spine health

@yeeko Hello and welcome to Connect. I am a spine surgery patient, and I understand concerns about spine related procedures. Would you be able to share more of your story about why you are having a biopsy and is it a bone biopsy? Did the doctor explain how they would do this? It doesn't sound like it will be hugely invasive like spine surgery tends to be if it is near the surface of your back.

Hello Jennifer,
You are the God send angel and thank you for your prompt response to my first time using Connet to ask for help. I really thankful to have some one to talk to as I live alone.
Here is the story. Back in July 2024, I went for my routine check up and mentioned my annoying soreness off and on near the waist/rib cage all around area. My primary doctor ordered MRI and result was T9 abnormal. Ordered second MRI with contrast and the result was the same abnormal for unknow reasons. Ordered CT and whole body bone scans still the same. The I was sent to an oncologist to rule out multiple myenoma for a bone marrow biopsy in DEC 2024. The result was normal no cancer. Now my oncologist wanted me to go for T9 vertebra biopsy to find out the abnomality of the T9.
I thought my T9 area pains might be from the trauma of lifting heavy boxes or weekly dancing from twirling or degenaration from aging as I am in my low 80s. I read google saying to target T9 for biospy might take more time and pains than the bone marrow biopsy and worried about more back pains after the biopsy. I thought T9 vertebra is part of the spine but biopsy is less painful and aggresive than the surgery I hope.
The doctor did not explain to me how the procedure will do but some one will give me a call one day before the procedure to confirm and give me information but not the nurse to explain the details of the procedure which is my worry such as sedative for sleep like, how long and how long to recove and the pain level,etc.
Thank you so so...................very much for your caring and most kind response and hope you are well recovered from the surgery. It must be hard on you but you are very strong which I need to learn from you.
May God richly bless you and your loving and noble work as a volunteer mantor which I need one badly.

@yeeko

If you are having pain from your T9 vertebrae, I don’t believe the biopsy will cause much more pain than you are already experiencing. I have had spine surgeries on neck and back where they needed to drill/cut away bone spurs and lamina bone and drill in hardware. The pain was there but manageable. You may want to ask how much bone is needed for biopsy. They may want to check more closely what is changing in your bone and causing the changes to see what would be the best treatment options for you.

thank you

@yeeko I like the thought of you twirling around and dancing! Did your doctor's office explain the procedure to you and what your expectations should be? When is your biopsy scheduled? You could ask if the sedation is light sedation. With a biopsy, it might be a very quick procedure. I wouldn't expect any deep anesthesia for that, but that's a question to ask.

Knowledge is power, and I think you'll be more at ease if you get answers to your questions.

Thank you Jennifer for your thoughts. I could not get my doctor to explain the procedure because some other spicialist is doing the procedure not my ocologist. That is why I came to this Connect seeking any experienced patient to get answers from whoever had the spine biopsy done. My biopsy was scheduled for next week.

How about calling the other specialist's office? You can ask their staff about the procedure. A nurse may be willing to talk to you.

Got my call transferred to different offices without success, very disappointed with the poor health care system. Surprised to see the Connect had no spine biopsy experienced patient though.

I have recently been diagnosed with chf with cad & htn. I am needing a partial knee replacement as the injections (both cortisone & gel shots) are no longer helping. My knee really hinders my mobility otherwise I am fairly active at 81. Anyone out there with any similar experience or knowledge of the risks associated with this surgery ? Also I have spinal stenosis, quite debilitating & they are concerning some kind of surgery for that. Thanks for your response if so!

@yeeko You never know who is on Connect or what they see. It is growing all the time. I looked at Connect about 10 years ago, and I didn't find a lot of people talking about relevant spine information as I was facing my surgery future. I guess I came back and changed that. We have a lot of people in the spine group now. Perhaps you'll be a leader of information for your spine biopsy.