Part 5: 2nd Back Surgery Questioned by Backsurgeon

I continued with my PT throughout this time period. Whether it was working with a specialist, walking in a lap pool, or doing my best to keep up with my peers while walking at the senior center, nothing seemed to ease the recurrent pain in my left leg.  The doctor's notes from this period show little activity but reflect one continued complaint: the pain in my left leg had continued, if not grown worse.  By June 7, 2001, I was sent for consultation to another back surgeon, Dr. Kahle.  He too questioned whether the pain was not caused by a vascular issue rather than by a back problem.  He consulted with Dr. Huepenbecker and once again it was concluded that my vascular problem was stable.  While this should have been ground for reassurance, this marked the beginning of the second round of tests and consultations that would result in a second back surgery.

            Like before, I was sent from one test to the next, and like before, the doctors debated back and forth as to whether the problem was in fact caused by a vascular condition. Like before, the same doctor's noted the same observations that suggested the problem was vascular, and like before, they decided the pain stemmed from a back problem.  Consequently, on January 8, 2002, Dr. Kahle sent me to Dr. Kantamneni for a second opinion.  In Dr. Kantamneni’s report he wrote, “No palpable pulses in the foot on the left side.  Patient complains of weakness when she walks about two blocks.”  As had happened in 1999, he sent me for a Doppler test, and despite my request that it be done with the treadmill, I was administered the resting Doppler test. And like before, the resting test results were within limits.  Perhaps most curious about the repetition of this process is that after reading the report, another vascular doctor, Dr. Cowgill, made the same observation as had been made in 1999 by Dr. DeAngeles, that the “Duplex suggests stenosis of left iliac system.” Here, as before, the suggestion is that there is a vascular problem, yet when Dr. Kantamneni read the report, he assured Dr. Kahle, the back surgeon, that there was no concern of a vascular problem and that we should proceed with another back surgery.  As before, this whole process could have been avoided had the Doppler test been administered with the treadmill, but it was not.  Because the treadmill had not been administered, the test results did not detect the problem that was causing the pain in my left leg.  Had the treadmill been administered, the test results that read within limits would have changed drastically, as became painfully clear three years later when I was finally administered a treadmill test.  I will return to this later, when I was finally administered the treadmill test. 

I was then scheduled for the second back surgery on February 13, 2002.  Dr. Kahle had Dr. Huepenbecker assist along with another doctor, Dr. DeCook.   Dr. Huepenbecker was the vascular doctor who had questioned the second stent placement in 1994 and had been originally concerned that my problem was vascular.  However, he had decided, based on the resting Doppler results and not on my symptoms, that it was a back problem instead and was now assisting with the second back surgery. 

Unlike the previous surgery, this surgery would not go smoothly and would cause later complications.  A seven-inch incision was made on my left side, extending from under my rib cage to below my hipbones, so that Dr. Kahle could insert two cages in my lower spine.  The cages had to be constructed from my own bones, so another incision was made in my left hip in order to remove bone that would be placed in the cages.  Dr. Huepenbecker helped Dr. DeCook to remove the bone from my left hip.  In the course of removing the bone from my left hip, they ran into the stents.  Even now, I am left wondering why they did not foresee the problem those stents might have caused. In the record from the surgery, Dr. Huepenbecker wrote, “Dissection was difficult, however, at the iliac vein as the patient previously had a left iliac artery stent placed.  This created a fair amount of inflammation which required some careful dissection to fully separate from the vein itself.”  I do not understand why they did not communicate about the stents, as Dr. Huepenbecker should have been familiar with my case and with the issues these stents could cause. 

While they finally found a solution, this seemingly avoidable complication was not without residual problems of its own.  I have been numb on my left side from my hip to my knee with pain from nerve damage ever since.  This has gotten worse over the years and continues to worsen.  Also, I have a large bulge on my left side from where the internal lining was not adequately stitched while closing the surgery.  Sadly, even after this second back surgery, there was no change in my leg pain, but this would not be the end of the problems that surfaced during this period or the end of the doctors' misdirection and misdiagnosis of my conditions.