Dr. Tabatha Barber writes in her book Fast to Faith, “Back surgery is like Lay’s potato chips, you can’t have just one.”
The national media has reported that the alleged murderer of the UnitedHealthcare CEO had incredible back pain.
The upper lefthand picture in the collage is of his back fusion that he published on his X account.
It reminded me of other fusions I have seen over the years.
If you look at the gap between the second screw from the top and the third screw you can see exactly why: there is a big gap between those vertebrae that the screws are attempting to stabilize.
Also, look at the huge amount of curve his spine has overall. Compare it to the x-ray below it which also shows vertebrae that the screws are attempting to realign (also unsuccessfully unfortunately).
Of other interest are the front views of the other two fusions on the right: what they both have in common is that the hips are NOT LEVEL in either instance, indicated by the red arrows.
The bottom right picture in the collage is a procedure called Herrington Rods. Yes, rods are inserted and multiple fusions performed. I had a client once who had this very extensive surgery only to have the Rods break.
You read that right: they broke. ☹
All to say, if you have scoliosis for instance, you most likely have hips that are not level. It is extremely difficult for the spine to then be straight up and down wedged in between unlevel hips…something has to give, and the vertebrae are usually the ones that end up moving to compensate for the hips.
Please start with your hips when you are looking at back problems.
When I attended my client’s 1 year post op appointment (he was the one with the 4 screws bottom left), he reported to his surgeon that his back still hurt.
The surgeon said that when the fusion locks down that portion of the spine, then more movement takes place above and below the surgery site.
That can make the above and below vertebrae mad with all of that extra movement, and guess what? Those other vertebrae might just need surgery, too.
That wasn’t mentioned to anyone when the first surgery was recommended.
Lay’s potato chips, here we come. ☹
Remember that when you hang out with surgeons, they like to talk about what they are good at: surgery!
Take care of those hips, and let’s give that spine a stable base of support to work with.
Here’s to balance, strength, and back happiness,
😊 Laura
