The appointment I had been given with Mr S for a review in early August was brought forward to today, perhaps as a result of being seen by the on-call registrar a couple of weeks ago. Two remarkable things happened before we even got to the clinical review bit of the appointment; firstly, having allowed plenty of time to park, we went pretty much straight into a parking space. Secondly, expecting the clinic to be running behind by late morning, I was called in 10 minutes early!
I was seen by Mr S’s registrar. We talked about how I was getting along, what my current symptoms are, and what, if anything might happen in the future. The registrar said that he had had a conversation with Mr S about me, and had proposed that, since there is no guarantee that surgery will create a permanent relief from the symptoms, he should perhaps consider redoing the operation each year. This is clearly something Mr S isn’t comfortable with, and I have to say I’m not enamoured with the idea. Evidently Mr S had responded along the lines of, when the registrar gets a consultant position somewhere, he should let Mr S know where he is working, and Mr S will refer me to him to have repetitive surgery! 🙂
He did also mention that, for other nerve issues where they have adhered to something, it is possible to insert (inject I think) a gel to keep the nerves away from the surrounding tissue. He feels this may be worth a try, but unfortunately at the moment this procedure has not been approved for use on the spinal cord, only on more peripheral nerves. Perhaps if my symptoms persist or get worse I will think about offering myself for a trail.
We also discussed the piece in my MRI report that talked about not showing signs of CSF flow below the T3 vertebra. He reviewed the report again, and explained that some of the imaging in that area was noted as being “noisy”. Unfortunately if there is no flow, and nothing specifically blocking the fluid, then there is not going to be anything they can do. The next course of action is for me to have another MRI at about 3-4 months post-op (August), and see what that shows us.