[Artificial Disc Replacement / Cervical] Katie's Surgery with Dr. Pimenta, Brazil (Cervical and Lumbar)

[rose]

I just heard from Katie's husband and she is doing well. Successful surgery. She had 2 level fusion lumbar and 1 cervical. She mentioned about writing on the forum that Dr. P will do 1 fusion but ended up doing 2 as her L5 had "slipped" and S1 was "messy".

I hope I understood well. More will follow as she will get back to me soon.

[Cindylou]

Oh, gosh.....thanks so much for the info Rose. So she didn't have any adr's? Am I understanding that right? Thank-you again for the update on Katie. Soooo glad to hear she is on the other side. Can't wait to hear from her!!: twothumbs:

[rose]

Oh, gosh.....thanks so much for the info Rose. So she didn't have any adr's? Am I understanding that right? Thank-you again for the update on Katie. Soooo glad to hear she is on the other side. Can't wait to hear from her!!: twothumbs:

No, she did not have lumbar ADR only fusion. Dr. P had indicated to her before she left that she would have cervical ADR. This is what I understood. Hope I am right. She is having difficulties with her laptop. Her husband was able to send me few lines and her's late at night.
I thought they are few hrs ahead of us but at the end it is only 3 hrs. She had her surgery last Tuesday.

[rose]

I got some more good news from Rob, her husband.
Below is his e-mail.


Dr. Pimenta explained what he saw and why he needed to do the L5/S1. S1 was out of
alignment and there was a large osteophyte that may have been causing most of
Katie's back pain. So the opening and closing and reposition for each procedure added
40 min to each one and explains why it took so much longer than expected.
He said that Katie was a first in that it was the first time he and his team had done
three operations on one person in one day. Again we are very pleased because he is
really treating her histically taking into account her alergies, her pain meds and
her back and other preexisting conditions.

After Xrays which I got to give her as I am now the official Portugese translator,
we saw Dr Etavaldo who looked at her swelling and confirmed it was going down
and was normal.

She had her drip catherer removed from her back and she almost asked for more drip
for new pain in her legs. This pain is from her procedure alone and should diminish
as she continues to recover. She has no back pain now and only slight pain where her
incisions are. They have also somewhat sneakily reduced her morphine intake by
giving her 30 mg evey 4 hours instead of her usual 20 mg every 2 hours.
This will effectively reduce her morphine by half.
Katie looks and seems even better this morning. We have gone walking three times
and have now done several laps of the whole floor not just our wing.
She is napping now and will be having a shower when she wakes up.
Dr Pimenta said she can go back to the hotel when she thinks she is ready and I think
that may be tomorrow (Friday). Think the lack of stress and the freedom from back
pain have already taken 10 years off her age.
:thumpup::thumpup:

[scduggan]

Thanks so much for the update. I am so excited that Katie is walking and doing so well. I know it will be a really bumpy road for a while.....how great is it that she is at least on the RIGHT road ---the one to recovery.
Best Wishes and continued thoughts and prayers!
CD

[Dave]

Just got an email from Katie and she say's hello to everyone. She is going through forum withdrawls. They hope to have their laptop up and working by the time she moves over to the hotel, so she is hoping to start posting at that time. She also wants to thank everyone for all of the well wishes, they are really helping her.

Her cervical was an ADR, a Neodisc from Nuvasive and the lumbar levels, L3/4 and L5/S1 had two XLIF cages, one lateral and one anterior.

Just wanted to pass this info on to everybody.

[WPKat]

I know she will be viewing this blog as soon as she can and I want her to know how pleased I am to hear that she is doing so well.



I am thinking about you!

K

[Cindylou]

WOW. UNBELIEVABLE. SUCH AMAZING NEWS!!! And thank Rob and you Rose for getting this information to us, as we love her so much. One big giant YAY!!!!!

[dalhousie]

Oh Katie - I'm so pleased to hear that you're on the other side of surgery & in recovery mode. Been thinking about how you were getting along & hoping everything was going smoothly. Great to hear that you're strolling around.

Take care x

[Lynda]

Get Well Soon Katie Sue

Our triple op girl, so glad to read you're doing so well, its just great news. Wishing you a smooth and uneventful recovery my friend.

Lynda

xx