Update on my throat issue for anyone still curious

[undergroundpanther]

This is what I originally wrote...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=276x3207

This is an update for the curious.

Well I got to the orthopedic doctor today. I apparently got bone spurs growing off of my spine in my neck inwardly twords my throat and they are HUGE. So huge they are knocking into my esophagus .No wonder swallowing is so kloogy..The xray picture of this shit was kinda shocking when he pointed it all out to me exactly what was wrong with my spine.There are several fan shaped bone pieces growing off the neck vertebrae aiming right for my esophagus like bone daggers.

I was advised to go get expert help maybe as a "teaching" case. How in the hell do you do that,become a "teaching case"??!?.He offered no more assurance ,directions or or info beyond that statement.I feel like I was"nicely" dropped like a hot potato. The Doc said I have to seek a top of the line "expert" in orthopedic surgery. Sigh.. I can't afford an expert of top notch skills..But that is what an operation like this requires because it is DAnGerOUS.. For the surgeon will have to cut open my throat all the way down to my neck bones and cut off all the bone spurs with something like a dremel.

Not many surgeries like this have been done. WonDErFul. That is the only treatment for this spine problem I have. However on the upside it IS permanently fixed providing the expert doesn't slip or sneeze or laugh or fart for that matter and cut open my carotid artery or nick something else I need like vocal chords.. The orthopedist didn't think cutting off the spurs would do much to help the Apnea tho. Shit. I have to get my tonsils out too...hmm I wonder if they can do it all at one time because I dunno how much throat pain I can endure over and over.I'd prefer to do it all once.I hope it is possible.fuck.

The orthopedist during my visit looked flustered and it seemed he was really trying to be honest and compassionate about it all,he explained it all very well to me.I was crystal clear on what the problem is which is more than I can say for some other doctors I have been to...but it also seemed like he wanted to just get the hell outta there.Or maybe I was projecting I dunno.

He said I was unusually young to have this disease,and being female it was even more strange of a case to him. He told me to get on this surgery soon. At least I had the braincells to ask him to write me up a universal referral to prove to whatever expert I can get to do this for me that I was sent by an orthopedist.Saved myself some headache, I hope.

Anyways tomorrow I gotta go play phone tag and call up Johns Hopkins and other "teaching hospitals" to try to get the attention of an expert orthopedic surgeon who accepts medical assistance(bwahahahaha!) or be a "teaching case" and wait forever on a waiting list,and have a bunch of students gawking while I am being fixed..The scariest part is they got to cut my throat open,and shave my spine spurs down before I can't swallow anymore or the fucking spur gets bigger punctures something.(the squeamish factor is insane here)

I tell ya I want those fucking bone spurs after the operation if they don't just annihilate them to dust. I want them in my hands after surgery so I can stomp the shit out of them and curse this disease and since they are bone they won't crush by a boot stomp,make them into some kind of funky beads and wear them as my survival trophy to remind myself I lived..Godamn it!

I swear what I really want to do is destroy the creator of this fucked-up world and totally beat the living shit out of the incompetent maker of bodies. All stressed out and no one to choke... Oh was that in bad taste or what?I dunno how much more bodily bullshit I can take.

[hedgehog]

1. Well, I'm glad you went back to the doctor

Believe it or not, I've been wondering how you were doing. This has got to be one of the strangest things I've ever heard about. I'm guessing that teaching case means that the surgery is very carefully planned by someone who is an expert in the field training other doctors. My family doctor is always training medical students which I figure keeps him on his toes since he is double checking what he is teaching them. I really wish I could do more than send my good wishes, but for what it's worth, hang in there. At least now you have a diagnosis and a plan.

[hedgehog]

2. Be sure to let us know how things are going

and feel free to rant on if it helps.

[Tab]

3. I hope it works out for you

If you don't have the means, insurance or otherwise, to do the regular path to surgery, then I guess your doctor was really giving you the best suggestion he could by suggesting a teaching hospital.

Don't be down on them - unlike some other professions where I might not suggest going to academia to be saved, teaching hospitals often attract top-notch doctors (particularly top hospitals like Johns Hopkins), and often they've seen and dealt with a very wide range of cases. Remember, the teaching doctors have to be pretty top-notch to get into places like JH to begin with, and places like JH get referred the really bizarre stuff as well, so rather than being on the bottom of your list of attractive possibilities, it should be at the top. There's a lot of prestige associated professionally with being Chief of something Surgery at Johns Hopkins, so the people there are not to be underestimated. I've gone in for procedures at another top-name Ivy-league teaching hospital, and I would take that long before my local hospital, and that's even with my insurance footing the bill. Incidentally, I've never had a student "look in" on my visits, but in your case, being so unusual, they might, but chances are they'd only see your x-rays, not necessarily you yourself, and if they did observe the surgery, you'd be out of it anyway, and draped like a mummy. They should be the least of your worries.

Good luck!

[undergroundpanther]

4. Thanks you guys!

I hope I can get it done and over with soon. I don't want another flare up. That prednisone made me a little loopy.

[hedgehog]

5. I haven't experienced that first hand.

It's the greatest thing in the world for knocking down inflammation, but it is a sledgehammer. As I said before, when my son was little and his chest was tightening up from asthma, prednisone opened him up again and kept him off oxygen and out of the hospital. I always used it as a last resource because it interferes with growing bones, but I was always glad to have it when I needed it. (By the way, he was 5'10" the last time I saw him, he's still growing and liable to be taller at the end of the semester.)