Husband’s assessment of his wife’s adult scoliosis surgery

From: djh >

Date: November 4, 2008 9:27:47 PM EST

To: “Dr. Hey” <h>

Subject: 3 months later

Reply-To: djh <t>

About 2 years ago we met with Dr. Hey for a consultation about Debra’s Scoliosis. She’s had back problems since she was young. In the last several years we had heard of more promising surgical procedures for Scoliosis. She frequently scanned the web for doctors who could do surgery on adult Scoliosis patients. She found a doctor and clinic who really excited her and requested information on their surgical procedures. The problem was they were well over 1500 miles away. I suggested she looked locally. Fortunately for us we found Dr. Hey and The Hey Clinic right in our back yard in Raleigh NC. about twenty miles from our home. After meeting with him we realized she had both Scoliosis and Kyphosis. Dr Hey also said she was a good candidate for surgery and would she a great improvement on her condition. At that point we were on board and she was VERY excited about actually getting some relief of her back problems. We had two obstacles to overcome. First ,Debra was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1998 and we were not sure if surgery was possible with her condition. Dr Hey and Debra’s neurologist Dr. Freedman assured us that she could have the surgery. Second, Debra was about two years away in her job from getting extended sick leave which was an additional 3 months sick leave. Two years later July 28 2008 Debra had her surgery. She had an almost 6 hour surgery to correct both of her 50+ degree curves for her Scoliosis and Kyphosis. With her MS creating some difficulties of their own she decided to take 10 weeks off from her work. The first 4 weeks of recovery were challenging and slow going but the results of the surgery were and are amazing.She has grown over an inch and her 50 degree curves are now 17 degrees or less. Friday Oct 31st was the three month milestone and things are great. Although we are about 25% through the first year healing period, Debra already seems a 100% better. We hope this helps other people in making your decision. It is well worth it. Thanks to everyone at The Hey Clinic we will see you in three months. Debra and Matt