Introduction - new around here

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PittyPatty5

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Hi everyone,

Thought I'd "come out" and introduce myself. I'm a 53 year female living in S. Florida. Started having serious lower back pain and sciatica a year ago, and it's been with me ever since.

After initially going to an ortho and having an MRI found out that I have a seriously messed up spine/back with both neuro and ortho problems. Apparently I was born with a lot of this stuff, but symptoms only have surfaced in the past year. Among my neuro problems related to the spine are a split spinal cord, a tethered cord, and a syrinx. The ortho problems include herniated and bulging discs in the lurabar region, stenosis, arthritis and DDD.

Last May I had spinal cord surgery to detether my spinal cord in Miami with a well-respected pediatric neurosurgeon. The surgery was considered a success and I have seem improvement in urologic symptoms, and I think there is improvement in the lower back pain as well. It's a bit hard to judge the back pain yet - I'm only a bit over 6 months post-op, so I am still healing from a major surgery.

But the sciatic pain did not resolve at all, so now I have been back to Miami to consult with the "adult" neuro about my disc problems. My MRI, CT scans and X-rays were reviewed not just by him, but by a review board at U. of Miami that are on his team. He is 90% certain that a lurabar fusion at L4/L5 and L5/S1 will take care of the sciatica, and sent me home with a back brace and a script for a guided nerve block injection. I just had the nerve block and seemed to be pain-free for about 30 minutes.

So I think now the doc will definitely recommend I have the lurabar fusion, but I am not so sure about it. For one thing, I am only just now feeling recovered from my spinal cord surgery. It sounRAB like a lurabar fusion could set things back for another long spell. For another, I don't think I am nearly as bad off as a lot of the people on here - my pain is normally ~level 3-4 during the day and gets worse at night. I am back at work full-time and able to get through the work-day pretty good, although by evening and on weekenRAB I really need to rest. So not much of a life outside the office, which does stink.

I'd love to get my life back as it was before this all started, but is that just a pipe dream? I don't want to make things any worse than they are now or kick off a chain-reaction of multiple back surgeries by deciding to have the fusion too soon. So hard to know what to do.

Thanks for listening if you got this far. I will see you around!
PittyPatty
 
Welcome to the board! I hope you get answers and pain relief soon. I have luraber issues as well and actually did have a fusion and it did reguire a lot of thought beforehand. It's good that you're thinking it through and being cautious to ensure that you do what is right for you.

This is a great forum for support! :angel:

~ Fiona Jo ~ :wave:
 
Hi and welcome! You will find tons of support on this board. About the nerve block, you will not see results immediately. It takes 7-10 days for it to work. The immediate relief you felt was from the nurabing medication they inject before injecting the steroid. The reason they ask you your pain level right afterwarRAB is because, if you feel very little or no pain, that means they have injected the nurabing medication and, most importantly, the steroid into the right spot, the spot that is responsible for your pain. I had a nerve block and felt relief from the nurabing agent for about 30 minutes as well, even though they told me I would stay nurab for the remainder of the evening. It was quite a disappointment!
I am going to be having a fusion at the same levels as you. I am 27 and have Spondylolisthesis (a fracture causing my L5 to slip out of place), DDD with a bulge at L4-L5, and a herniation with loss of disc height at L5-S1. I am hoping as much as you are that I will feel better soon!
 
Hi and welcome! I am one of those patients born with birth defects and who has had multiple surgeries - 5 in fact. My last surgery was done 12/8 and am doing well overall. Recovery from fusion surgey takes a good year or more and many individuals go into this surgery thinking at 6/12 weeks they will be so much better and ask any fusion patient on this board and they will tell you it is baby steps in the healing process.

My best piece of advice is to write in a notebook those things that you used to be able to do and want to do again, approximately length of time you can sit and walk, etc. Then in 6 weeks re-do this list. It will show you visually how you have made improvements no matter how big they are.

Best of luck and remeraber that we are pulling for you and always here if you need us!

Pepper
 
DBowman,

Your post has been moved from this thread and a new thread entitled "syrinx" on the message board has been created for your post.

Always start a new thread for your own problem/question.

Thank you,
Mod 08
 
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