Ivds/ddd And Spinal Fusion? Post-op

[Quint7]

Hi all, I'm almost 3 weeks post-op for a L4-5 spinal fusion (feel better than in 10 years!) and I am about 5 weeks post DRO hearing seeking SC for IVDS/DDD.

My question is, if I ever get another exam (as the DRO hearing officer said she wanted me to have), should I make a point of the fact that although I NOW have a spinal fusion at one level (L4-5), I STILL have IVDS/DDD at the next level down (L5-S1) and therefore should be service connected for BOTH. Not compensated, but SC. I don't think that now I will have any ratable issues from the IVDS/DDD in the short term other than surgery induced limited range of motion, and I'm pretty sure that a spinal fusion is an automatic 40%.

My issue is that the effects of IVDS/DDD don't go away, the fusion will put stress on the next level higher and therefore I want the VA to list me as SC for BOTH IVDS/DDD and the Fusion that resulted from it.

Any thoughts? I know seeking comp. for both at this time would be pyramiding..... or at least I think it would.

Thanks!

[mike/3/8/cav]

Yeah, but thank god for the aviators you were always there. I remember in korea they had their own olympics to. They would take a huey up about 2-3 hundred feet and drop chickens out and try and get them to drop in a circle on the airfield.......what memories.............I think those guys ended up with MH problems or PTSD

[vmo]

Quint. Just curious, was your fusion surgery done by orthopedic or neuro surgeon? At VAMC or private hospital??

[Quint7]

VMO, I had my fusion done by a neuro and did it throuh my regular health care at a local hospital.

I had been going to an ortho for 7-8 months and was told that he wanted to do an old school fusion where they opened my back and stomach, dumped my guts on the OR table and put screws and a cage around the 3 affected vertebre. He was SO confident that that was the only route other than putting up with the pain that I considered it. I also have to say that he and every other doc I talked to told me that my career as a firefighter would absolutely, no questions asked, be over. That is the only thing that led me to hold off.

I happened to be talking to a guy at work I hadn't seen in a yer or so and he told me to look up the doc I used (the nuero). He said that he is cocky, arrogant, curt, and damn good. I set up a consult and had to wait 3 1/2 months to get in. Turns out this guy (who is local) is almost on call for the NFL, Ted Turner flew in here (Rochester NY) specifically to have this guy operate on his back, etc.

When I got the appt. and met him, the doc told me that he was a neuro with the 101st in Desert Storm and when I told him I was an amtracer with 7th Marines/3rd Tanks in Task Force Ripper he dropped all of the smart guy stuff and basically told me my ortho was a quack, used to working on old ladies who slipped on ice. He told me in no uncertain terms that I would need 6 months off from work, but so long as I follow his rules and then do a good 2-3 months of phys. therapy toward the end of the 6 months that he sw no reason why I couldn't go back to work with no restrictions. He said that if I really wanted to sit at a desk after 3-4 months that I could, but no actual firefighting for 6 months.

So far so good. I have my first followup on the 3rd of Feb. Oh, I had a "spacer" inserted between L4-5, 2 screws and a bone marrow injection into the spacer (taken from my hip. He said he refuses to use cadaver marow because there is less % of success).

I MUST stress though that he and his nurse practitioner told me over and over that my recovery and long term outlook were what they were because I had no fractures. They said that fractures are a whole different animal as far as the operation and recovery. Mine was simply due to the disc being destroyed form a lifetime of manual labor.......... maybe I shoulda gone to college........

LOL

Hope that helps!

[Berta]

Quint-since this all looks like potential SC to me-

have you applied for Temp 100% rate Comp and convalescence on this?

Then again-are you still waiting the actual service connection award for these disabilities?

I wonder if a Temp 100% claim would confuse the issue at this point.

Any thoughts ?

[Quint7]

Berta, I did actually send in a statement stating that I "should" be given 100% temp. post surgery.

I did this in the letter I dropped at the VARO informing VA of the surgery, pre-hearing.

They had previously cancelled my DRO (with no mention of it to me by NYS DVA....I posted about it if anyone remembers) and I wanted to make sure that they didn't reschedule my hearing immediately post-op. I got the hearing a couple of weeks before the operation and made a point of mentioning the temp 100% during the hearing, which of course was met by silence from the hearing officer.

I hope that she (the hearing officer) is competant, because the issues I have listed in my notices to VA were:

-SC for the back IVDS/DDD

-Increase for SC knee from 10% to 20%

-Possible CUE due to failure to apply evidience and rate knee properly in 1994, immediately post-service. (they gave me 0% due to "failure to appear for an exam, again, I posted a bunch about that).

-Temp 100% rating post-op for the back.

The DRO sluffed off the CUE, saying the hearing was not about that and would need a new claim to address that. She, like I said, was ambivilant about the 100% temp rating. She said that I needed exams again and that "I" needed to let her know when I would be ready to go for them post-op.

I called the guy from NYS DVA that represented me in the hearing last week to tell him that I could go to any exams they wanted now and he wsn't sure if I should send a letter or if he could "walk upstairs and let her know". Ugh....... He said to expect a call from him by Tuesday. I don't. I'm assuming that I will have to call VA again and again because the DRO will just toss my file aside and use the "you told me you were having surgery and couldn't go to an exam" line as a reason for not geting started on the claims. I haven't even received a typical "we are working on your claim" letter from Buffalo and it has been 5-6 weeks since the hearing.

As for the 100%, how far back can you go with that? I had knee surgery in July 2006 due to the SC knee and was outta work for 2 months. Wondering if I could go back for the 2 months of 100% or if there is a time limit.

[vmo]

VMO, I had my fusion done by a neuro and did it throuh my regular health care at a local hospital.

I had been going to an ortho for 7-8 months and was told that he wanted to do an old school fusion where they opened my back and stomach, dumped my guts on the OR table and put screws and a cage around the 3 affected vertebre. He was SO confident that that was the only route other than putting up with the pain that I considered it. I also have to say that he and every other doc I talked to told me that my career as a firefighter would absolutely, no questions asked, be over. That is the only thing that led me to hold off.

I happened to be talking to a guy at work I hadn't seen in a yer or so and he told me to look up the doc I used (the nuero). He said that he is cocky, arrogant, curt, and damn good. I set up a consult and had to wait 3 1/2 months to get in. Turns out this guy (who is local) is almost on call for the NFL, Ted Turner flew in here (Rochester NY) specifically to have this guy operate on his back, etc.

When I got the appt. and met him, the doc told me that he was a neuro with the 101st in Desert Storm and when I told him I was an amtracer with 7th Marines/3rd Tanks in Task Force Ripper he dropped all of the smart guy stuff and basically told me my ortho was a quack, used to working on old ladies who slipped on ice. He told me in no uncertain terms that I would need 6 months off from work, but so long as I follow his rules and then do a good 2-3 months of phys. therapy toward the end of the 6 months that he sw no reason why I couldn't go back to work with no restrictions. He said that if I really wanted to sit at a desk after 3-4 months that I could, but no actual firefighting for 6 months.

So far so good. I have my first followup on the 3rd of Feb. Oh, I had a "spacer" inserted between L4-5, 2 screws and a bone marrow injection into the spacer (taken from my hip. He said he refuses to use cadaver marow because there is less % of success).

I MUST stress though that he and his nurse practitioner told me over and over that my recovery and long term outlook were what they were because I had no fractures. They said that fractures are a whole different animal as far as the operation and recovery. Mine was simply due to the disc being destroyed form a lifetime of manual labor.......... maybe I shoulda gone to college........

LOL

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the explanation about your surgery. I did get 100% for two months after fusion. I did go to college, still ended up with bad back--amazing--after 26 years of office work, of all things. May be the pencils were too heavy??