Spinal fusion
Posted , 14 users are following.
Anyone here have a spinal fusion? Would like to hear your thoughts.
0 likes, 55 replies
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Notes on Spinal fusion
Naomitate nelly22341
Posted
Hi, I had a spinal fusion on the L5 S1, with a cage, almost 2 years ago. I had pushed it off for years. It was a big success. Prior to surgery I couldn't lie flat in bed for over a year, I was in constant debilitating pain. The surgery is difficult to go through, there's a lot of pain for the month or two after - but, I've been pain-Med free for the last 21 months. I've posted video blogs tracking my recovery on YouTube. Here's a link to the first one - 2 days after surgery:
There's a lot of info there on recovery and what to expect. Good luck!
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nelly22341 Naomitate
Posted
CHICO_MARX nelly22341
Posted
I've had 4 spine ops...each one was very different...
- Decompressive Laminectomy L4-S1: Really bad sciatica...nothing worked. Neuro went in and found a bone spur literally crushing my sciatic nerve root at L4. Did a decompressive laminectomy while removing the spur and shaving back the calcified L5/S1 disc. Immediate pain relief. Took a week or so to get the inflamed nerve back to normal.
- TLIF Fusion L3-S1 (Picture 1): Lots of lower back pain. For the TLIF, they go in from your BACK and install the rails, spacers and screws. Neuro characterized my spine as a "junkyard". After 45+ years of playing hockey, ya gotta pay the price. This was 12 days in the hospital (some post-surgery complications...had to go in again), 4 months of rehab @ 2-3X/week and 6 months in a brace. Still didn't feel better for almost a year. After that, pretty good.
- LLIF Fusion (Picture 2): Back pain above the previous fusion radiating to lower back and down BOTH legs. Diagnosed as bi-lateral foraminal stenosis coming from L2/L3. Choice of another TLIF to remove all the previous hardware and re-fuse me L2-S1...or...do an LLIF where they go in from your SIDE, destroy the disc and insert a device that expands like a car jack. Insert, crank it open to the desired height with an actual Allen wrench, backfill with a bone graft from your hip and close. MIRACLE OP!!!! One night in the hospital, zero rehab, no brace, instant cure!!! This is the best kept secret in spine ops.
- Decompressive Laminectomy L2-L4: Increasing lower back pain radiating from upper lumbar nerve roots. It seems that the LLIF a year before was TOO successful. There was so much bone growth around L2/L3 that it was compressing a lot of nerves in the area. I thought this would be a quick in and out. WRONG!!! Neuro took 3 1/2 hours to clean me out; post-op pain was as bad as my knee replacement. It's now been 4 months with the brace. Starting to feel better but it still lingers. Figure I'll probably turn a corner at 6 months but I don't expect a full recovery for a year.
ALSO... Because we change our gait from the pain, there's a real good chance you'll throw your hips out of alignment or lock up your SI joints. Had this happen 5 weeks after my knee replacement and the past month now too. My chiropractor always gets me back to normal. Had to find a very special chiro who has done lots of work with people who have implants. In my case, it's the two fusions plus my right hip and left knee. She does her work very gently and goes nowhere near the spine metal.
As you can guess, with 4 1/2 pounds of metal in me I'm the TSA's worst nightmare at the airport!!! You just have to give it time. Your recovery will be different from that of everyone else just as my four spine "encounters" were different from each other. Be Zen: "I'll be better when I'm better."
michael54457 nelly22341
Posted
Three years ago now, had no choice, T5 was broken down from non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and pressing on the sc
Still in pain but taking half the meds I was three years back so either the pain is abating or I am just getting used to it.
My goal is to be med free one day.
Hawk15 nelly22341
Posted
KathleenColand Hawk15
Posted
nelly22341
Posted
A lot of people here seem to be on medication a long time after their surgery. I find that scary. I don't want to be on meds for a year or 2 after! What has been your experience with medication?
CHICO_MARX nelly22341
Posted
In my experience (this is just my opinion), I find that people who stay on medication a long time fall into three categories:
- Those whose surgery has failed to remove the source of the pain. This may be a problem with the doctor or their condition is somehow not fully treatable. In such cases, I'd get a second opinion from a top notch neurosurgeon. We use the Fort Worth Brain and Spine Institute. Excellent people. Those in this situation will probably need meds until they can get the root cause corrected...quickly.
- Those who fail to do the rehab work necessary to recover. In any spine situation, rehab is vital to get your life back. Rebuilding all the supporting musculature is critical to taking the pressure off the fused area. If you don't do the rehab faithfully, you'll continue to have pain and need meds. This responsibility likes squarely on the patient.
- Psychological dependence. If these are opioid painkillers, they can easily become addictive. Then people are afraid to get off of them for fear that they will be in pain again so they just keep taking them, convincing themselves that they need them. Not a good situation as some or all of that pain can be just perceived and not objectively real.
The end result could even be a combination of all three. In that case, I would seek out a Patient Advocate who could take a holistic view of the case and recommend a course of treatment concomitant with titration off the drugs. Gotta find the cause and fix it...gotta take responsibility for your recovery...gotta get off the opioids as soon as you can. Are there exceptions to this? Sure...but don't start out thinking you're one of them.
Hawk15 nelly22341
Posted
michael54457 CHICO_MARX
Posted
I agree with what Chico says, regarding the exercise and the painkillers.
I spent 7 months in hospital post surgery because I was paraplegic at first and having chemo for 6 of those months, so they kept me in there.
Saw a lot of people go from surgery to rehab, as I did, with mixed results.
In my case I worked as hard as I could and found the more I exercised the less pain I felt, meaning less medication.
For most of that 7 months I was on 450mg of Pregabalin a day, 30mg Baclofen, as well as Paracetamol. Also they were giving my Amitriptyline for a while "to help me sleep" but did not tell me it was also used as an anti-depressant, so I refused that when I found out.
The day I was released from hospital I cut the Pregabalin back to 225mg a day with no difference to the pain level, but found I could not go below that level.
They had me on twice the dose I needed, even though I asked them to cut back on it.
The harder you work the less pain you will feel and the quicker you will get back to normal.
Been just over three years for me and I am still walking and doing my leg exercises almost every day.
CHICO_MARX michael54457
Posted
Bravo!!!! Too many people look to the docs and a "magic bullet". Doesn't happen. A lot of the responsibility for a full recovery falls squarely on the patient's shoulders to do all the work necessary to get back to normal...or as close as possible. Stay strong!!!!!
Hawk15 michael54457
Posted
Hawk15 CHICO_MARX
Posted
Nnicky15 nelly22341
Posted
I had a spinal fuision when I was 16 and. Sorry to say it ruined my life. I wasn't able to pass high school, no prom, no clubs, no trips, no collage, no work. I've been dependent on others since and have been mostly isolated from the world spending upwards of 20hours at a time alone in my room. I may even have to have another one 10 years later, the thought of which makes me want to give up and die. I was a smart happy kid with a lot of potential. Now I'm dammned to a life that I never would have consented to. I didn't have a choice but if you do I advise you to look at other options.
Hawk15 Nnicky15
Posted
I am so sorry for all of the pain and suffering that you have had to go thru. I agree with you totally. I had 3 disc surgeries before my 2 fusion surgeries. I came back great the first 3 times even playing softball. Now I am in pain every day from 4 to 7 with opiates for a year and a half. Now I hear horror stories about spine stimulators. I have accepted that I will always be in pain until I die. Marijuana is going to be mu last try after I wean myself from the opiates. Good luck and I will pray for you.
CHICO_MARX Hawk15
Posted
Honestly, it helps sooooo many people. Saved my daughter's like from Stage 3, Type C, BRCA-1 breast cancer when she was 35. She's still clean almost 5 years later when the docs gave her a year to live. My wife uses a bit each night to help sleep after her brain aneurysm surgery. The stories are endless. Find the right strain for your issue. This is real medicine...
CHICO_MARX Nnicky15
Posted
It is impossible for anyone to feel the kind of pain you're in considering what you have gone through. In your case, think about creating you own "light at the end of the tunnel". There are so many things you can learn and become expert at. There are so many jobs that you can do from home. Find something that interests you (ex: computers) and apply for a telecommuting job (ex: on-line customer support). Your life is worth something...you just have to find out what your path is and live that journey.
I've got almost five pounds of metal in me and life is certainly not what it was before. I loved doing yard work and landscaping...now I can't bend over (two spine fusions) and kneel on my metal knee. I played hockey for 45 years...that was gone with the metal hip. However, I still work full time telecommuting from home as a process architect for AT&T on a 750-person worldwide virtual team...and I'm 70 years old!!!
Find your life...live your live. It may not be the one you expected but it's the one you have. There are lessons in this that will make you a strong, vibrant person. Turn the depression around and see those lessons. My wife was a psychiatric nurse for 30 years and had a brain aneurysm at age 61. Expected to work and teach until she was 75. Didn't happen. All those "plans" gone in an instant. Now she has to figure out what her new life will be like...but it's hard when she's still mourning the loss of the old one. Some day she will figure it out, just as you have to do. Life is more than what we want...it's all about what we do. Stay strong...live the life you were given to its fullest. Leave the past in the past...
Hawk15 CHICO_MARX
Posted
linda1718 Hawk15
Posted
Linda x
Hawk15 linda1718
Posted
Marijuana after I am weaned off the opiates and settle my case. I have tried everything else except spinal stimulator which I was turned down. I have had multiple injections nerve block, epidurals, steroid etc. Just looking to get off opiates which I have been on since my last fusion 18 months ago.
linda1718 Hawk15
Posted
I know how you feel about the opiates, although I’m in a great deal of pain I was determined to get off mine but no chance of trying Marijuana here in UK!
Hawk15 linda1718
Posted
linda1718 Hawk15
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Hawk15 linda1718
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CHICO_MARX linda1718
Posted
It's called a "titration schedule". All drugs have a half life (the time it takes for 1/2 of the drug to leave the body). When you titrate up, you are trying to stabilize the blood level of the medication at a specific therapeutic point...little or no pain. Going down is the same thing. You're trying to lower the amount of the drug in your system gradually so you're not on a pain roller coaster. It depends on the med, its half-life and your dosing schedule. Better than the docs, pharmacists know this stuff better than anyone. Talk to yours.
PS: I was married to a pharmacist for 25 years and now to a psych nurse for the past 8 who really knows her meds. I've gotten to understand this stuff over many years...
linda1718 Hawk15
Posted
Good luck for Thursday 🤞
See Chico’s post below, he knows his stuff!
Hawk15 CHICO_MARX
Posted