Help what are the pros and cons of fusion surgery

[Ferris83]

Hi everyone. I'm Chris I'm 25 and led a pretty active life up until about a year ago. My girlfriend and I were hit head on by a minivan going about 50 mph and as I was trying to crawl out of the car through the passenger side, my car was t-boned by another car doing about 50 as well. Thankfully no one else was seriously injured in the crash. I spent a week in the hospital with scrapes, sprains, bruises, and what the doctors told me was a Burst/Compression fracture of my L2. Now about a year later my doctors have told me that it's my decision if i want to have fusion surgery. I showed excellent improvement the first six months after the accident and the past six months I've hit sort of a plateau. The pain above and below the break is getting worse and it's hard to stay in one position for more than an hour or two. Sleeping is hard because I have to stay on my back and, my entire life I've been sleeping on my stomach. Basically I'm looking for pro's and con's of having this surgery done. The pain is bad but after a year of it, it's almost become a part of every day normal. The doc's say there's a 75-80% chance that the surgery will get rid of a lot of my pain. It's difficult to decide because there's so many stories out there with not so pleasant outcomes, and I'm only 25 and i don't want to have surgery every 10 years for the rest of my life... Any help would be greatly appreciated.

thanks
Chris

 

[BlueAtlas]

Hi Chris, and welcome to the board!

What a nasty accident! I'm glad it wasn't worse!

First of all, I want to make sure you realize that the people hanging around this board are those who have had complications or other continued problems. Most people who have fusion surgery do just fine and more or less get their lives back. They aren't here anymore, so take any negative stories you read with a grain of salt. There's about a 97% success rate with this surgery, which is not to say that 97% of people end up with no pain, but rather than they fuse solidly and experience some degree of improvement.

I have had two fusions. I would do it again in a heartbeat! I still have pain, but it's much less than what I had before. But if your pain is at a tolerable level, I'd delay surgery as long as possible. There is always the risk that the levels above and/or below the fusion will eventually "go," since they'll be taking over the stress that the fused section no longer bears. The general advice is that you'll know when it's time. Only you really know how much pain you're in and how much you can tolerate.

You might want to read the sticky at the top of the page called, "post surgery tips." It gives lots of great suggestions that will make recovery easier for anyone facing this surgery, and it will also give you some idea of what recovery will be like.

As you make this important decision, please make sure you get a minimum of two opinions from surgeons in different groups. (Surgeons in the same group use the same charts, so you won't really be getting another opinion. The second one won't contradict his colleague.) Educate yourself as well as you can so you know what kinRAB of questions to ask.

I wish you the best!
Emily