09/07/2019
Dear Friends:
I know that it has been about a year or so since I had contact with you. There is a "poor" reason that I haven't if you will read the entire email. I have a lot of pain most of the time although I have not been using opioids, at least not regularly nor recently.
We moved to the new address so that our oldest daughter could help us in our advancing old age. Before we moved here I had a few home health visits in East Orlando area and none of the nurses used heparin on my PICC line and it became plugged. Missed too many antibiotic treatments and that may have contributed to my problems.
Take care of yourself and know that I remember the good times that we had together.
My history is that I was diagnosed with a herniated disc at the L5-S1 level in 1986. I suffered for years as I also had a diagnosis of Degenerative Disc Disease. Some medications helped and I started injections to the facet joints around 2001, usually annually and that treatment helped quite a bit until 2016. In order to get some relief, my Orthopedist referred to a neurosurgeon in Orlando to perform a laminectomy. That surgery was uneventful and I recovered quite well but I had no relief. The double laminectomy was done in July 2017.
I suffered another year trying exercise, another injection, physical therapy until my orthopedist in Titusville ordered an MRI and it was discovered that I had a 9 mm herniation at the L3-L4 level.
Dr. was consulted and he did a fusion at that level on Dec 27, 2018. I thought that I was on my way to a normal life (for about two weeks) then pains in my low back and groin started. Another MRI and I was on my way to Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach where a Neurosurgeon performed emergency surgery on February 1, 2019. I had contracted Pseudomonas Aeruginosa and had osteomyelitis. A drain was placed in my back.
I had several emergency room visits and four more hospitalizations as well as a change from Cefepime to Meropenem until April 16, 2019; the doctors thought that I was cured of the osteomyelitis and that the MRI of April 23, 2019 showed healing. I started pool walking therapy and 4 physical therapy visits. I stopped when all walking on land or in water caused a great amount of pain.
I had what I thought would be my last neurosurgeon visit on June 6, 2019 and x-rays were taken that morning. Dr. showed my wife and I the x-rays where the two screws, cage and spacer were not where the doctor had placed them in December 2018 and the two vertebrae were not in alignment with the other vertebrae above and below L3-L4. The L4 vertebrae was cracked and misshapen. Dr. opined that a further surgery was necessary and that my hip and leg pain was caused by impinged of the nerve root. "There is now greater than 70% compression deformity and an increase in the amount of retrolisthesis of L4 with respect to L3." (Taken from the June 6, 2019 Radiology report.)
I interviewed 5 spine specialists and selected a neurosurgeon who has teaching responsibilities at University of South Florida. He recognized that I have a phobia about contracting Pseudomonas Aeruginosa and so on August he entered my back and right side and removed all the hardware that was causing the problem. The hardware was cultured and found to not have Pseudomonas Aeruginosa. I think that the Adventist Carrollwood Hospital is the greatest. It only has 100 beds and specializes in Spine and Heart care. The Carrollwood Hospital also has a very low hospital acquired infection rate.
My current status is that I am still recuperating from the August 7 surgery. I will have a more extensive surgery the last week of September. The surgeon anticipates two separate surgeries two days apart and a 7-day hospital stay. I don’t know what will follow but I am hopeful that I will be discharged to home and have home health visits from physical and occupational therapy. I know that as soon as possible I will be more faithful in going to the gym and the pool that are located in our Valencia Lakes community.
Thank you for reading this history of the past year. I hope that you all are healthy.
Rod
