Re: Fusion Regrets

[Guest guest]

The surgery with the " little cuts " of which you wrote is probably a

thorasoscopic approach. The group of people who actually are

candidates for this are small, and you don't see many doctors doing

it, or even acting all that interested (I've never even heard of ONE

person on the NSF board having it done).

I had a posterior approach - fusion from T4-L1.

As far as hardware weight, 316 SS (stainless) screws and rods would

have weighed in at roughly a lb. My titanium screws and Vitallium (a

proprietary cobalt/chromium/moly alloy - very MRI-able) rods weigh

*about* 6 oz. I have no idea how much difference that makes - lol.

Gotta go get ready ... walking my 5K today at 33 days post-op! ;-)

Regards,

Pam

> > > ... > And there's growing consensus that surgeons

> > > want to replace all

> > > > nonsurgical procedure with vertebral

> > > stapling..they want to

> > > > recommend this procedure at about 20 degrees

> > with

> > > high likelihood of

> > > > progression...

> > >

> > > > There are effective treatments out there like

> > > Spinecor for

> > > > example...patient groups from 20-45 degree

> > curves

> > > had 96% success

> > > > rate in preventing surgery according to july

> > 2007

> > > issue of journal

> > > > of pediatric orthopedic..

> > > >

> > > > You don't see surgeons talk about this therapy

> > do

> > > you? lol...the

> > > > journal editors have given opinion that there's

> > > enough evidence to

> > > > warrant further study and development of this

> > > treatment and it's

> > > > being largely ignored by the surgeons...they'd

> > > rather develope more

> > > > surgical technique...

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > > ---------------------------------

> > > Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all

> > with

> > > Mobile. Try it now.

> > >

> > > [Non-text portions of this message have been

> > > removed]

> > >

> > >

> >

> >

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[Guest guest]

I was told that isn't a good way to go. Both of the surgeons I saw told me that

absolutely the thoracic would get worse and eventually would need surgery. Also,

pain wise, without straightening out the upper curve, which is the primary

curve, the pain would not be addressed. How long has it been, and how do you

feel?

Re: Fusion Regrets

I don't know for sure if the spine above and below the affected parts would have

gotten worse along with the others or not, but I think so. Remember tonot twist

or pivot your feet. Your unfused vertebrate will last longer.

Lana

beckybugkins <beckybugkins> wrote:

I am having a terrible time accepting the fact that I have to have

more surgery for this spinal stenoisis below the fusion and rods.

Maybe I should not have had the Scoliosis Surgery in the first place.

Why didn't this doctor tell me that spine below and above the rods

would wear out? Would this have happened anyway?

------------ --------- --------- ---

Never miss a thing. Make your homepage.

[Guest guest]

HI, Randie, well it's been 5 1/2 months and I feel pretty good. I'm getting

closer to being off my pain meds but still can't take anti-inflammatories so not

yet. My lumbar feels great; very secure and no pain from the fusion. I'm still

having sciatica, that was my reason for the surgery, (I remember before the

surgery someone on this chat said " you might not get rid of your sciatic pain "

and I was thinking they were crazy, but it's the truth. I've talked to a few

people that said it took a couple years for the sciatica to go away, I'm

praying.) I've never had that much thoracic pain, just some aching here and

there. I'm working hard on getting into shape; I've lost 20 lbs. but I want my

muscles to be toned up. My hips muscles, on both sides, flare up somewhat. As

for my thoracic curvature, I know that there's a chance I might not be able to

maintain without that surgery, but I really wanted to try, and my surgeon, Dr.

Hu, well known and head of the dept at UCSF, understood

where I was coming from. She said she would have preferred to do the whole

spine, but I would have had to be fused from high thoracic all the way down to

L5 and maybe to the sacrum. I always said I wouldn't have that surgery and it

was hard to go in just for the lower surgery. I'm doing alot of strength and

stretching exercises and hoping to make the next 10 years the best they can be.

Anyone else out there that thinks this is a crazy approach? As a RN, I had seen

some bad results to full spinal fusions, and I just didn't want to go there.

Thanks for asking.

Debbie

Randie Meyer <taknitlite@...> wrote:

I was told that isn't a good way to go. Both of the surgeons I saw

told me that absolutely the thoracic would get worse and eventually would need

surgery. Also, pain wise, without straightening out the upper curve, which is

the primary curve, the pain would not be addressed. How long has it been, and

how do you feel?

Re: Fusion Regrets

I don't know for sure if the spine above and below the affected parts would have

gotten worse along with the others or not, but I think so. Remember tonot twist

or pivot your feet. Your unfused vertebrate will last longer.

Lana

beckybugkins <beckybugkins> wrote:

I am having a terrible time accepting the fact that I have to have

more surgery for this spinal stenoisis below the fusion and rods.

Maybe I should not have had the Scoliosis Surgery in the first place.

Why didn't this doctor tell me that spine below and above the rods

would wear out? Would this have happened anyway?

------------ --------- --------- ---

Never miss a thing. Make your homepage.

[Guest guest]

I also started slow. L4-L5, then T4-L5, then L5-S1. Looking back I wish I'd done

it all at one time. Now I've had to do the recover three times. Not to mention

the stress of 4 surgeries. But we have to do what we're comfortable with. What

area did you get fused? And when you say you have sciatica pain, do you mean

pain in your hip or actually the sciatica? I have pain in my right hip almost

all the time. I was hoping it would be gone with this last surgery and so far

it's not. I know it's not my sciatica, it's just muscles that I believe are

weaker than the other side and I tend to use them, I've noticed more, I guess

because of my crookedness. It's interesting when I pay close attention to how I

use my body. I hold onto old patterns that I no longer need to do. I'm trying to

retrain my body to work more evenly and I hope that pain in my hip will

eventually get better too.

Re: Fusion Regrets

I don't know for sure if the spine above and below the affected parts would have

gotten worse along with the others or not, but I think so. Remember tonot twist

or pivot your feet. Your unfused vertebrate will last longer.

Lana

beckybugkins <beckybugkins> wrote:

I am having a terrible time accepting the fact that I have to have

more surgery for this spinal stenoisis below the fusion and rods.

Maybe I should not have had the Scoliosis Surgery in the first place.

Why didn't this doctor tell me that spine below and above the rods

would wear out? Would this have happened anyway?

------------ --------- --------- ---

Never miss a thing. Make your homepage.

[Guest guest]

Another thing I've come to believe. I think that aftercare is highly underrated

by the surgeons. I know of a scoli clinic in TX that insists on at least 3 wks

of rehab in their clinic after the full fusion. It's part of the whole

procedure. I was sent home with little to no direction, I could barely move, and

that was that. This time I insisted on help at home, PT at home, and I went to 5

days of rehab.

Re: Fusion Regrets

I don't know for sure if the spine above and below the affected parts would have

gotten worse along with the others or not, but I think so. Remember tonot twist

or pivot your feet. Your unfused vertebrate will last longer.

Lana

beckybugkins <beckybugkins> wrote:

I am having a terrible time accepting the fact that I have to have

more surgery for this spinal stenoisis below the fusion and rods.

Maybe I should not have had the Scoliosis Surgery in the first place.

Why didn't this doctor tell me that spine below and above the rods

would wear out? Would this have happened anyway?

------------ --------- --------- ---

Never miss a thing. Make your homepage.

[Guest guest]

Hi, Randie: I was fused L4, L5, S1: it was a sloppy mess down there: the 40

degree curve was only part of it: I had spinal stenosis; herniated discs at 4

and 5. Everything was moving around. It's so stable now. I do have sciatica all

the way down my left leg; it stops at the bottom of my shin. Sometimes I can

track it all the way down; it doesn' t start at my back, but at my hip, then

down my lateral thigh, and it often crosses over my shin to the medial side.

It's a bear sometimes, mostly at night. I think it's getting better, but the

last week it's really been acting up. But I went off the patches at last, and I

don't want to go back. I can see now that they were messing with my appetite.

I'm eating again! I now what you mean about doing the whole thing at once, Now

that I'm pretty much rehabbed I think " What would it be like if I had done my

thoracic curve too? " But at the time, I just couldn't see myself fused from T2-3

all the way down to S1, which would have really

been limiting. I know some are out there with this kind of fusion, but I wasn't

ready. The nurse in me, I guess. I always said I would never have surgery unless

I couldn't walk or the pain got too bad. Well, the pain got too bad. It was

still hard for me to give it up and say I needed surgery. I went through a kind

of mental breakdown at the end of last summer until I admitted to myself that I

would have to do it. So here I am. And the question is, If I do have to do the

upper back, I should do it before I get too old. I'm 57 now. Healthy, otherwise.

But I know it gets harder the older you get. Anyway, TODAY I feel pretty good. I

walked over 2 miles yesterday, the most yet. I thought I might be pretty sore

today, but I'm not, thanks to stretching and hot tub, I guess. Walking through

the sciatica has been the hard part. But if I go fast enough, apparently the

load on that hip is less, so the pain doesn't come up as bad. I really feel the

sciatica is from my left piriformis

muscle, that attaches to the sacrum and the hip, and not from my back. I feel

that the 3 years that my sciatica was getting worse, my piriformis compensated

for my messed up lumbar, but my surgeon doesn't see it that way. Oh, well. Have

a great day.

Debbie

Randie Meyer <taknitlite@...> wrote:

I also started slow. L4-L5, then T4-L5, then L5-S1. Looking back I

wish I'd done it all at one time. Now I've had to do the recover three times.

Not to mention the stress of 4 surgeries. But we have to do what we're

comfortable with. What area did you get fused? And when you say you have

sciatica pain, do you mean pain in your hip or actually the sciatica? I have

pain in my right hip almost all the time. I was hoping it would be gone with

this last surgery and so far it's not. I know it's not my sciatica, it's just

muscles that I believe are weaker than the other side and I tend to use them,

I've noticed more, I guess because of my crookedness. It's interesting when I

pay close attention to how I use my body. I hold onto old patterns that I no

longer need to do. I'm trying to retrain my body to work more evenly and I hope

that pain in my hip will eventually get better too.

Re: Fusion Regrets

I don't know for sure if the spine above and below the affected parts would have

gotten worse along with the others or not, but I think so. Remember tonot twist

or pivot your feet. Your unfused vertebrate will last longer.

Lana

beckybugkins <beckybugkins> wrote:

I am having a terrible time accepting the fact that I have to have

more surgery for this spinal stenoisis below the fusion and rods.

Maybe I should not have had the Scoliosis Surgery in the first place.

Why didn't this doctor tell me that spine below and above the rods

would wear out? Would this have happened anyway?

------------ --------- --------- ---

Never miss a thing. Make your homepage.

[Guest guest]

Randie, I agree with you about the rehab. I was sent home without anything,

also, and though my surgery was smaller, I really needed some advise. I begged

for PT, as my surgeon doesn't really believe in it before 3 months. I would

insist on more help, too.

Debbie

Randie Meyer <taknitlite@...> wrote:

Another thing I've come to believe. I think that aftercare is highly

underrated by the surgeons. I know of a scoli clinic in TX that insists on at

least 3 wks of rehab in their clinic after the full fusion. It's part of the

whole procedure. I was sent home with little to no direction, I could barely

move, and that was that. This time I insisted on help at home, PT at home, and I

went to 5 days of rehab.

Re: Fusion Regrets

I don't know for sure if the spine above and below the affected parts would have

gotten worse along with the others or not, but I think so. Remember tonot twist

or pivot your feet. Your unfused vertebrate will last longer.

Lana

beckybugkins <beckybugkins> wrote:

I am having a terrible time accepting the fact that I have to have

more surgery for this spinal stenoisis below the fusion and rods.

Maybe I should not have had the Scoliosis Surgery in the first place.

Why didn't this doctor tell me that spine below and above the rods

would wear out? Would this have happened anyway?

------------ --------- --------- ---

Never miss a thing. Make your homepage.

[Guest guest]

So you have that pain into the shin too. I was having that for a few months

before my rods broke. I was told it wasn't sciatica. The doc didn't know what it

was, thought I might be unfused which as it turns out, I was. After my rods

broke I had a whole new set of pains, but that one went away. Sciatica is in the

butt not the hip and it supposedly goes down the back of the leg. Thats what

they told me anyway. Your pain sounds exactly like the pain I'd had. Too bad I

can't tell you what was causing mine.

Re: Fusion Regrets

I don't know for sure if the spine above and below the affected parts would have

gotten worse along with the others or not, but I think so. Remember tonot twist

or pivot your feet. Your unfused vertebrate will last longer.

Lana

beckybugkins <beckybugkins> wrote:

I am having a terrible time accepting the fact that I have to have

more surgery for this spinal stenoisis below the fusion and rods.

Maybe I should not have had the Scoliosis Surgery in the first place.

Why didn't this doctor tell me that spine below and above the rods

would wear out? Would this have happened anyway?

------------ --------- --------- ---

Never miss a thing. Make your homepage.

[Guest guest]

Well, according to what I've been told, sciatica can be down the back or on the

side of the leg depending on where the origin is;if it's nerve pain and runs

down the leg, it's sciatica; especially if it's from a nerve that's being

squished between two vertebraes. At different levels, you get different areas

that the sciatica affects; my nerve tract that hurts is typical for pain at the

L4L5 area, but I guess L3L4 tracts differently. Actually sometimes I do get pain

on the back of my leg, and sometimes on the outside, not inside, of my shin. In

other words, it can be all over the place. I went shopping with my husband

yesterday, and just slow ambling around the store is the worst. I decided I

really can't do that anymore, it just wakes up the sciatica really bad. Now, if

I walk briskly, it's not so bad. Not as much of a load on the hip, my PT says.

Go figure.

Debbie

Randie Meyer <taknitlite@...> wrote:

So you have that pain into the shin too. I was having that for a few

months before my rods broke. I was told it wasn't sciatica. The doc didn't know

what it was, thought I might be unfused which as it turns out, I was. After my

rods broke I had a whole new set of pains, but that one went away. Sciatica is

in the butt not the hip and it supposedly goes down the back of the leg. Thats

what they told me anyway. Your pain sounds exactly like the pain I'd had. Too

bad I can't tell you what was causing mine.

Re: Fusion Regrets

I don't know for sure if the spine above and below the affected parts would have

gotten worse along with the others or not, but I think so. Remember tonot twist

or pivot your feet. Your unfused vertebrate will last longer.

Lana

beckybugkins <beckybugkins> wrote:

I am having a terrible time accepting the fact that I have to have

more surgery for this spinal stenoisis below the fusion and rods.

Maybe I should not have had the Scoliosis Surgery in the first place.

Why didn't this doctor tell me that spine below and above the rods

would wear out? Would this have happened anyway?

------------ --------- --------- ---

Never miss a thing. Make your homepage.

[Guest guest]

The same for me. I was told different info tho about the sciatica nerve. I was

told the pain was from nerve issues in the spine, but the sciatica nerve is one

big area in the posterior (butt) area.

Re: Fusion Regrets

I don't know for sure if the spine above and below the affected parts would have

gotten worse along with the others or not, but I think so. Remember tonot twist

or pivot your feet. Your unfused vertebrate will last longer.

Lana

beckybugkins <beckybugkins> wrote:

I am having a terrible time accepting the fact that I have to have

more surgery for this spinal stenoisis below the fusion and rods.

Maybe I should not have had the Scoliosis Surgery in the first place.

Why didn't this doctor tell me that spine below and above the rods

would wear out? Would this have happened anyway?

------------ --------- --------- ---

Never miss a thing. Make your homepage.

[Guest guest]

Yeah, I know, most medical people feel like the sciatica always originates in

the spine; from compression usually. But my PT thinks the sciatic gets squeezed

by the piriformis muscle, which it runs through, because that muscle is

chromically inflammed from working harder for my lumbar. I've also heard that if

nerves are inflammed, it might take a long while to regenerate, so months or

years down the road they may stop hurting. I hope.

Debbie

Randie Meyer <taknitlite@...> wrote:

The same for me. I was told different info tho about the sciatica

nerve. I was told the pain was from nerve issues in the spine, but the sciatica

nerve is one big area in the posterior (butt) area.

Re: Fusion Regrets

I don't know for sure if the spine above and below the affected parts would have

gotten worse along with the others or not, but I think so. Remember tonot twist

or pivot your feet. Your unfused vertebrate will last longer.

Lana

beckybugkins <beckybugkins> wrote:

I am having a terrible time accepting the fact that I have to have

more surgery for this spinal stenoisis below the fusion and rods.

Maybe I should not have had the Scoliosis Surgery in the first place.

Why didn't this doctor tell me that spine below and above the rods

would wear out? Would this have happened anyway?

------------ --------- --------- ---

Never miss a thing. Make your homepage.