my plight

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hearts42

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Hello everyone.
I am still not doing very well. I had high hopes for my surgery (as I am sure all of us do). I am 9 months post op now. The surgeon said two weeks ago that he just now sees a tiny bit of fusion, not much though. Since I have such terrible nerve pain in my right leg and still back pain he did a CT Scan this week. Just waiting for the results. My PM doctor wants to do an epidural injection this week to see if it helps with the pain. Plus he mentioned a Spinal cord stimulator. I have read briefly about that, anyone here a post fusion patient that has a spine stimulator that would care to share their experience?
I guess what I don't understand is this: Why does my back still hurt? The disc was removed right so how could it still hurt? The fact that it is not fused does not necessarily cause pain from what I am told. And this terrible nerve pain in my legs, mainly the right leg, if no nerve is pinched why haven't the nerves calmed down yet, nine months seems like an fair amount of time. My PM doc said nerves are tricky and it can take a year + for them to settle down. I just hope and pray its not perm. :( Anyone get relief from Cyrabalta and Lamicital? Those are the 2 new meRAB they put me to see if I could get some relief.
Thanks in advance....

Lori
 
Lori,

Spinal fusion can take up to 18 months so try not to give up hope yet. I encourage the following - do not bend for nothing, do not lift anything more than a gallon of milk, try to keep your spine straight, if you have pain do not bend forward, and take calcium with vitamin D (must take the corabination in order for the body to absorb the calcium).

As far as the stimulator, I have done alot of research on this area and before I would consider having one implanted I strongly recommend that you obtain some other opinions on your back. Many who have the stimulator implanted still require pain medication because it does not take away all of the pain. According to my pain mgmt doctor, she considers these a last option. Right now with only one surgery I think you still have options and implantation of one might hinder other surgeons from doing revision on your surgery.

Before you had your fusion surgery, did they do a emg or discogram or nerve block? Are they sure that they operated on the correct level? Are they sure that your nerve has been properly decompressed? To find out if the nerve has been decompressed you will need and emg.

Many people who have had fusions take even longer than 9 months to heal. Several people have taken more than a year and one claims she is still healing, justoneofus. You might want to do a search on her name. She says she is still healing and imporving after a couple fo years. We also need to remeraber that we all heal at different rates depending upon the complexity of our case and our lifestyles. Also nerves can take years to recover since they regenuvenate at a very small rate.

I have taken cyrabalta and did not feel it was doing anything for me but since I did not have any alternatives I stayed on it for six months anyway. I stopped the medication one week ago and have not noticed any difference in my pain levels. Unfortunately it did not work for me but I know of at least 2 other individuals who have success with it. Just remeraber our bodies are so different and what works for one might not work for the next individual. You almost have to try it and see if it works for you.

Not to scare you, but I have had 5 spinal surgeries now. One successful fusion and one not so successful fusion. I feel you are very early out in the process and strongly recommend you seek several different opinions from spinal surgeon and neurosurgeon. Hang onto HOPE and I pray that things continue to get better for you and that you can find the answer to your pain.

Good luck and I will subscribe to this thread so I will be emailed if you respond to this post.
 
Hi Lori,
I'm sorry you're not doing better. :( Has your surgeon mentioned a bone growth stimulator? I was at higher risk for non-fusion, so my surgeon threw everything he could at me from the start. I wore a bone growth stimulator for 6 months, 24/7 except in the shower. I was showing bone growth already in just 6 weeks and was fully fused at 6 months. It's expensive, but your insurance will probably cover at least part of it, and they have programs available for people who can't afford it. It might be worth looking into, especially since you are starting to show bone growth. It may help it to speed up.

I'm on Cyrabalta, but not for nerve pain. I don't see much difference in my pain levels from it, but it has helped lift me out of the depression I had fallen into as I continued to decline. My surgery was a success, mind you, but I have an unusual problem and I will continue to have problems. I am much better of now because of the surgery.

I wish you BONE!
Emily
 
Thank you for the replies. I know you had a lot of wisdom in what you both said. I wouldn't relish a revision surgery or even think of it without second opinions, you are right about that. I would assume a revision is to promote bone growth? I would be worried that I would have more nerve pain, more surgery = more nerve pain? I didn't have any leg pain prior to surgery and from day one post-op I have awful leg pains.
No one mentioned the bone growth stimulator to me, I will check into that. As far as the spinal stimulator my PM doctor said that they look for 60% reduction of pain, thats the goal. He said that I would still probably need medication but hopefully not as much. Funny thing is I am not on that much pain medication, I am too scared to take alot. I take one to one and a half tablets of Norco a day. My pm was going to give me something else but wanted to see how the injection, Cyrabalta, and Lamicital worked first. I have tried Opana, but it made me very sick to my stomach so he stopped that one.
Maybe I am bending too much, I thought after all this time I could do more you know. I don't lift heavy objects though.
Well, thanks again,
Lori
 
That bending is definitely a not a good thing because it will disrupt the fusing process. Always squat or use your handy dandy grabber. I must admit when I had my second fusion I did bend because it was easier than asking someone to pick it up or go in the other room to get my grabber. My hubby said with this next surgery he is giving me a bouquet of grabbers instead of flowers so i can have one in each room and even one in the car. :jester: What a romantic I have on my hanRAB. ;)

Seriously, I would try your hardest not to bend. Good luck - I have not had the bone stimulator and I am just adding that to my list of questions for next time. Good idea Emily!!
 
Hi Lori:

I know how you feel; I am a little over 5 months post-op from a 2-level fusion and every 6 weeks my dr. senRAB me for x-rays because I have yet to show a solid fusion. Lab work I had in July showed I was extremely deficient in Vitamin D so I was prescribed something like 50,000 mg pills that I can only take once a week. Six weeks after that I still showed no fusion so 1200 mg of calcium has been added as well. I go for more x-rays next week and then back to the dr. for the results.

I too experienced nerve pain that I had not had prior to surgery and with the help of the very kind people on these boarRAB, I learned that that too was not abnormal. I was prescribed Lyrica but could not take the side affects. I've been taking Neurontin and slowly but surely, that has helped with the nerve pain. I still have quite a bit of nurabness in my right foot and ankle which makes it kind of hard for me to walk at times, but I know walking helps to strength my back and spine and I press forward.

By no means at this point would I consider my surgery a failure -- as my dr. told me, I'm still early in the process. I think I just get antsy because I've been home from my job since late February with no back to work timeframe in sight.

I wish you all the best and I pray for fusion (for both of us)!;)
 
Surgery doesn't always result in nerve pain, but it's certainly a possibility. I didn't realize that you didn't have that pain before surgery. That's a bummer! I had only minor nerve pain after my fusion, and like you, I hadn't had much before surgery, just the sciatic pain when I walked more than about 200 yarRAB. But after my hardware removal --- just one piece of it --- I had horrible pain in one hip. It seems that it was nerve irritation caused by the removal surgery. It lasted for quite a while, maybe 6 or 7 months, but it did finally calm down. I hope it will be the same for you.

Take care,
Emily
 
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