When I was 12, I was diagnosed with idiopathic scoliosis.  For those that read this with a similar condition, I had a right thoracic curve T6-12 which measured 15° and over corrected 10° on side bending.  T12-L4 measured 30° with 1+ rotation and corrected down to 2° on side bending. On September 8, 1980, I had a spinal fusion with Harrington rod from T10-L4. This improved my T6-12 to 9° and T12-L4 to 13°. Since 1991, I began to develop lower back pain which gradually increased until it started severely affecting my daily life. When I perform a normal day of activities it puts me in the bed resting for the next couple of days. 

Over the past few years, I have had many tests performed to get some relief. It was determined that my discs at L4-L5 and L5-S1 have degenerated from the additional load from above since the Harrington rod acts as a lever and arthritis has set in.  I also have flat back syndrome. Since the Harrington rod is straight, it not only straightens the spine left to right (as it should) but also front to back and removes the normal lordosis curve which is important.  A normal curve provides the correct geometry for proper balance and distributed load across all vertebrae.  The long-term effects of this procedure were probably unknown at the time these rods were used. Now some 20 years later, it is common that this produces a “flat back” which causes the discs below the rod to degenerate and the pain ensues.

I have tried many different medications over the years.  Celebrex helps some with the arthritis.  Darvocet and Lortab relieve more pain but make me nauseated so I have to take Compazine or Phenergan with them.  I have stayed away from the narcotics because I did not want to get addicited to them and experience the other side effects they produce.

In 2000, it became apparent that I needed to do something different after I had exhausted the standard treatment with local orthopaedic specialists. So my husband Mike and I began to investigate my problems on the internet. We spent months and months researching and found many sources of help for women like me with childhood scoliosis and the Harrington rod treatment. It was amazing to find that many others have similar problems (and pain) as I do.  We also learned about the current technology and the pioneers in this specialized area performing “revision” surgeries.  There are many success stories but also failed attempts by doctors that were not as experienced with these cases. The more we looked, the more the same name kept appearing as “the man” in this area. He is Dr. Michael LaGrone and lives in Amarillo, TX.  He was writing papers, addressing conferences on the subject and his patients gave him rave reviews for his personal attention, expertise and success. He is literally one of a handful of doctors nationwide that are “the best” in this area.  We then checked on our insurance plan and he was “in network”!  We made an appointment for the first week of February 2003 and he performed an examination. Based on this visit, we acknowledeged that my condition was only going to get worse, my medications would have to be increased more and more (which creates another set of problems), and my life has gone from a happy hyper person always on the go to a sad, depressed person who is in the bed alot of the time from the nagging pain. I decided that I wanted to get a “new lease on life” even though it scared me to death to go through the revision surgery.  Continue to “The Procedure” page for the details of this surgery.