Sick of waiting: Are some Canadians paying for expensive, risky medical treatment?

The pain from his affliction left him desperate for a medical solution.

Randy Richmond is writing a three part series, Patients losing patience,which is taking a look at the hundreds of thousands of seriously ill Canadians who have been left without satisfactory care by the Canadian heath system. Richmond is focusing on the folk who are going outside the country seeking medical help.

Randy is a writer I really liked when I worked at the paper. He's an excellent reporter. I'm sure this series will be part of his WONA (Western Ontario Newspaper Awards) portfolio next year. Still, this first story, as interesting as it was, left me with some serious questions, such as: "What is the Laser Spine Institute?"

You see this question was important to me as I also have a bad back. I have come to believe, based on what I've been told by a number of doctors, that when it comes to bad backs often less treatment may be the best treatment. I read in a Harvard Medical School health newsletter that "doctors are beginning to question whether too many surgeries are performed to treat degenerative disease. As for herniated disks, a recent study found that surgical and nonsurgical treatments worked equally well." The newsletter editorial told me "the decision whether to have surgery is a matter of patient preference more than anything else."

On LiveStrong.com I read that the Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo Clinic both advise trying other less intrusive therapies, like massage, physical therapy and anti-inflammation drugs before back surgery. Laser surgery has been touted as the latest, least invasive, most successful technique with the least amount of recovery time but these hospitals warn that there are several disadvantages to laser spine surgery.

Without a cane, I would not get to my computer.

Unsuccessful back surgeries have become so common in the States that there is now an acronym: FBSS (Failed Back Surgery Syndrome.)

My back can be so bad that it drops me to my knees but my family doctor has poo-pooed my complaints. High tech laser surgery has never been an option. It has never been offered to me by my present doctor nor by my former.

I've been advised to apply cold to alleviate pain and to prevent or reduce the swelling. After 48 hours I've been told to apply warmth to increase blood flow and promote healing. I should limit bed rest to a couple of days, at most,  and then add limited exercise therapy. The theory is that strong, flexible muscles are less prone to injury and will help to strengthen the back and support the spine.

All my family doctors over the years have given me sheets detailing back exercises. I have never been given so much as a prescription for the pain. For me, this has been the extent of the Canadian solution to serious back pain. And so far, it's working. Hold the knife and hold the laser, thank-you. (I wrote this in 2011. I'm adding this in 2018. My back pain situation may have improved a little.  I'm glad that I have not had back surgery.)

In Randy's first installment, a fellow from Windsor suffering from a spinal problem was unable to get the medical help he perceived he needed. In desperation, he turned to Kelly Meloche, the head of Windsor's International Health Care Providers.

The man told Randy. "Before I knew it, I was in Tampa, Florida, at the Laser Spine Institute. There, doctors did a laser procedure not available in Canada. The fellow said, "I walked off the operation table. I felt great. It was crazy. It was almost surreal."

As it turned out, the 2007 operation worked only for a time. Things looked great for a year and a half, then the Windsor fellow's headaches returned. I wondered if his experience was common. I googled "Laser Spine Institute Tampa complaints" and I read:

My husband had surgery in May 2008. A decent experience, and he was mostly pain free after...for a few months. Now he is just as he was before surgery. Why? I can't explain it, but this certainly makes the out of pocket payment not worth it for us. Apart from the medical, they dropped us like a hot potato after the cash was in hand. Multiple phone calls were not returned. A 3 month and 6 month follow up came in the same envelope. When we managed to reach someone, and complain about calls not being returned, we were directed to call others on the staff. Apparently they were too busy to call us. Insurance forms were not submitted as promised upon our departure - took 4 months to get them to make the claims. BTW, our next door neighbor also went there with unsuccessful results, and the same dismissal. They don't like it when you do not become a new testimonial!

I looked down the comment list. Some were positive and then I spotted one from a Canadian out of Lachine, Quebec.

Don't go there!! Please I beg of you not to waste your money or your health. I had a discectomy done at LSI in 2008 and they ruined my back for life. Not only did they damage my nerve endings, they permanently destabilized my spine. My current neurosurgeon is not sure if my S1 nerve will ever fully recover. I had to be rushed to the emergency ward the evening after the LSI surgery. LSI did not take any steps to rectify the issue. The hospital informed me that I was not the first patient from LSI to be rushed to the ER after surgery.

I read more comments:

• . . . all I can say about LSI is DO NOT GO THERE!!!
• . . . everything was fine for six weeks and then the pain came back. now it's as bad as ever.
• . . . bad experience with LSI. I am in much more pain than before I walked in.
• . . . Do NOT go to LSI. I had surgery there on Sept. 26, 2007. I cannot describe the hell I have been through, physically and financially, with these people . . . filing suit for medical malpractice, fraud, and malfeasance.

To be fair, the Windsor fellow still credits the laser surgery in Florida for relieving much of his pain, although he was left with a $17,000 medical fee. But the laser operation didn't stop him from seeking more medical help. He is now crossing the border at Windsor to travel into Michigan to get $1200 botox injections.

As I said, not all the comments on the Internet about LSI are negative. One person wrote: "I had surgery on July 16, 2008 and have considered it a great success."

So, what does one believe? I leave the final word to Mark McLaughlin, MD, FACS, FAANS, from Princeton who wrote an article titled: The Laser Myth in Spine Surgery

Laser Spine Surgery: It has almost zero usefulness in your spine surgery and in fact may be harmful - R. McLaughlin MD

No laser surgery for me, thank you. Now, where did I put those sheets of doctor-recommended back strengthening exercises?
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The following is here simply because it was in the original post. It has been removed as of March 2018.

On the other hand there are the newspaper articles, such as the ones from the St. Petersburg Times, about a questionable Florida surgeon who gained fame for his laser approach to curing spinal problems:  Back doctor sues and Is surgeon innovative, or unfit? or this article titled Treat the Leg or Pull it?

A couple of months after Randy Richmond did his article, Bloomberg did a story on the Florida laser spine surgery clinics: Laser Spine Surgery More Profitable Than Google Sees Complaints. Follow the link if you're interested.

I don't know what to believe but I have decided not to go to Florida. No laser surgery for me, thank you. Now, where did I put those sheets of doctor-recommended back strengthening exercises?
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If you haven't guessed, I support the Canadian health care system. Click the link to discover why.

Are there still words best left unsaid?

Maybe I see newspapers differently that you do. To me newspapers are special. I invite a newspaper into my home. It sits with me every morning at my breakfast table and shares stories with me, brings me up to speed on what has happened over the past 24 hours, while I drink my coffee, eat my cereal and just generally wake up.

I find it jarring when my friend asks me, "Why didn't he go after the writer of this crap...?" I change the conversation, I turn the page.

"She pisses off the wrong customer...," my friend, the newspaper, continues.

Now, the word crap I can take but I don't need it bandied about at the breakfast table. But the word piss has no place in day-to-day conversation. This is not the language of someone I want to wake up to. I'm not a prude, honest. I just recall what these words once meant.

One of my favourite columnists at The London Free Press likes to entertain and enlighten me with witty conversation and wise words. He makes me think and laugh at the same time. Ian Gillespie is a fine fellow with whom to share breakfast. He may offend but he is rarely offensive.

Ian has a grasp of English that seems to escape some of his superiors — in rank at the paper, not in class or writing abililty. P. J. Harston likes to throw around the term "wanker". He put the word to good use in his on-line piece, "Earth Day? Screw it!" (P.J. boldly used another questionable word right in his headline.)

Thank goodness for the redesign. Many of The London Free Press links are broken. You will be unable, at least in the short term, to read the Harston piece. (Harston the interactive manager must take some of the blame for all the broken links. I imagine if Harston was looking for a term to describe an interactive manager who cannot get his Internet code correct, he might reach no deeper into his rich vocabulary than the previous paragraph.)

Years ago I knew an English girl, Liz, who was staying with a girlfriend in Detroit. Liz brought the album Hair into her friend's home, but when her girlfriend's father, a Detroit policeman, heard the lyrics Liz was on the way home. I thought he over-reacted.

I would not have expected him to run out and buy the album or get tickets to the musical. Nor would the folk behind the production of Hair be surprise to learn that he was not to be counted among their audience. The Hair folk were not interested in having people like our Detroit policeman among their fans.

Why is it that The London Free Press appears not to be interested in having people like me among their fans?

Aviator Sunglasses Do Not Have to be Expensive

Roots: Distortion Free

The sun is not just hard on our skin, it's also tough on our eyes. For this reason, the glasses we wear should protect us from UVA, which penetrates the skin more deeply than UVB and thus may contribute more to the development of skin cancers, and from UVB, the radiation that causes sunburns.

Most people protect their eyes with sunglasses. Personally, I don't like them. I like my colours bright, clean and untinted. For that reason, I made sure my bifocals block both types of UV radiation. It is not the tint that provides the protection but the UVA and UVB filtering properties of the lenses.

Because sunglasses provide important protection for our eyes, it's important to get the word out. Despite what Anita Sharma of Sun Media says, better quality sunglasses will not "have you reaching deeper into your pocket."

Foster Grant: Total UV Protection

• Sunglasses don't have to be expensive. I found Foster Grant glasses, left, with 100% protection from UVA and UVB, $12.97.
  
• I found Roots distortion free, 100% UV protection, sunglasses at $30.
  
• I found fashionable, full-protection Aviator sunglasses from Alfred Sung for $24.95
• Dockers Aviator sunglasses, available at the Bay in Canada, are priced at $28.
  
• I saw Foster Grant Baby sunglasses with full UV protection and a wraparound design providing additional protection at only $5.97. I bought them. I have a grandchild on the way.
  

David Yurman: Aviators

For highend, very expensive and great fashion, go with the $910 David Yurman cable arm Aviator sunglasses worn by Kate Moss or buy the $525 Robert Marc Aviators noticed on Nicole Kidman. But believe me, you don't have to spend more than $100 for good fitting, protective sunglasses, despite what Sun Media says.



And now a little about Aviator glasses. I started wearing Bausch & Lomb Ray-Ban Aviator glasses back in high school in the '60s. At that time the frames were gold filled rather than gold plated. The difference? Gold filling resulted in a thicker layer of gold than gold plating. It made for more durable frames. I never did wear them out.

In 1937, some seven decades ago, when Bausch & Lomb brought out the metal framed, large lensed style, eye protection was, even then, a main goal. The glasses soon gained a following among pilots in the United States Airforce, but when General Douglas MacArthur was photographed wearing them, they gained important recognition.

But it was Hollywood that made Aviators cool. Think Men in Black, Blues Brothers or Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Who can forget Tom Cruise in Top Gun wearing his Ray-Ban's? The late Michael Jackson wore them.

And, so did I, for forty years. One thing I learned in that time was that Aviators are not "always sexy, smart, in style" — well, maybe they were but I sure wasn't. Don't be too quick to part with $650 for David Yurman Phantom Aviator glasses, not unless you're Tom Cruise, then go for it. On you, Tom, all will be cool.

Addendum: from Best Health Magazine, Summer 2009, and featured by Sympatico

How good are most sunglasses?

The good news: Most sunglasses do provide enough UV protection, says Stephen Dain, director of the optics and radiometry laboratory at Australia’s University of New South Wales. “We test about 2,000 pairs a year, and failure to meet standards is less than one percent.”

Ralph Chou, an associate professor in the school of optometry at the University of Waterloo points out that all too often, "...sunglasses have been marketed as fashion items rather than eye protection.”

What you get for the price

So does price matter? Sunglasses with hefty price tags aren’t necessarily better than the $20 variety. “UV protection costs only pennies so you can get it at any price,” says Chou.

I checked The Dollar Store and sure enough I found sunglasses offering full protection for a buck. (I've read lab tests of these of cheap glasses and the lab results confirm that the cheap sunglasses can offer full UV protection.)

Are there any problems with the cheapies? According to Chou, “...inexpensive lenses may have marginal optical quality. This won’t do any damage, but the distortion can cause headaches or dizziness that can leave you feeling miserable.”

A Note to Sun Media and Quebecor

Hire some editors to go over copy looking for errors. You can't run good quality and bad quality in the same paper and not understand that you are sowing distrust of all you publish when you so willing publish so much chainwide shallow, error prone, filler.