4 weeks post L5S1 ALIF Fusion and menstrual cycle

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fedupfor

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I am 4 weeks post op ALIF and will be starting my cycle in a couple of days and my back muscle pain has really increased the last couple of days. This am at 5 I woke up and my back and legs were husting so bad. This is really scared me because my leg pain has been gone since surgery. The day after my surgery I started my menstural cycle, talk about being kicked when you are down!! So here we are the folowwing cycle. I am thinkin g the swelling that comes with your cycle is what is causing my legs to hurt? having increased back pain as well I assume all related to my cycle. I have had a couple of fairly good weeks before now so it is a little scary. Would love to hear from any of you who have experienced the same or similar setback in your recovery! It is amazing how our backs can be effected by so many life stressors. When I have gotten upset since my surgery my back spasms increase! Please help with experiences!!! :wave:
 
I always noticed more back pain from my monthly cycle after I had my first back surgery. In fact I had my tubes tied to be able to go off the pill, but went back on and take it continuously. I do this, in part, to avoid exacerbating my back pain. I also do so due to hormone migraines.
 
I am right there with you. I made the connection a couple of years ago 2wks prior to my cycle I would start getting spasms in mid back, I even thought I had a kidney infection once. All that time it was my cycle adding to my back issues, more greif like we need any more help with the problem. I am 8 months post and still trying to get back on schedual. In recovery I discovered that I was having my period and was told that surgery could induce this. Well it was 2 weeks too soon and ever since and Im still tring to get back on track 18days 24 days 12 days and so on just cant get back in rythm. In addition to being off a week or to prior I get the additional back pains. My PCP told me I should be back on schedual soon and nothing I could do about the additional pain just take my pain meRAB and maybee add some midol or ibuprof. Lot of help there. There are some days I would love a hystorectomy...LOL dont know if this would stop the pains or just be a constant thing. I also tried doing some reseach on Horomone levels in relation to pain with no luck.. Maybee some one can help us there. ;
 
Fedupfor:

Is it just NuvaRing that causes you problems? Would the pill be any better? I am on the pill full time (no perioRAB) and only go off for 1 week every 5-6 months. I had hot flashes last Fall so went off the pill long enough to be tested for pre-menopause. Not yet, hot flashes likely caused by pain med changes. At 43 I keep hoping for early menopause to discontinue the pill as cycles cause too much additional pain!
 
Fedup, I also had Tubes done in the 90's and stopped the pill. Do you feel being on the pill lessens your pain? and by how much. 1-10 I khave also connsidered thaking the year or 3month pill is that what you are on?
 
I too was on BCP pills for years when I was younger and my cycles were nothing if I had them at all. I am now 42 and my tubes are tied and my cycles are as if I was back in high school meaning terrible!! I also recently had the migraines associated with hormones. Went on NUVARING for 2 month and headaches gone!! Had to go off because of the pain in my back had become intolerable to say the least and I was walking around with BP 150/110 P 100 secondary to the amount of pain I was in. I did not want to have a stroke so I d/c the nuvaring. For what ever reason the 2 months fixed my hormone irabalance and no more headaches. Would like to maybe go back on it for a while until I have healed from the surgery and give myself a break!!
 
No problem with NUVARING, just my high blood pressure from pain. BP can cause increased bp and add the pain so I just stopped it myself but being 1 month post op and starting my menstral cycle has been very uncomfortable.
How are you recovering from your fusion so far? I still have a lot of lurabar muscle pain and since I of coursehave not fused yet and being held by a plate and 2 screws I still can move in a position that senRAB me over the top!!
Please share how you are doing since you are about a month or so ahead of me!!
Thank you!
 
I'm doing well considering the amount of work done and the back incision and a 4 inch horizontal hip incision. They went in from my side right above my hip to put a "cage" between L3-L4. That caused some nerve pain down the front of the leg for a few weeks and I still get zingers of that every once in a while. And it led to a few extra days in the hospital as I could not eat until I had sufficient abdominal sounRAB.

The surgery I had essentially fused L3-L4 and replaced all the hardware I already had from L4-S1. So I have two roRAB, one down each side, and screws on each side of L3, L4 and S1. My L5 vertebrae is odd as it will not take screws (that's why years ago my L5-S1 fusion turned into L4-S1 because L5 would not cooperate).

I was in a hard LSO brace for 12 weeks and today I am going to do some light grocery shopping without it, though I fully expect to be resting the rest of the day after that. I also have a bone growth stimulator I wear 24/7 to help the fusion. I saw my doctor 4/12 as we were anticipating flying out of town. He said my fusion was sufficient to endure a flight (around 2.5 hours) and when visiting my brother I would just lay down when needed. That went fine and I just took off the brace to go through security and didn't wear the bone growth stimulator while traveling.

I still get days where I am very sore or I get what I think is hardware pain from the hardware being in the bone. I also get days where, for no reason, I am exhausted beyond belief and can sleep all day and all night. I think it's just my body healing.

I will be doing back PT starting in June. Probably to go back and strengthen my core abdominal muscles. I don't know much about exactly what my doctor wants time to accomplish with the PT yet as he only mentioned it briefly. He'll tell me more at my next visit at the end of May.
 
I had surgery two years ago. I hadn't had a period in months, was menopausal and the day I had my surgery, they got me in my room and I had started my period. I always got severe headaches pre menstration. My back pain was gone, but my head was killing me. Plus I hadn't eaten. I had a headache, they wouldn't give me food or tylenol ...probably afraid I'd bleed from the surgery. My pain medication was intrevenious and only lasted 30 minutes. Then I had to wait 5 1/2 hours for another dose. But I didn't have any back pain. I was week, hungry, then threw up...maybe from the antethesia. And not only that, the nursing staff was awful, except when the drs. were on rounRAB. I had a private room, but could have passed out and no one would know. Also, I must have been close to the nurses station, I had no sleep during my entire stay. Once I was home, I could relax and heal. I wondered at the time if my cycle had anything to do with the surgery????
 
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