Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Before and after X-rays

Here's the pic of X-rays from yesterday.

The upper curve went from 56 to 20 degrees, which is a success. Spines
never get completely straight in this surgery. Even though there are
no rods in the lumbar spine, it straightened out some too.

She can go back to school Jan 2, after break. She's still on lortab,
about 2 pills a day (1/2 5mg tablet, with 1 reg strength Tylenol, 4
times a day). She's bored at home and misses her friends. There are
only so many craft projects a girl can do. But she's almost half way
through and Christmas will be fun so she'll make it.

Even though we have issues with insurance, we wouldn't have gone
anywhere else. Dr Bridwell is one of the top surgeons in this field.
Everything I read about this surgery said the number one factor for
success is the skill of the surgeon. There was immense comfort in
being 100% confident in her surgeon and the hospital.

These are amazing, aren't they?

12 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow!

Glad to hear she's doing so well -- lots of love to both of you.

neca said...

Glad to hear she is doing so well. Sorry about the insurance - I have a friend who went through something similar. If needed, you can go to your state's insurance commissioner. But hopefully it won't come to that!

Enjoy your holidays!

Vickie said...

The slightly "yellow" looking stuff on each side her spine in the upper right X-ray what they added to support/straighten?

Very glad all went well.

Jill A said...

Thank goodness for modern medicine!! So glad she is healing nicely!!
Don't even get me started on insurance...I'll go full Grinch for sure!
xoxo

Laura N said...

is the yellow you're referring to the lines that go down every xray? those come from the different frequency of light from the xray box and the camera. when you look at the xray through the camera, the lines are actually constantly moving. if it's something else, I can't see it. --Laura

Laura N said...

test to see if my profile updated

Vickie said...

Are the pictures on the right, top and bottom, both afters? And if so, can you see the materials they added to her spine in the X-rays?

Laura N said...

yes, those are both afters. they added bone grafts on top of the rods/screws, but I can't see the bone at all.

interesting to note: the most expensive part of her surgery (at least from the one $107,000 bill I've gotten so far) was the hardware. $47,000 for all that metal. crazy!!!

Laura N said...

or, at least I can't tell the difference between rod and bone. maybe I can see it and just don't know that's what it is.

katie said...


Don't complain but rather be very grateful that you had insurance that would allow her to have that MD and surgery. So many others who are not in your fortunate position.
Glass half full.

Vickie said...

Is the whole bill in question (with insurance) or just parts of it? Katie's note made me wonder.

Thanks for the card. Great picture.

Finally feeling better today. I got thru two weeks of mail.

Vickie said...

Just sent you an email with skirts I need from Penney's if you are near one and have time to look. Do not make a special trip, but thought I would mention it incase you are out shopping.