine. 

As we traveled to Raleigh I put in a CD in the CD player entitiled, “Believe – Songs of Faith from Today’s Top Country & Christian Artists.”   When the CD got to a song released in 2003 entitled, “God’s Will”, by Martina McBride, the tears started one by one down my cheeks as I listened to the words of this precious song that I hadn’t heard in a long time, because I could relate to many of the words she sings and have also seen first hand how my son touches  other  people’s lives.  If you’re not familiar with this song, here are some of the words:

I Met God’s Will on a Halloween night; he was dressed as a bag of leave that hid the braces on his legs at first….

His smile was as bright as the August sun when he looked at me…………..

Will don’t walk too good,  Will don’t talk too good, he won’t do the things that the other kids do….

I’ve been searching, wondering, thinking, lost and looking all my lifel

I’ve been Wounded, jaded, loved and hated,  I’ve wrestled wrong and right……….………………

………….I’ve been reading, writing, praying, fighting;

I guess I would be still,  yeah, that was until I knew God’s Will …………….

At dinner he’d ask to pray and then he prayed for everybody in the world but him……….

…………..Each day that I have him, well it’s just another gift………..

………….The boy showed me the truth…………..me and God love you!

OK, it was a very tearful song for me, but I pulled myself together to continue on to Raleigh!

At the appt. with Dr. Hey, Dr. Hey told Tim he was working on getting tickets for him and Tim to go to a Duke basketball game this fall, so Tim was pretty excited about that news!

 On the way back from Raleigh, I wanted to stop at the Tanger Outlet stores in Mebane, NC, since I hadn’t been there yet.   After doing a little shopping in the Bass store we wondered down the way and we came to the Nike store, I said to Tim, “Let’s go in and see if we can’t find you a new pair of high tops,”  since his current ones were a little small and uncomfortable for him.

Now Tim has been a HUGE Duke fan since the days of Christian Laettner, Grant Hill and Bobby Hurley when Tim was only 4 years old!!!  So we browsed the racks of Duke clothing before we reached the athletic shoes.  We looked at all the white and Duke Blue Nike high tops and we picked a pair to try on him.  They looked great and he said they felt comfortable.  I left them on him, and was gathering my purse and the empty box to take up front to purchase, when along came a rather tall man and he looks at Tim sitting in his wheelchair wearing a Duke #1 jersey and the Duke Blue and white Nike high tops on and starts shaking his head and teasing Tim saying, “Nice shoes, but wrong color.”  And I said to the man, “ I suppose you think he should get this color blue” and pointed to a pair of Carolina Blue shoes on the end display.”  And he said, “ yeah you need that color blue!”   And Tim just laughs and smiles ear to ear because he’s so use to this kind of bantering and always gets a charge out of it!   By this time a little group of customers and sales associates were standing  around us observing this teasing that is going on with Tim.

But then, the man says, “hey I’ll buy them if I can get you to wear that color blue!”  Whoah!  Now we’re getting serious here!   He asked me what size shoe Tim wore and I said 10.5   The onlookers, Tim and I were amazed and surprised and we all just stood there.   Then the man asked one of the sales associates, if she’d check and see if they had that shoe in a 10.5 and she does and comes out with a box in her hands.  Then the man asks Tim again if he’d wear them if he bought them for him, and Tim smiles and says yeah!  So the man asked the sales associate to take them up front and put them on his bill!

When  the crowd disburses and I’m left with Tim and these Duke blue and white Nikes on his feet, I asked Tim if he still wanted me to buy them for him, or take them off and put them back on the shelf.  He had a hard time deciding but finally confirmed he just wanted the Carolina blue Air Jordans that the man was buying for him!   And then the man comes walking back to us and puts the box in Tim’s lap and we thank him for his generosity!  

I’m always amazed and tongue tied at the acts of random kindness we experience at times when we’re in the community.  Tim is 27 and has severe Cerebral Palsy.  He’s trapped in his body physically and he’s non-verbal, but he has a happiness and joy within that radiates through his eyes, smile and laughter that speak volumes and just has a way of attracting people to him. 

And now, Tim is having a really good time wearing those Carolina Blue Nike Air Jordans and getting all this attention from people with a lot of bantering and laughing going on, and sharing the story over and over of how Tim got those shoes, especially from people who know Tim is a huge Duke fan! 

So, when we get off our exit off I-85 and I turned left to go toward home, there right in front of us was a huge rainbow!  And I asked Tim if he could see that rainbow and he said, “yeah!”

And I said, “wow Tim, this sure has been a special day with many blessings and God topped it off with a rainbow!”  And Tim agreed, because we surely had been blessed on Friday, July 13^th!

Bailey shares her adolescent / young adult scoliosis surgery story

I received a nice email from Bailey this morning, who wanted to share her scoliosis story with you.  She had scoliosis surgery with us at Hey Clinic / Duke Raleigh Hospital a year ago.  Thanks for sharing, Bailey!  Dr. Lloyd Hey.   http://www.heyclinic.com

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"I was diagnosed with scoliosis about 14 years ago, at the age of 12. None of my physicians before had even speculated that I could potentially be suffering from this disease. As a young adult, especially a female about to embark on her formidable middle school years, this news was a little hard to swallow. I would have to wear a back brace 22 hours a day both at home and at school. I wore this for 4 years, which led into my freshman year of high school. My mom has always told me that I had the best mentality about wearing the brace, but I think that was because I was aware that if I wore it for a few years, it would prevent my curve from progressing and I wouldn’t have to worry about having a deformity. I knew what I needed to do. When the day came that I took the brace off for the last time, I was elated. I met with my doctor and he informed me that because my bones had finished growing,  I was in the clear for any serious future issues and I didn’t have to schedule any more appointments with him. I was free and in the clear to finish my high school career and any future endeavors brace-free! However, I had wished I been more concerned about follow-ups and just keeping a routine eye on my condition. 

Eight years later, I started to have headaches that caused alarm because I don’t usually get them. My mom thought perhaps it had to do with my back, so we scheduled an appointment with my scoliosis doctor to see what he could tell us. I unfortunately wasn’t able to see him, but met with his P.A. where I was informed that my headaches weren’t caused by my scoliosis, but in the x-ray he had just taken he saw that my curve had progressed about 12 degrees. As you could imagine, this was a complete shock and was what I thought the brace for 4 years was in place to prevent. It was determined that I needed surgery. Not so much for the pain I had been enduring, but the thought of my curve progressing so much that I would have a deformity is the factor that meant the most to me. So after being referred to many doctors across the country, we found Dr. Hey and new immediately this was where I needed to be for my surgery. He and his staff were incredibly welcoming and patient in answering our many, many questions. I had never had stitches or broken bones before this surgery, and I really felt at ease and comfortable with the fact I was going to have this surgery with Dr. Hey.

Now, a year later I can honestly say that I am feeling the best I have in a long time. Knowing that my scoliosis is fixed and I won’t be twisting anymore is a priceless feeling, but in addition, I also don’t have any of the pain I was feeling before. The incision is also quite impressive. Scoliosis surgery is a pretty invasive surgery, and to have minimal scarring is icing on the cake. Any and everyone who has seen my scar are immediately shocked at how minimal it is. I did do about 3 weeks of regular physical therapy and have started back with yoga.  

If I had to give advice to someone, particularly a young, adolescent girl, I would have to say be responsible for your body. As much as we as patients put trust into our physicians, it is our body that they are dealing with, and who knows it better than you. I feel like I perhaps dropped the ball when I was released from wearing my brace. My doctor never told me to have a follow-up appointment, so I didn’t think I needed to until my headaches started. The headaches were unrelated, but it made me aware of a 12 degree progression. Don’t let that happen to you. Stay aware of your body and take every precaution to make sure you catch the problem before they turn into something much more serious."

-Bailey 

Awesome art left behind in clinic today by Shannon, one of our 10 yo scoliosis patients

We have some very talented children and adolescents that we follow with their scoliosis!

Many times they leave behind their precious artwork on our exam table paper.

This big sheet was sitting on my computer when I just got back to my desk after a long day.

What an encouragement.

Thanks Shannon!

Dr. Lloyd Hey

Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery

http://www.heyclinic.com

Back from vacation. This morning's challenge: 70 degree scoliosis

Had a nice few days off last week visiting family, back to work this am to help Mary Ann, a young lady in her 50's with painful progressive severe thoracolumbar scoliosis. This started out as an adolescent idiopathic scoliosis, but was never treated.

As a result, she has suffered for many years w back pain and severe posture problems.

Today between surgeries, i am seeing a 12 yo young lady w same curve, but 41 degrees. This younger lady can be fixed with a smaller surgery, with greatly improved posture for life.

Good to be back.

Dr. Lloyd Hey -- http://www.heyclinic.com