Back spasms after lumbar fusion surgery

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backspasm

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I am a 44 year old male, 7 weeks post spinal fusion at L-4, S1 and L-3. I was doing very well by the 5th week, then woke up from a nap with such horrible back spasms I could not move. These are now happening any time I lie down. I cannot get up from a lying down position without severe, painful back spasms,. and once I do sit up, I get horrible spasms upon standing. My procedure was done with pedicle screws and BMP. I also woke up from surgery with nurabness in my left toe and part of the foot and ankle. My feet hurt and burn when I walk, but my CT scans look normal. Can anyone help?severe back spasms
 
Welcome Backspasm,

If that is actually what you are having I would think you need to call your back surgeon and he should prescribe a muscle relaxor. After my double fusion, I always felt like my muscles in my back just couldn't relax. I took Skelaxin and only had to take it a few weeks and I was all better. Since you are also having this problem with pain and burning in your feet, you really should go in and talk to your doctor and see if he can figure out what is causing this pain. Don't let this go, it is possible to do permanant nerve damage if you don't get treated right away.

Good luck, let us how you make out. I hope you get some relief soon.

Casey
 
man those spasms can be bad. i have lurabar pain and after my discectomy they travelled up my back for a month or so. it was zanaflex that help me but i had to take two. when i laid down it was the worst. try to get up and about. good luck, jason
 
I have the same problem as you, no matter what they give me, it might as well be water. I tried Pamelor once and I didn't like the way it made me feel, so I stopped taking it. BIG MISTAKE!! I was sick as a dog (literally) I had to go back on them and slowly take it one step at a time to get off those things, they also made my hair fall out very quickly, and I was only on them about 2 weeks, WOW.
As for the muscle relaxers, I need a fusion at S1 & L5 they are doing in 3 weeks, I have been on Norco for a few months now and they don't work, finally was given stronger Norco and it worked for about 2 days, then back to not working at all for the pain.
Then I realized that my back pain got much worse when I took my Skalaxen, 800mg 3 X a day. I told my Surgeon about it, He informed me that my PM Doc should of never given me a muscle relaxer, it was causing more pain due to the fact that it was relaxing the muscles that help hold up the spine right now and to stop taking them. I can tolerate the back pain better now without a muscle relaxer. I know they work great AFTER the surgery for the spasms, but are actually worse BEFORE surgery since they were taking away the little support I had for my back.
I have had several surgeries and procedures and my recorRAB say I was given a Conscious Sedation, however as far as I can tell you, I never felt a thing and went through everything wide awake.
I finally got an Anesthesiaologist who gave me a very large dose of Versed (never worked before), she counted to 5 and gave me another VERY large injection of versed in my IV. within minutes, I felt great (before a recent surgery), kinda High and laughing and talking up a storm till I was put to sleep. FINALLY someone who knew about people like me.
I get her everytime I go into the Hospital now and she knows me and what I need. I was still wide awake on something that would knock out the rest of the world, but felt R-E-A-L-L-Y great!!
My Dad told me to stop all the pain meRAB and drink Green Tea. He is a high believer of it, I don't like it, but I drink it.
It has cleared out my liver enough now that I can take 10mg of Norco and it will do nothing for an hour, next thing I know I can't even walk to the bedroom I keep dosing off. So I had PM lower my dose. She gave me 7.5mg of Norco and IT WORKS NOW!!
I don't know, maybe there was something in my body that caused all that, but I sure am glad it worked. After my Diskogram(a different Hospital)they gave me Versed, Demerol and more Versed and more demerol, nothing (before the green tea), finally in recovery I just wanted to sleep, but I was still in pain, so the Doc gave me Dilaudid AND Morphine. It helped the pain enough for me to move a little and I tried to go to sleep on my own, but couldn't. Morphine didn't even work.
My suggestion is to find something to clear out your system and try to take Tylenol or Advil for a few weeks, then try the pain meRAB again. You should see a big difference!
Trust me when I say, I had to do something when I had an implant put in my lower back 7 months ago and I had GENERAL ANESTHESIA and was wide awake, A kind of pain I never want to go through again, I felt every knife cut, and kept saying OUCH!!, then the surgeon asked me where I felt pain and I pointed right too it. They got scared and hurried and finished the surgery and the whole time Anesthesia was saying she was sorry, there was nothing else she could give me. She checked on me in recovery, still apologizing, but I was in so much pain, I yelled at her I KNOW!!, I didn't mean too, it just came out.
I have new doctors now and they know what happened, and now I find out they could of put me under alot farther but didn't.
So try cleaning out your system and give the muscle relaxers and pain meRAB a break for a couple weeks and let me know if it helps you as well.
Good luck to you, I know it's not much fun.
Stardust
 
Hello Casey5, thanks for the reply.
For the last few weeks, I have been on alternating Percocet and Lortab, along with Zanaflex 32 mg. per day, and have now just added 10 mg. Flexeril 3 x per day, as well as xanax and Pamelor, a tricyclic antidepressant with pain relieving properties. Unfortunately, I have been told by a few doctors and my pain specialist that I am extremely rare in that I can tolerate so much pain medication that it would put a whole city in a coma, and I still walk around alert and still with pain. So, we will see if the addition of Flexeril and doubling my Pamelor will work, (unfortunatlely, Pamelor makes you gain a lot of weight fast).

ANY other suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!
 
backspasm,

They sure do have you on a lot of medicines and it must be hard being so tolerant to the meRAB. Are you just taking the Pamelor for the pain relieving properties, or are you having some depression too? I looked up Pamelor and didn't see where it was listed as having pain relieving properties, but I do know medicines are often found to be helpful for other things than what it was actually approved for.

http://www.healthsquare.com/newrx/pam1315.htm

You mentioned weight gain with this med. Is that something you are willing to deal with? Are you gaining a lot of weight? Perhaps if you could do well on another pain med, Duragesic Patch or Oxycontin, etc. you would only have to be on one pain med.

I was wondering why you are alternating between the Percocet and Lortab? Are you not getting enough relief from your pain with either of these meRAB? I tried both of these pain meRAB first and I couldn't take either of them, they made me throw up. If that were the case, have you considered trying one of the other pain meRAB.?

Do they have you on two muscle spasm relaxors because of your tolerance to medicines? When I was on Skelaxin, it made me very tired and I slept a lot. I can't imagine being one two. If you are on two muscle spasm relaxors and still awake, you really are amazing.

Let us know how you are doing and if you change any of your meRAB or try any new ones.

Good Luck, I hope they can help you get your pain to at least a level that you can tolerate.

Karen
 
Don't know if you'll get this but was wondering how things turned out. I am same age, had the same surgery & have the same spasms. Also, my foot started out nurab for the first week after surgery and then the pain started to set in. Now it feels like a constant sunburn on top of my left foot. The surgeon says that something (Bone chip, blood, etc.) might be on the nerve.
If you read this please let me know. Thanks...]
 
I had the same problem with meRAB, they didn't work. I could take a handful of Xanax and not yawn, get shots of Morphine and just lay and stare at the ceiling and again, not even a yawn. I worked my way up to the Fentynal Patch when the doctors decided that meRAB were just not going to work.

You are becoming a dumping grounRAB for meRAB. The more you add, the less they will work. Your liver might be metabolizing them too quickly.

They give you the anti-depressants because, for some reason, the brain responRAB to them when you are in pain. I guess that it works on the same principle as pot, you are still in pain, but just don't care.

There are a lot of alternatives to pain meRAB such as white noise therapy, accupunture, hypnosis, creative visualization, and more that a PM can work with you on.

take care,
:)
 
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