The busy days around Hey Clinic and the hospital often do not give us much time to reflect and give thanks for the many precious people we get to know, and be a part of their lives.
This week we squeezed in several urgent guests, including a Duke nurse, who was in agony with a C67 disc herniation — something I can be very sympathetic about, since I suffered from the same thing several years ago, and was so thankful when that pain was removed with surgery. We took care of her huge disc earlier this week with a C67 ACDF, and she went home with her EMT husband with a smile! We also had an urgent adolescent guest flown in from Florida, and another nurse guest who was in agony with her lower back, now doing better. I saw a woman who had scoliosis surgery elsewhere, who had a severe fracture in her mid-thoracic spine at top of her fusion, and collapse below her fusion who was in tears, and actually losing hope to continue living. Jenny, one of my 2 awesome PA’s was seeing her first, and pulled me into the room between surgeries. We were able to explain to her what the problems were, and come up with a plan to get her straightened up and relieve some of the pain that she is experiencing. I could tell from her face at the end of the visit that she definitely had HOPE for the future. People who come to Hey Clinic often will comment how our PA’s and I do a good job taking the time to figure out what is going on, showing you what is going on with the imaging studies, and giving you treatment options that always begin with the least invasive. That is why 96% or more of our guests rate their Hey Clinic experience as “Excellent” or “Best Clinic Experience Ever.”
I also saw several second opinions for surgery, for several adolescent and college age guests with painful and progressive thoracolumbar scoliosis, and those interested in XLIF and other minimally invasive procedures.
I really enjoy spending time with my teenage guests and their parents, and answering all their questions about scoliosis and kyphosis treatments and long-term effects.
One Hey Clinic tradition we have had for many years is to get a “Team Photo” with our surgery guest and family with me and their X-Ray, when they are healed and “graduating”!
These photos are then printed and given to our guests, and then, with their permission, shared on our photo collage in the clinic.
Here’s just a sample of the special people who have come through our clinic over the past few weeks, all different ages, with all different types of spinal problems: Police officers with severe double curve untreated adolescent scoliosis, adolescent kyphosis, adolescent idioipathic scoliosis, adult scoliosis, lumbar spinal stenosis, lumbar disc herniation treated with minimally invasive / minimally disruptive surgery, spondylolisthesis L5S1 in high performance high school baseball player, very complex revision lumbar reconstructive surgery… And so on. But at the end of the day, no matter what the initial problem, what matters most is helping our guests and their families to get to the “smile” outcome at the end of treatment. That makes me smile too, and thank God as well as the many people who helped for the healing we see.
Here’s a web link to some of our recent team photos and other photos that show some of the smiles we’ve shared together.
So here’s something new for the blog: Our first photo slideshow gallery!
http://gallery.me.com/drhey/100189
Enjoy the smiles and have a great weekend.
Life is Precious. Life is Good. Enjoy It. Share it.
Dr. Lloyd Hey
Hey Clinic for Scoliosis and Spine Surgery
http://www.heyclinic.com