Member Comments are provided by individuals and reflect their personal opinions only. Under NO circumstances should you act on any advice or opinion posted in this forum. ALWAYS check with your personal physician before taking any action regarding your health! MedHelp International and our partners, sponsors and affiliates have no obligation to monitor any comments posted on this site, or the content and/or accuracy of such exchanges. MedHelp International does not endorse the views of any user.
hey everyone!
by n40066, Nov 04, 2009 07:32PM
my appt. with dr. heffez went great! thanks for all the thoughts and prayers! really tired right now, but will tell you all about it a bit later. but it was a wonderful experience and well worth the money spent!!!
Post Comment
Related Communities
Recent Videos
Related Expert Forums
Recent Activity
Most Popular Trackers
RSS
Expert Activity
Community Members
good luck through all the process and you will continue to be in my thoughts anbd prayers.
Glad u had such a positive experience with Dr H.
Like always I enjoed talking to you. Have a safe trip home.
Take care of yourself and get some rest!
Meg :)
Tina
so now i check in for my dreaded nerve test. i waited longer there than anywhere else and was met with so many apologies it was almost silly! and i waited less than 10 minutes! lol! so , sena ellenz, the neurodiagnostics coordinator came to get me (with more apologies i might add! lol!) . she was a very nice, happy lady and also one of the three team members that are there with us during our surgery. she explained everything she was doing as she was doing it and why. it was not the dreaded test i had been anticipating! yeah! it was a very non evasive, non pain inducing test. she put 2 electrodes on each wrist and one behind each ear. then she stuck a bunch on my head. for me, that was a bit uncomfortable because she had to press rather hard to make them stick. oh, and by the by, ladies...don't bother doing your hair! just wear it in a pony tail or wear a head ban. she uses a red pencil to mark the spots she where she needs to put the electrode and when finished, uses soapy water to wash the marks out!
so now for the test. it is called an upper extremity somatosensory evoked potential test. she sends an electrical current into my left wrist first that makes my thumb twitch with a steady tap. once she has regulated it to where she wants, she lets it run for 4 minutes. it was uncomfortable towards the end, but by no means was it painful. she then repeated the process on my right wrist. that was it! finished!
the next test she did was and abr...auditory evoked response. she put headphones on me and in my right ear i heard white noise....like static on a tv. in my left ear, i heard a tapping sound. didn't care much for that, but it was only there for a couple of minutes and was not what i could call pain. just uncomfortable. she then switched the sounds, with the tapping in my right ear and white noise in my left. that was it! i was finished!! i asked for and received a copy of my test and was free until 130. the test ended 1/2 early, so it was only 11:15. i decided to see if i could go ahead and get my lab work done and out of the way. the techs name was ina. she had a great sense of humor for a vampire! and the cutie pie sitting next to her at the desk wasn't so bad either! lol! she took several tubes of blood and once again i was on my merry way.
thought i'd walk across the street to say hi to renee and get my bearings on where my next appt. was. it was an easy walk and again, i didn't get lost! woo hoo! renee was a doll and gave me the directions to a tavern down the street. while she had never been there, she had heard the burgers were good. so, once again armed with excellent directions, i head down the street to g-daddys bbc. it certainly isn't much to look at and far from the cleanest place i have ever been, but the employees made up for that in spades! the cook, chistian detong, made me a very good burger, served me lunch and was very accomodating! the young lady behind the bar was a sweetheart too, but i forgot to get her name. she brought me a phone book to look for a verizon store because i forgot to bring my phone charger. when christian saw we were havin trouble locating a store, he went into the kitchen and brought me his laptop. still having trouble because i don't know the area, he comes up, looks up a store that will be on my route back to my hotel, called the store for hours and to make sure they had the charger i needed and wrote down the address for me! talk about customer service!!!! so with a full belly and directions to the store, i head back for my appt. with the nl, dr. john broderick.
renee took me back and took my bp, height and weight (don't like their scales, by the way! lol), took me to my room and measured my left hand and foot for some study dr. heffez is doing, asked me if i needed anything, then left me to wait for dr broderick.
another cutie pie! what is it with this place! lol! i waited only a few minutes as he reviewed my mri and paper work before he was with me. he did a very detailed exam and talked with me for about 45 minutes. then he left to consult with dr. heffez.
about 10 minutes or so later, dr. h came in. he's such a little guy, but what a huge presence! we talked for 45 minutes or so about symptoms and my history with a few simple nl tests thrown in, then he got down to the real exam which was even more extensive than dr. brodericks! wow! never had such thourough exams from any other dr. i have been too! the things they had me do were all very simple tests, but told him more than any other dr had ever taken the time to find out! next he went thru every one of my xrays with me...one by one! he pointed out to me my problem areas...such as that "minimal problem" i have at c5 that no other dr. seemed to think could be causing any pain or problems. in fact, it could be responsible for much of my neck pain!
he also showed me what "over crowding" is. it is not what i had thought, like a very full head! it is, rather, a slice of an mri taken from the top that shows the herniation pressing against the brainstem, which in turn is pressing against one of the two main arteries! wow! i had no idea!!!
i tried to upload the pictures he was looking at on here, but they didn't transfer very well. i will try again later to see if i can improve the quality during the upload process and also mark where everything is so i can show you all what he is talking about. it was really interesting! according to dr. heffez, this is what is responsible for the palpataions and possibly the times when i can hear my heartbeat in my ears!
i asked him what size my herniation is, as it was first said to be 1cm, then 8mm, then apprx. 9 mm. he measured it using my mri and shows the left one to be at 9.5mm. the right one is very small in comparison and he didn't even bother to measure it. guessing, it is 2 - 4mm. he was not concerned so much with the size of herniation.....not even so much with the restricted csf flow (mine is restricted, but not greatly so at this time) as he is with the over crowding. therein lies my problem, according to dr. h!
he feels the surgery will def. help me with the pressure and headaches, but is reluctant to promise, in fact will NOT promise anything more than that! because i have other auto immune diseases as well as other problems and damage to my spine, it rather complicates my case. he did say i show many neurological signs and that down the road, some things like that c-5 issuse, may need surgical attention.
continued in next post....
as for the proceedure he would do on me, he would shave a small 1/2 moon shape section of my hair then make about a 3" incision. he shrinks the tonsiles, uses a bovine patch and staples to close me up. unless there is a medical reason to do so, he will not deviate from this proceedure. even after i told him that staples were for wood, not heads! lol!
the only other thing i have to add, is that this place is very expensive! cabs are as much here as they are in nyc!!! DO NOT STAY AT THE RAMADA INN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT IS A DUMP, A DIVE, A POOP HOLE!!!!! but the employees do the best they can with what they have to work with and are very nice....have to give them props!
also, i did find information about a house where family members can stay while you are in the hospital and for us to stay when we get out. you need to make a reservation as soon as you know about your surgery and may want to schedule your surgery around there availability! there is no fee, but rely on our donations to survive! the house is stocked with food by local donations and volunteers. sure takes a lot of pressure off for those of us with financial difficulties! here's the link...www.kathys-house.org
hopes this helps some of you who are trying to decide where to go! good luck!
Molly
I live in Milwaukee so I won't have to stay at any hotels, but if you ever need to come here again, please let me know. I can point you in the right direction of a decent hotel and some great food around that area of the hospital. Heck, I can maybe even meet up with you and we can exchange stories, if that would be of interest to you.
What were some of the questions you had asked him going into the appt? I am completely drawing a blank here and am getting more and more nervous of what he may say to me when I get there. The thing that terrifies me the most is the surgery and I don't even know if he will suggest it to maybe help me with my symptoms. How silly is that of me?
Thanks again for the info and all the positive things about him.
Sheila