Spinal stenosis, back, hip & leg issues: A good office chair?

@grandmar -- Hi Ronnie! Well, if I am a cat with 9 lives, thankfully, I should have a few more lives left!!! 🙂 But you are right -- We don't know what is going on with our surgeons, techs, or nurses -- I must admit I do wonder each time and cringe at the thought! And each time I try to convince myself that's probably my need to "control" a situation which I cannot control ... Until it is not.

Following the latest incident (when the anesthesiologist mistakenly injected the right phrenic nerve, causing the paralysis of the right diaphragm), I realized that you SHOULD have someone with you at all times, for as long as possible -- Insist if you must! However, this person needs to be one who is going to feel comfortable with the situation. My darling husband was in the room … reading -- His way to isolate himself to address his own discomfort.

I believe there is a lesson to be learned. We all know that it is important to have someone present at medical encounters, even when you see your doctor for a minor illness. But few of us realize the importance of having someone with you when being prepared for, or following a surgery, however minor.

The next lesson I learned is that simply "being there" is not sufficient. As patients, we usually prepare ourselves for any surgical procedure; however, few of us "prepare" an Advocate who will be with us and will be able to intervene, if needed. During such times, the expression "See Something, Say Something" is thoroughly applicable. The person with us should pay full attention to what is happening to us and immediately speak up, if something does not look right.

I believe the 2 topics above are important and should be discussed, but have not seen them addressed in the various “groups” I participate in. Can @contentandwell, @johnbishop, @lioness, @hopeful33250, @colleenyoung, let me know if you have seen these topics, and where?

Stay healthy!!
--Dee

Hi Dee @danielad -- I have not seen the two topics you mentioned addressed specifically but there is a discussion here that I believe would be helpful for members to share with each other. I think it's a great start for a discussion and I can offer my observations from a week ago when I had knee replacement surgery at Mayo Clinic Rochester.

> Groups > Just Want to Talk > Social Media Summit Scholarship Essay – Virna Elly
-- https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/social-media-summit-scholarship-essay-virna-elly/

At the time of admission for my surgery the admissions receptionist asked me to verify what I was there for, my name, birthday and clinic number. Then when I got into the pre-op room and given a gown and waiting with my wife and our pastor, the surgeons assistant came in and asked me my name and what I was there for - asking me to point the knee being replaced. When I did, he smiled and used a black sharpie to write the surgeon's initials on the inside of the bad knee being replaced. After which I was moved to the pre-surgery room (?) where I met with the anesthesiologist and he went over the plan and risks for neuropathy with me. My wife was not with me here but I also had the same conversation with the physicians assistant for the surgeon one month prior to the surgery where she explained to me what would happen. Then they rolled me into surgery and I was amazed at all the gazillion LED ceiling lights...then it was night night and I woke up with a new knee. My care team at Mayo was fantastic - nurses, doctors, surgeons and PTs. The first week home I received 2 get well cards from the 2 care teams - nurses who watched over me the first night and following day and the surgery team. All signed the cards. I was touched that they had time to do such a small but meaningful thing for a patient considering the number of surgeries they do in a day.

I know doctors can make mistakes. I think the key to not making mistakes is a great system of checks and follow ups along with patient education and redundancy in the procedural steps to insure mistakes are not made. I also like that Mayo Clinic listens to it's patients and if you have any problems you can call the Office of Patient Experience at Mayo Clinic.

Office of Patient Experience
8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday–Friday
507-284-4988

Dee
You are so right!
My hubby is always with me at doctor appts., procedures, surgeries (before and after).
In addition, I always have a list of questions and a pad to write down answers.
I tried it with my phone, but it didn't work as well.
When I had my first spinal surgery, my son (who is a nuclear med tech) came down for the surgery.
He wanted to be there to 'ask the right questions', interpret for my hubby (if necessary) and to make sure I recouped well.
When I had my follow up appointments, we would do it with him on the phone to participate.
Made me feel comfortable!
Ronnie

@danielad Dee, this cracked me up because it is generally so much like me to look something like that up! Google was made for people like us.
It's interesting, thanks for the info. This pretty much does say that it does involve practicing as we know it:

From early 15c. as "to perform repeatedly to acquire skill, to learn by repeated performance;" mid-15c. as "to perform, to work at, exercise." Related: Practiced; practicing.

I have not seen this discussed, having someone there to also "see" and if necessary "say" something, and of course if you having surgery, once you are taken in someone else would not be allowed to accompany you. If I have an important doctor visit my husband generally does come but frankly most of the time I am more comfortable if he does not. If my daughter was close by I would love to have her with me. She is not in a medical profession yet seems to have a natural affinity for medical information. At one point she planned to change course and become a PA but then she decided to stay with her profession as a writer.
JK

Hello everyone,

It’s time to open a new group dedicated to Spine Health. All discussions related to spine health, such as back pain, brachial plexus, disc degeneration, scoliosis, spondylolysis, stenosis, spondylopathy and more can now be found in the Spine Health here, https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/spine-health/.

+Follow the Spine Health group and continue to connect with others and share your experiences, ask questions and encourage each other on your health journey.

Good morning everyone. My spine doctor has scheduled me for an epidural in late May. I've had several over the years because of pain caused by stenosis, my last being in 2016. Several people in a different group I'm following have warned me against these injections because they are a steroid and can cause bone damage and other problems. I've also read reports, including ones here on the Mayo Clinic site, that would corroborate that. I'd love to know your opinions and experience about this.

@sparklegram
Hi!
I took injections for years. I was told by each doctor that as long as the shots are given no more than 3 to 4 times a year I should be fine.

SHOULD is the catch phrase. Since everyone is different, there are no guarantees.

That being said, having chronic pain 24/7, I was willing to try anything and everything for relief. THIS WAS MY PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY.

After over a decade of trying whatever was out there, and everything stopped working, I opted for surgery. I am now pain free.
Ronnie

@sparklegram I had one epidural injection in my neck and it was not a good experience. The injection did take away the pain that I was having everywhere from spinal cord compression, but it also caused a new pain that I didn't already have that they called a paresthesia. It happened instantly from pressure when he injected the fluid that had nowhere to go. He then injected a dye because he wanted to know where the steroid was. It was the most pain I had ever experienced that was off the charts and I was convulsing and shaking uncontrollably for a long time and on my way to passing out. They reminded me to breathe, and because I had been practicing relaxing with slow deep breaths to music, I did that and visualized being somewhere else and thought about music and manged to stay conscious, but I shook for about a half hour. Nothing touched that extreme pain at all and the steroid prescription they gave me didn't help. The pain targeted my index finger and thumb, and 3rd finger of my dominant hand, and I got unpredictable severe stabbing pains that were electric shocks. If I moved my neck or hand at all, the pains stabbed again. If I touched the nerve pathway in my hand at all with anything, I got an electric shock. The advice they gave me was to get in bed, prop my hand on a pillow and don't move. Just stay there, and it may take a few days to subside. It took about 2 weeks before the level and frequency of pain began to back off. Then it took about 6 weeks total until the pains stopped, but I had cold sensitivity in that hand for over a year. This was done as a diagnostic procedure by a doctor who later decided not to offer surgery to me for my cervical spinal stenosis, and he didn't analyze the results or discuss them with me. His nurse suggested that I do more of these injections, and I refused. The procedure did answer a question for me in that it stopped all the pain I had previously completely for 5 days before it slowly started coming back. My case had an unusual presentation of symptoms with pain all over my body from a spine problem in my neck. That is what had confused the 5 surgeons who wouldn't help me, and when I found medical literature with cases like mine and the patients had the same experience in the unusual symptoms that were resolved temporarily by the injection, I knew that cervical spine surgery would resolve all that pain. There is no diagnostic test to prove that before surgery, and my surgery at Mayo did fix all the pain I had. Having pain referred all over the body or to a place where it is unexpected is called funicular pain. This was something I asked about when I asked to be seen at Mayo, and I sent the medical case studies in with my request. There are significant risks with these injections if they are injected in the wrong place or into a nerve or the spinal cord. They don't fix anything, but they can buy some time before surgery. I know in my case, with bone spurs constantly advancing into my spinal cord, a delay in having surgery would just increase the risk of permanent damage. It took 2 years for me to work through the surgeons who were not going to help me, and I lost some muscle because of it. Some of it has come back, and I am still working on it. You'll have to decide if it is of enough benefit to you to make the risk worth it. You do have a choice and can say no if you don't agree with the doctor.

@jenniferhunter,- Thank you for your detailed recounting of what happened to you because of that injection. I'm so sorry you had to endure that. I hope you have complete relief soon.

@sparklegram Thanks for your comments. I hope it goes well for you. My epidural injection was a long time ago, 3 years, and I recovered completely from it's effects. I was very concerned at the time because of the pain it caused to my dominant hand and the fingers that I use as an artist to hold and control my brushes, and most patients wouldn't know this could happen. I didn't know until it happened to me. I think a lot of patients will just accept a risk, but sometimes an injection might be suggested because the doctor doesn't want to take a chance on surgery with a patient that may have a bad outcome, and thus affect the doctor's success rate for his career, and he's putting himself first, and not the patient, or he is delaying possible surgery. Insurance companies and Medicare rate surgeons success on specific procedures and keep track. I had obvious spinal cord compression on my imaging, but the doctors couldn't connect the pain symptoms that I had everywhere in my body to the imaging and were probably imagining another disease issue or differential diagnosis that they couldn't address with surgery. This doctor told me he didn't know if surgery would make me better or worse, and as a patient, I would rather have a confident surgeon and not one who is guessing. He also didn't respond to the results on the diagnostic injection he requested, but really he should have questioned it and looked for a reason. I was able to do that myself and find a medical journal that explained surgical results of a case like mine. As patients, we should question how and why something can help and if it is worth the risk to us, and if the risks would be higher because of any other health issues we might have. The injection also caused a wait of 6 weeks for absorption of the steroid until a new MRI could be made or it would have obscured the results. It's all fine now. After that doctor declined to help, I came to Mayo and had surgery for my cervical spinal stenosis and I recovered well. The surgery and my choice to embrace it changed my life. Here's my story. https://sharing.mayoclinic.org/2019/01/09/using-the-art-of-medicine-to-overcome-fear-of-surgery/