2 Level Surgery New Zealand
 

This is a brief intro, Im Shane, and I will be doing posts on behalf of my wife, who is not interested in forums etc, but I would like to add her story to the masses.

We are in New Zealand, and have had a nightmare dealing with ACC, our state owned no fault accident insurer,
(NZ gave up the right to law suits for personal injury, in return for the Accident compensation corporation, which is funded from levies, and under the latest govt, has been slaves to the bottom line like private insurers, as opposed to the law upon which it was founded)

She slipped on Ice 25 months ago at age 22, and had 2 wide bulges (but not deep) with annular tears at L4-L5 and L5-S1.
Since then its been a rollercoaster ride, but on the monday the 9th of June, she will go under the knife at age 24 with Dr Nick Finnis, who is a neurosurgeon specialising in complex spine procedures.

At L5-S1 she will receive the Medtronic LT Cage with Infuse bone morphogenic protein, and at L4-L5 she will receve the Medtronic Maverick, (Medtronic's popular in NZ huh?)

She has been on the hard stuff, and is resistant to fentanyl patches and oxycodone, and has gone cold turkey on them and diazepam in the last month, which has made life miserable, but for a purpose, to make the anaesthetists job easier for the operation, however tonight it has become unbearable, and she is off to the hospital for the first time in 2 months for uncontrollable pain. What we have found is that despite her opiate tolerance, Intramuscular morphine works well, and lasts 4 hours+
Anyway, im off to follow her ambulance to hospital, 3 days to the surgery, wish us luck!!!

Welcome Shane, we are glad that you are here posting on behalf of your wife. Hope that all goes well at the hospital and she gets some much needed relief.

Hope that her pain subsides enough that the two of you can enjoy the weekend together, before the big day. Wishing her all the best on Monday. After the surgery, hope that her original pain is gone, and all that is left is surgical.

I also have a medtronic Maverick disc, I am 4.5 months post op.How long is she expected to stay in hospital after the surgery?

She goes in on monday, they havent really put a timeframe on it, but because it's done in a private hospital, I suspect they will try and move her on friday.

Last night was a waste of time at the hospital, 6 hours of bull****, tried to start her off on codeine, then morphine elixir, BAH, a note on her file from the pain team said avoid IV/IM and use oral meds. But they discharged her on enough crap to turn her into an addict, and they suggested she starts on oxynorm again.................

She has averaged a hospital visit for pain monthly on average, and i know what works, 20ml Morphine Intra muscular, twice the relief, (targeted pain relief?) for much longer, gives her 3-4hours of appropriate relief when the pain winds up to 8+/10