Spinal fusion 1 year on now consulatant says memory pain .
Posted , 6 users are following.
hi , could do with either some advice or some clarification on what my consultant means by memory pain!!.
My story goes a bit like this 6 years ago my back herniated discs in L1/s1 L2 , I had a microdiscetomy following this I went back to the consultant as the pain did not get any better , he said it was memory pain ! , I went and got a second opinion from another hospital and they found that the operation had failed and a disc had then sequthested completly out and was pressing my spinal cord as well as finding a bony island in one of the vertebrates . So this was not memory pain !! Had another op to remove the disc and a spacer put in , this also failed and last year had a fusion of the lower spine , hard ware looks great ( can feel it and lots of pressure ) but the pain is still there , I have been to my consultant today and he starts to talk about memory pain .
I have read a few reports from years ago ( the last time I thought I was going crazy ) and they seem to indicate that there is no such thing especially after a year of recovery and that there is more than likely to be underlying causes to the pain . Should I get another second opinion? My pain consultant has looked at the MRI and has said that there is scar tissue around the nerve ending ( which makes sense ) but my surgeon does not agree . It's been a long six years to be called crazy at the end and still in pain.
Thanks
0 likes, 5 replies
ivan38512 michelleletty
Posted
Now need a L4/L5 Fusion and a L4/L5 Decompression Surgery as my Spinal Canal is still narrowed causing me incapacity/Pain.
Ask for a Myelogram (Contrast Dye injected into your spinal cord and then a CT Scan).
This should show your narrowed nerve canals.
Always get a second and third opinion from other Neurosurgeons who are totally independent of your last Surgeon.
They all ‘cover’ for each other’s surgical treatment ‘errors’.
patricia42193 michelleletty
Posted
pain as I am.
I had 4 spinal fusion surgeries and am still suffering with pain every day. I have so many things wrong with me after all these surgeries.
Believe me I feel your pain.
Be well.
allaroundanne michelleletty
Posted
Speaking as a pain management physician with back issues herself, this is why I consider surgery to be a LAST option and not the first. There are so many other things to try first. You are not having "memory pain" , that is a term used for amputees who feel pain in a limb they no longer have. Your surgeons are mis-using the term. You are what we call failed back syndrome and pain docs make their living off them. We see them by the thousands once the orthopedists of neurosurgeons make their mess and then throw their hands up. Of course, we'd have had a better chance of helping you with your disc before they made all the scar tissue, threw in a bunch of rods and screws, etc. I have met a very few surgeons who will honestly tell their back patients to first try pain management and THEN come back if that didn't work.
At this point your options are, of course medication, they could try to get a spinal cord stimulator in there, but with all the scar tissue it wouldn't probably work very well. I suppose your best bet would be an implanted catheter that would deliver tiny amounts of drugs into your spinal fluid to help your pain. They would use amounts small enough to not dull your senses and pick out which drugs work best for what type of pain you have, i.e. if you have more muscle spasm, use an anti-spasmodic. The catheter is attached to a little pump they put under your skin and it is programmed to deliver a set amount, you don't have to worry about it at all. When I was faced with a failed back patient who had multiple surgeries, that was usually my treatment of choice, unless they were adamant about no more procedures.
HTH
Terry_the_Tumor allaroundanne
Posted
hi, My name is Madonna. You seem to indeed know what you are talking about. Where are you based. i would love to get a consult from you. I have had a haemangioma on my L1 and 10 months ago I had a huge operation, as i an episode that I lost the feeling in my feet, my legs went wonkie and I could not feel my private parts very much. Anyway. i have had an emergency 4 level fusion and a vertebral laminectonmy on 2 levels around the L1. I just would love to talk to someone about what I should expect in the future, with pain and or loss of feeling etc. As i am getting different sensations now in my feet. If you could give me your details to see if your practice is within distance to my city. sincerely Madonna. Townsville, Qld.
allaroundanne Terry_the_Tumor
Posted
Is QLD Queensland Australia? I don't think I will be seeing you anytime soon, Madonna as I live in FL in the US. I can answer your questions though. You really didn't have a choice about surgery with the hemangioma ( btw, I have on on T1, but it's luckily sort of small). Anytime that you have emergency surgery the doctors are thinking in order, 1. Save her life, 2. Save as much of her function and sensation as we can 3. Worry about things like pain, being scarred, etc last. So to the surgeons that did your emergency surgery they did # 1 and #2 very well, you are alive and you had lost sensation to multiple parts of your body, they brought them back! SUCCESS, right? To the surgeon it is. They hardly care if the sensation they brought back is pain, which aggravates the heck out of pain management physicians. Anyway, here is our speech. The best thing about nerves is that they do grow back. From the time that they are harmed, they repair themselves for 18 months. During that time you can have all sorts of sensations, some odd, some painful, some tingling, it's all just the nerve coming back to life again. Hopefully at the end of 18 months the nerve will be back to normal and operate as it did before it was harmed. That's not a guarantee, just a hope. And, it is my hope for you that your spine will be fine.
Lynn