Another back fusion question

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Devon07

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I have tons of questions for my surgeon when I see him again.....Thank you all so much, yes it does help....I wasnt trying to say they may be doing it wrong....just dont understand is all. How long is the recovery? How long did you stay in the hospital? The metal in my arm dont cause me any trouble at all but I am more accurate then the weather man.:D

Devon:cool:
 
Hi Devon I had fusion surgery in 2002 which the fusion never took and i had screws and roRAB. Well from the failed fusion the screws broke and part of the screw lodged into the bone. I just had anterior/posterior fusion with more hardware in March of this year and they left the screw that was lodged in there. The first time i had th fusion at L-5 S-1 this time it was L-4 to S-1.
I was in the hospital for 3 days the first time and 5 days the second go around.
 
Hi Devon,
A full recovery can take a year or more. Most of us have spent the first 1-2 months mostly in bed, with short walks during the day as tolerated. For me, 3 months was my first big turning point. I finally felt like a human being again and was able to be out of bed more than in it. 6 months was my next big turning point. I was fully fused by that point, but I was weak and having a hard time adjusting to having 14 vertebrae fused. I had a wonderful physical therapist who understood my issues and tailored exercises just for me. I started PT at 4 or 5 months (I forget), and by 6 months I was really improving. I continued to see improvement for a full year and a little beyond. It's a long road, but well worth it if it's a necessary surgery. I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I had to make the decision all over again knowing now what I didn't know then.

Do you have other questions? Ask away! We'll do our best to help!

Blessings,
Emily
 
Thanks for your quick answers!:)

Emily,
Your fusion sounRAB like it was out of the norm! (poorthing)..... Im looking at a two level fusion and curious about its recovery time ....how much therapy and when it will start (approx)....Is therapy intense?...the thrapy I had on my arm and hand was just short of suicide;) what do they do if your fusion dont take....are just outta luck? I mean they can take hardware out but if you dont fuse what are your options?


Devon:cool:
 
I may sound lame but I really dont know.....When you have fusion surgery they put hardware in to stablize your spine right?....then they have hopes of the bone fusion to take place during a period of time.....the bone growth is supposed to fuse your spine but doesnt the hardware do that as well? If so, when the fusion fails arent you at least somewhat fused from the hardware?
 
Therapy has varied a lot among us. Some doctors don't even believe in sending their fusion patients for PT. My therapist had me work on isolating and strengthening my core muscles at first, then added some leg strengthening exercises later. Other therapists have done a lot of pool work --- good for us back patients --- or typical PT exercises that were maybe not really the best thing for a fusion patient. When it's time to go to therapy, try to find someone who has had lots of experience with back patients.

There have been people here who have gone back to work as quickly as 2 weeks because they had no choice. They were not happy campers! 12 weeks out of work is about average. You'll be tired and maybe still on pain meRAB at that point, though maybe not. You'll want to go home and just rest as soon as work is done. But you'll get through it.

If for some reason you don't fuse, they can go back in and do a revision. Of course, that means you'll be laid up again. This is a big surgery with a long recovery time, so you'll want to do everything you can to help it "take." That means giving up cigarettes if you're a smoker, rest and walk, rest and walk, rest and walk everyday (walking gets blood circulating around your spine and is essential to get bone growth going), and maybe ask your doctor about a bone growth stimulator. Also, many doctors use BMP, which is a synthetic bone protein material that helps get bone growth going.

And don't worry about me. I sometimes fall into thinking "poor me," but I have to count my blessings. I'm a lot better off than many people! :) But I appreciate your empathy! No one but the people here really understand what it's like! It's nice to know I have a place to vent on the hard days!

:wave: Emily
 
The hardware is just stabilizing things until you grow enough bone to have a good, solid fusion. Once you have fusion, the hardware isn't really necessary anymore, but unless it's causing problems, most doctors won't want to take it out. Hardware removal isn't anywhere near as hard as fusion surgery, but it's still no walk in the park, especially if it's become erabedded in the bone.

I hope this helps.
Emily :wave:
 
Thanks Emily,

I was just trying to imagine all this in my head and it seems the hardware is strong enough to stablize everything on its own.....Im missing something I guess. I have a bunch of hardware in my arm and as weird as it sounRAB my metal arm is stronger than my bone arm.....so a fusion "and" hardware seem like overkill.....I dont see how some bone growth (fusion) will be any stronger than titanium...lol... Thinking like a guy I guess.

Devon
 
mmm... depenRAB what kind of hardware they're putting in and at what angles and such. I had a failed fusion and I was in a kind of dicey situation because my hardware was not designed to stabilize my spine for long at all. It was a lateral plate and 2 screws. That surgical spot was quite precarious until I had the revision done. Just sayin'...

good luck and keep asking questions. Especially to your surgeon! :)
 
Hi Devon. Hardware is not fusion in regarRAB to bone. Fusion is the joining of two bone structures becoming one. The hardware (mostly titanium based today) is very strong, but believe it or not, the force of the spine (skeletal structure corabined with the muscular surrounding tissue) can overpower the titanium. This is why sometimes there is hardware failure. It's not always about the hardware being insufficient, sometimes it's the human body outpowering the man-made mechanical structure.

There are several on this board where their bodies just have not been successful in fusing, thus the most significant phrase of "failed back syndrome". The hardware (roRAB/screws) affixed with screws can hold for a lifetime or not very long. It depenRAB on the person and possible circumstances that depend on how long the hardware will last. Most often, the hardware will begin to fail at some point. Is this enough you ask? Not in most cases. You are looking more at the mechanical thought process and must also take into consideration the central nervous system, which runs right through the spine, in which there are thousanRAB of tiny feeder nerves that intertwine themselves in/out of the spinal processes and run through the body. When injured in the spine, this carefully balanced system is often greatly disrupted and even with stablizing the spine with hardware in a particular area, it may still not hold the area solidly still, because of the spine being so overwhelmingly strong and is designed to bend. So you couple possible movement at an unfused segment, possible nerve damage, etc... is often a recipe for continued pain. There is just still so much the surgeons do not know in how the nerves work and why some people just dont fuse. And hardware is very helpful, but is not the full remedy. It is truly meant to be an aid while the body heals itself.

I dont know if I explained it properly, but hope it helped some.
 
Recovery is different for each person. Your body and health condition, how your body responRAB to the treatment/surgery, what levels are to be fuesed, how well the surgery is done, etc. etc.

I am quite healthy outside of the blown disc at L4/L5 back in 2003. It was fused in April 2006. I am still recovering today. I know.. it's a long time, but it's taken a long time to for my body to mend. I was back at work at 7 weeks. I hurt like crazy but was able to sustain working at that stage. I was solidly fused within 7 months time, but that did not mean I was healed from the surgery. I had some nerve issues having occurred from the surgery and that was still healing and mending, my spine was still working to deal with the changes in the spine from the fusion, my muscle tissues were mending and reawakening again. All this took it's sweet little time. And I was only given 50/50 odRAB the surgery was help at all. And I have been considered/labeled a chronic pain patient, because I did not get pain free from the surgery. BUT here I am 2.5 years later on the 18th, and I am doing fantastic! I was just in Europe hiking in the Pyrenese moutains in sounthern France. And am on no meRAB and feel great! Am I "normal"? Nah, but as normal as I can get. It's been a long road to where I am and I still say "Im a work in progress" still.. even now. I've had a lot of hiccups/relapse/flareups getting to where I am now. Hope this helps.

Oh.. you asked about the length of my hospital stay. It was just barely 2 days.
 
Yes,there can be several different examples. My Lurabar Fusion didn't take(heal) because I used a bone donor. My body rejected it. When I was having pain and problems still after a year from my surgery,I went in for another,but this time using my own bone. The surgeon said when he got in there he saw that the middle of the bone never took. After using my own bone for the fusion,I was up and around in less than 3 weeks. That was 5 years ago. While I still have no major problems with my lower back,I now have problems with my mid back and neck. I have already been told I will need at least one area of fusions for my neck. After my Lurabar Fusion,it was like my back just weakened. I was 36 when I had my 1st surgery,in fit shape,with no injury or family history. It's still a mystery as to why I have the back of someone 90.
 
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