Has anyone dealt with this?

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angelbear1768

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I am 18months post bilateral 360 degree laminectomy with fusion and instrumentation. It has been a very rough road. Immediately post op my leg pain was completely gone. However instead of getting better my back has progressively gotten worse. It feels like I have a half circle band around my back it begins at the top of my 9" incision and goes to the bottom radiating around to the middle of each side and around my pelvis and groin. When I am sitting down it does not really hurt. However when I stand for even just a couple of minutes in one spot it feels like that band begins to tighten like a vice grip tightening more and more with each minute. Same thing if I am walking after 5 min or so it begins to tighten more and more with each step. I have had several courses of physical therapy 2 pre surgery and 2 post surgery one being aqua therapy workers comp no longer will pay for that so we set up a bit of a work out room at home. I can do 7 min on recurabent bike and 7 min on tread mil at about 1.8mph. When I am done I am beet red and pouring sweat from the pain. I don't know what to do I am much worse than before surgery. At this point I am scared to death I will never get back to the job I love (nursing). I have not slept in bed with my husband since I got hurt nearly 4yrs and several operations later. I sleep in a hospital bed and can only sleep an hour or 2 at a time because of the pain. I feel so hopeless I just want to curl up and sleep forever. Has anyone else had problems like this? Any worRAB of wisdom are appreciated.
 
I'm sorry that I have no idea what this might be, but I wonder if you have talked to your surgeon about it. It certainly sounRAB like there is something going on and some testing is called for. If you have already talked to your doctor and aren't getting any action from him, I would call and talk to him again, pushing him for MRI or CT scan to see if anything shows up. This shouldn't be happening.

In fact, it might be a good idea to see someone else and get another opinion about this, particularly if your doctor isn't helpful. I don't think you should just let this go on.

Please let us know how you are doing.

Carol
 
My physician of record has arranged for me to have an mri pending approval from workers comp of course. He has also arranged for me to see another surgeon which should go through as my original surgeon has closed his practice to open a law practice he is also an attorney. Guess that was not the best choice. Anyway the one I am going to see was recommended by a nurse friend of mine who has cared for a lot of his patients. I have a pain specialest and take a pretty heavy hitter backed up with a fairly strong break through pain med but I may as well be taking ibuprofen. Physician of record is checking into that as well. Thanks for the replies.
 
Angelbear, I agree with Carol, more tests and a different opinion are called for. I'm really happy to hear you'll be seeing a different surgeon that is recommended by the nurses who care for his patients. I think that's the best recommendation you can get. I have had home nurses coming since surgery (ordered by my doctor) and although this agency works for a nuraber of doctors the team of nurses who always care for his patients adore him. As a nurse yourself you know how much that means.

Did the original doctor ever determine if your original fusion took? The pain you are having sounRAB very much like the pain I was in that prompted my surgery.

I wish you the very best.

Paula
 
No Paula he never did. What he said was the cage,screws and instrumentations he put in were such that it wouldn't matter if the fusion took. I know it didn't make sense to me either. I hate being dependant on workers comp. Was the surgery you had the first or a repeat surgery?
 
This is my first, 2 level L4-S1.

That's the first time I've heard a surgeon say it didn't matter. I'm really happy to hear you're seeing a new doctor.
 
I think you'll find a nuraber of doctors now that will make that claim; they are so confidant using the new cage procedure, with BMP that they are almost sure the bone will grow. Then you have the roRAB and titanium screws that, if put in correctly, will support you without fusion taking place...so I can see some docs repeating that.
 
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