Shocking Quantification

During the intial exam at the City of Hope, the nurse took Satomi’s weight and height.  Her weight is basically unchanged but her height was 140cm.  Wait a minute…140cm? 

Let me do the math.  That’s about 55 inches or 4ft 7 inches.  What?!  My height challenged wife has consistently been 4 ft 11 inches.  Now she’s 4 ft 7 inches?  She’s lost 4 inches in height?!  Damn… 

Dr. Mortimer was very interested in Satomi’s spinal fracturers and was referring us to one of their Interventional Radiologist’s to consider her for a vertebroplasty.  This type of injury is not uncommon for persons over 70 years old but very rare for someone only 41.

Vertebroplasty is a procedure where a hole is drilled into damaged vertebrae and liquid plastic is injected into it.  The hydraulic pressure expands the crushed tissue and fills voids which strengtens the bones.  Take a look at:  http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=vertebro for more info.

It’s an outpatient procedure so it seems quite safe.  We’re scheduling an MRI to begin the evaluation process.