Post lumbar laminectomy

Hi, this is my first time blogging on this site. I feel for all you with back surgery.

I as well had a laminectomy 8 weeks  ago. Fusion and bone graft. No more nerve painin my back or legs. It was the hardest thing I have done in my life. I am a 55 year old woman. I am very active. I am a runner andoutdoors person. My full time job is working in a warehouse. I went back to work after 6 weeks. It is so tough for me. I am supposed to NOT lift things more than 25 lbs. I am constantly moving about all day. I am so exhausted after work and my back gets sore so I ice every day and take Advil and tylenol. I am able to run some but since going back to work, not at all.  The hardest part I found was getting of the pain med.(Hydromorphion) The dr. didn't tell me to taper so when I ran out I went into withdrawl for 7 days. It was awful!!!Sever depression,anxiety nausea,sweating.

i had no idea how certain pain killers can effect your whole bodya nd mind. I called the Dr. when I was 4 days without med. He said he could perscribe some more of the same med. but taper down. I said I do not want any more of this drug,for i knew once I got back on I would not want to get off of it. I decided to just go woth out for the 7days. 

Hi Sandra… how are you feeling these days? I have also been told by a physical therapist that because of realignment, all of the muscles, ligaments, nerves have to stretch and adapt to the new structure. I feel straighter and I like that... I have less Lordosis (swayback). Even looks different when I stand sideways in front of the mirror. I do not feel the rods and screws, but that area is flatter on the outside since some of those bones had to be removed.

Two months ago I had my surgery. L5 spondylolisthesis, Fusion of L4, 5 and S1 (which for me looks like an L6). Involved moving L5, 2 rods, six screws, titanium baskets with bone inside for fusion (some my bone, some from bone bank). Doctors say I'm doing well and next check up September 11. Like some of you have written here, I am now free of stabbing pains but still pretty sore in hip and buttock region with tweaks and spasms there and in legs occasionally, can't sit too long without getting up and moving, standing too long causes pain, but I am able to walk outside and some days can do only a block or two, some days more.

Still being very careful about bending, lifting, twisting (BLT as the professionals here. I have one of those picker tools in each room and even in the car. Wonderful gadgets. At 66, I plan to keep using them to take good care of my less than perfect spine. I think I'm doing okay and have excepted that this will take likely many more months.

Still taking meds for nerve pain, muscle spasm, and a mild pain pill or naproxen daily. 

I hope that's normal…?

I also have two minor thoracic scoliosis curves and 30 years ago a bad fall and fractured coccyx. Coccydynia (ongoing pain) since the fall. I am the cushion queen... one in every chair at home, one in the car, and carrying a cushion into restaurants, movies or anywhere I will have to sit for a while. The fall exacerbated congenital spondylolisthesis, which has slowly worsened each decade. Nothing to be done for the coccydynia, so I'm told.

Once I found a well recommended surgeon who said he could help me, I decided to go ahead with the surgery since the last couple years had become more and more painful. The surgery went really well, but of course I still have the coccydynia.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with how it's going and so glad I had this done before I got any older. I too recommend doing plenty of research and making sure you get to the right clinic and surgeon. Mine was a neurosurgeon and I wouldn't have had it any other way. 

Like you, I appreciate any comments.

I have two rods about 9 " long in my spine with three stablization supports and about nine screws done in Jan. of 2014.  I had to learn how to walk starting with a walker, I walk well now, but have discomfort sitting and bending.  Have leg and hips muscle cramps.  I was told the same things about the muscles adjusting to the trama as our house caught fire and I had to leap from my second story bedroom window to excape the flames and my life.  Wore a front and back body cast for seven months.  I went to rehab for a month, then to physical therapisty for three months.  That help me a lot to increase my flexability in my lower back and hips.  I wake up stiff in the morning also, stritching helps a lot and just getting up and moving around.  I do not usually have pain from sitting or lying down on my back,,I do sleep in a small size hospital bed with rails.  It just takes time for those ligaments and muscles to stretch back in shape, I will always have one leg 1/2 inch shorter.All of our bodies heal at different rates so hand in there.  I have not tried to go through an airport metal detector yet....lol

Blessings, Ron

I am a 61 year old man who had surgery for spinal stenosis last Oct. 23, 2013. Laminectomy with fusion (L1-5, S1). This was a major major surgery that required me to be in the operating hospital for 9 day and then be moved to a great rehabilitation hospital where I stay for a month. To begin with I could not what nor sit up in bed without help. So much pain. By far a huge test of my will power. I am coming up on a year of recover and it has been rehab al the way. At this point my pain is tolerable and I am not on any meds. I spend 2 hours in a fitness room and 2 hours in the swimming pool walking and exercising 4 times a week. To  get better one must exercise smartly, consistently, get off  all the narc meds as soon as possible and don,t give into self pity. By the way, through this all I have had a orthropedic surgeon , a rehabilitation doctor, an internal medicine doctor, and family that are all simply incredible. You will get better as time pass and you bring active. It's a big challenge though. I know. 

 

Hi Sandra, According to my calculations, you are now 12 months post Lumbar Laminectomy and flexible fusion. My surgical procedure was a Decompression Laminectomy at L4-L5 with instumentation fusion and bone graft Posterior Approach almost 8 wks ago now. I learned that I have some major Arthritis throughout my spine along with stenosis. I am 66 yrs young and retired from Orthopedic Surgical and Joint Replacement at a Class I Trauma Center in the US in May of '14. I have always been a very active lady and must admit, very hard on my back throughout life. In 1982 I was hit from behind waiting for a traffic light to change so I could continue on to work. The teenager was driving at 60 MPH and not paying attention to the road and I was not wearing a seatbelt. The result was Cervical Spine issues for almost a decade that slowly discipated. I suffered with achy muscles in and around the neck and shoulders that a posture correction would take care of. I never had lower back problems at all until Sept of '13 when I strained the muscles in the lower back at work one day and that pain just kept worsening. By the time I was ready to go in for surgery, I was suffering terrible Sciatic nerve pain from the buttock down to the back of the knees on both sides every time I got up (pressure) to stand or walk. I just wanted my life back. As I said, I am now almost 8 weeks post op and doing very well. I returned to my room from the Recovery Room with a smile on my face...the pain was gone. Recovering at home has been a real challenge. My daughters and my brother took turns staying with me to help for the first 2 weeks. I went in to see my Neurosurgeon @ 2 weeks and showed off for him. I was fortunate enough to work down the hall from the Neuro Surg Dept and knew the docs by sight and reputation. I chose the Asst Neurosurg Department Head as my surgeon and he was wonderful. My suggestion to anyone in the States or who is planning to have their surgery in The States to research their procedure as well as the best Neurosurgeon available. Orthopaedic Surgeons are also capable of doing this procedure. The reason I chose to go out of my own speciality was secondary to my age. My surgery was Nov 11th. I was placed on the BLT precautions also. I found that for the first 2 weeks I experienced some pretty severe muscle spasms in the pelvis and hip areas that slowly resolved. I drove for the first time at 6 weeks (they make this really cool round twist seat that you can buy--I got mine from WalMart but I think that you can Google swivel seat cushion and find it---that helps with getting in and out of the car without the need to twist). Just a hint. I paid less than $30 for mine. Anyway, I am doing well. It is now almost 2 weeks later and I do tend to become uncomfortable if attemping to stand still for any length of time. At he sink doing dishes. On the deck, talking to the neighbors when they come to check on me, etc. I am curious as to how you are doing at 12 months out from surgery. I can walk in the grocery and I go for walks 3-4 times per week, but I do this alone and to be honest, I am reluctant to take off on a 1-2 mile trek that I might not be able to make it back from. I read from someone's response to you that they swim? I cannot imagine trying to swim right now, but cannot wait until I am able to. Can you please update your progress for us. Thanks Sandra. Hope you had happy holidays.

hallo Sandra - now your surgery is long time ago and I assume you have discovered that it needs a lot of good physiotherapy and training to get your optimal strength back... my surgery is 2 years old now and for the first 3 months I was very careful - since the surgeon told me to. He said that the first 3 months are considered"newly operated"...

therafter i was introduced to more and more extensive training - and when i got pain i took painkillers - I was told (also by the psychologist who works there) that it is very important to teach the body to forget the old pain...I hpoe you are dpoing well now and I feel sorry you were not given the treatment you derserved... 

 

hello there I am 25 years old and I had spinal fusion done on my l4 and l5 and June of 2012. I live in the US. Before I had the fusion done life was unbearable I was diagnosed at 14 and had surgery at the age of 22. The pain that you are describing is exactly what I am going to be having fixed tomorrow even. 2 years after surgery almost 3 I'm still having lots of pain and issues. When I bend over it hurts but it hurts worse standing up well standing back up right I'm stiff as soon as I wake up and it only gets worse and worse as the day goes on so whenever I twist just wrong I'm out of commission for anywhere from an hour to three days it just depends. I also on top of this have a 5 year old and PTSD along with other mental disorders. I'm sure you can imagine how hard it is with a five year old on top of all of these health problems. So I completely understand I'll be putting up a YouTube video because it seems that whenever I did my research I couldn't find hardly anything about spinal fusion expescially with people my age or from personal experience all I could find was medical documents but I wanted to hear stuff from a real person from someone who actually went through it I wanted to hear from experience. So tomorrow 2015 January this I will be going in to basically and have them kill the nerves in my lower back and since they don't affect anything else but the joints that are affected I should have no longer have any back pain I really hope this procedure is available where any of you are aware anybody who reads this is but I did just found out yesterday at about 3 weeks pregnant so now I don't know what I'm going to do if I can't have this procedure done what am I going to do laugh out loud already have enough pain as it is that it's to the point of almost unbearable all the time now the baby on top of it I don't know what I'm going to do but to answer your question further I do know that pain is common and very common but it is actually treatable talk to your doctor about categorizing the nerves on the joints of your spine about 95 percent of people who have had fusion and or things like Denton lower back is a very common procedure done now and actually help ....about 5% of those it doesn't and you knowif it doesn't it doesn't but its better then for sure knowing you're taking pain pills for the rest of your life or you'd rather end it is that painful but I hope that that at least makes you feel better at least you got to have some of your life pain free I don't know what it's like I don't know what it's like.

Hi Sandra,

I have had these excruciating leg and back pains for years from spondylothesis. The problem is getting worse and I cannot walk or stand for more than ten minutes but I am petrified of having a spinal fusion in case of more problems.

Can you tell me how yiou are now and do you think it is worth having this major surgery.