I first saw Dr. Francis nearly 10 years ago as a third opinion for a discectomy. I felt so comfortable with him that I wanted to use him back thin for the simple surgery. However, I found out that he was not on my insurance.
I was in a bad car accident back in May of 2012 and a few days following the accident, I found myself in considerable amounts of pain. I knew immediately that I would see Dr. Francis. They were able to schedule me in less than a week and I was taken in for my MRI later that afternoon. I went for my follow-up a week later and found that I was nearly bone on bone at the L4-5 level. Knowing how bad it was, he still tried every conservative treatment to try to avoid surgery. After 3 steroid injections along with 6 weeks of PT, we finally decided that I was going to need a 360 degree 2 level lumbar fusion at the L4-5 and S1 levels.
He explained in great detail exactly everything that would be done to me during surgery. When I was admitted into Pre-op the morning of surgery, I was very well taken care of at The Houston Orthopedic and Spine Hospital. Luckily I wasn’t the least bit nervous about the surgery, so I didn’t require any light sedation in pre-op. As I was rolled back to the surgical suite, I was amazed by how large the room was and by the immense amount of technology in the OR. I’m in sports medicine, so I was excited about what I was seeing. My Anesthesiologist was amazing and explained in detail all the pre-op prep of my body they would be doing. Asked my numerous times about any questions. Once I was happy with what little I asked about, I was out like a light and surgery began. Several hours later, I woke up in my hospital room.
Dr. Francis visited me later that evening and informed me that my surgery could not have gone any better. He informed me that in a few hours I would be “forced” out of bed to take a short walk and get my legs moving. It was especially difficult getting out of bed due to the large incision on the front of my body. Once up, with several nurses, a PT, and my walker, we took a full lap around the floor and I felt great. For the next few days while in the hospital, walking was my best friend.
I was put into a back brace to be worn at all times except while in bed. For three months I wore that and it really did become my safety net. I was very sure I was always following doctor’s orders. I was also issued a bone stimulator that I wore for 2 hours a day for 3 months.
Once I started with physical therapy after getting out of the brace, I progressed quickly. My ROM at the hip where the bone graft was taken was where I had the least range of motion and still had some pain. That eventually went away and things were great.
I just went in this week for my 5-month follow-up and got the best of news. I was completely fused! Dr. Francis said it’s not normal to see a complete fusion until about 6-7 months.
My experience with Dr. Francis was wonderful. He his a very nice, caring, and understanding doctor who you just can’t go wrong with. I highly recommend him. But word to the wise. If you really WANT to get better, you need to follow his directions to letter of the law. He just doesn’t tell you to do these things for no good reason. If you follow his directions, I can’t imagine that you won’t get better.