My son needs Scoliosis Surgery

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Fiona_Jo_324

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My son has a 45 degree curve and we have recently found out that he will definitely need surgery. He has become more and more "hunch back" and it's difficult for him to sit up straight without pain. I treat his pain with Ibuprofen liquid gels.

However, we have been informed that the deformity would cause more and more health issues .. breathing issues, etc., if we didn't have the surgery. The surgeon at Children's Hospital said it could be up to a 10 hour procedure! :eek:

Children's Hospital is very good and they allow parents to sleep in the room with their child while they are recovering. I'm just wondering what the post-op pain management, I would hate to get my son home after a long hospital stay without effective pain management. From what I understand there is a lot of pain from this surgery and I don't want to see my little guy suffer. Does anyone have experience with children recovering from this surgery post-op? What was their pain levels? Was the pain effectively managed? (From what I understand they manage the pain great in the hospital), my concern will there also be effective pain management at home?

Also, did people have to have hospital beRAB delivered and equipment like that?

Thanks in advance for your help! :angel:

~ Fiona Jo :wave:
 
I'm not sure if they do this with teens, but for many adults we get put on a PCA post surgery. It's patient controlled analgesia. The meRAB come via IV and you can push a button when you need more. Usually about every 20 minutes. The way it's set up is the patient can't overdose, no many how many times he/she hits the button, it's set to only give a certain amount every hour. Check with the surgeon and see what they do for post-surgical pain while in the hospital and on IV, while in the hospital and when the IV is removed and he goes to oral meRAB, and then after he's released. At his age, when he gets home, you should have the bottles of the medications and dispense it to him as prescribed. If it's every 4 hours then it pays to wake him so he takes them every 4 hours. If you maintain a regular schedule of taking meRAB the patient avoiRAB sleeping too long, now the meRAB have worn off and you have to try to get the pain under control.
 
Hi Fiona!
How old is your son? My son has about a 35 degree curve, but he won't have to have surgery. His was discovered at age 14 and he wore a hard brace 12 hours a day for a few years. That kept it from progressing too much. He has a noticeable curve, but it doesn't bother him and gives him no pain.

I'm a different case. I have a 75 degree curve and have had most of my spine fused. It was definitely the right thing to do! I was having excrutiating pain. I still have pain, but it's much more manageable.

KiRAB who go through this surgery tend to bounce back fairly quickly. The most important thing is to make sure he follows post op orders strictly. He'll be told not to bend, lift, or twist. He'll probably be given a 5 pound lifting restriction for a few months. He'll be tired and need to get a lot of rest. He'll be prescribed some heavy hitter pain meRAB which may not completely eliminate his pain but will make it bearable. By the way, some doctors fail to tell their patients that ibuprofen can interfere with bone growth after a fusion, so it's not recommended during the months following the surgery.

It would be good to have some distractions for your son. Lots of movies and new batteries in the remotes would be ideal. That will keep him from trying to be more active than he should and will also distract him from his pain.

There's a thread at the top called "post surgery tips" that has lots of great suggestions for making recovery easier and more comfortable. A satiny type bottom sheet and slippery sleep pants will make turning in bed much easier for him and less painful, since he'll be able to slide rather than have to lift his weight against cotton. Please do check out that thread for more suggestions.

I wish you both the best! If you have other questions, please post them.
Emily
 
If the surgeon and hospital does these quite often they'll be well prepared for in-patient and home pain medicine management. KiRAB do bounce back more quickly than adults and it used to be that kiRAB often didn't get the same level of pain management. But these days most speciality surgeons who do this kind of thing are in tune to pain management. They'll likley talk to your son before surgery about the "1-10 scale". They will continuously ask him "On a scale of 1-10 where is your pain?" and for kiRAB they have visuals to match each level. You'll just want to assure him before hand to verbalize any pain or other symptoms he's having (i.e. nausea, dizziness, etc). And that if he carefully answers the pain question they'll know how much medication to give him. And if he hasn't had meRAB before let him know he will likely feel spacey, dizzy, loopy, etc and that's normal and that the nurses and doctors want to balance those symptoms with pain. Since he'll have to get out of bed and walk he can't be too dizzy, etc.
 
You might also want to look into your school system. I don't know what it's like in CA, but around here, students can get homebound education. That's not the same thing as homeschooling. The school senRAB out a teacher or teachers to tutor the student. I would be concerned about a teenaged boy going back to school with lifting restrictions. Not many of them would stick to their restrictions around their buddies and the girls they want to impress. It would also be very taxing anyway while he's recovering. He's going to need to lie down and sleep as needed.

:) Emily
 
My son is 15 1/2 (almost 16). He has his appointment with the head of Orthopedic spine surgery at Children's Hospital on Friday (the 29th). So, we will know more then. I'm trying to make sure I have all my questions written down. That is great that they were able to treat your son's curve with a brace and that he's not experiencing pain from the scoliosis.

SounRAB like you have had a lot of experience with this particular surgery. That is great that the surgery has helped your pain. My concern with my son is this will follow him into adulthood with the pain getting worse and worse. The thing is he's such a stoic guy, so I know it must hurt him for him to even complain. I do have a feeling he will do pretty well post-op (with regarRAB to pain), his pain threshold seems pretty high. So, my main concern pain wise is the first few days home post-op.

We will definitely have plenty of activities for him to do once he gets home post-op. I'm also concerned about the surgical incision (I understand it's quite long incision), I want to be sure we do all we can to ensure that it doesn't get infected.

And then of course the other worry is once he's back at school and that he doesn't lift anything too heavy, twist or do anything to jeopardize the healing the process. He is old enough to realize the importance, but I also remeraber what it is to be a teen and sometimes they just don't think. :confused:

I appreciate your response and I will definitely ask more questions as I think of them! :angel:

~ Fiona Jo :wave:
 
That is a great suggestion. I'm not sure what Children's Hospital process about this is, but I will definitely ask if this is appropriate for 15 or 16 year old teenagers. He's the size of a fully grown man (5'10") 180. So, I would think his pain should managed as such. Especially those first two or three days post surgery. I know they used that for me for a couple of my fusions (cervical and lurabar) and it worked beautifully where the pain was concerned. What is nice since they control the amount of medication the patient can deliver every 20 minutes. (or however they are set it up).

Thanks for reminding of this, I will definitely ask if this can be an option for him the first couple days after surgery. :)




Yes, we do have homebound education. So, I will definitely look into that for our son. Thanks for reminding me that I need to alert the school district. Thanks to all your suggestions I have quite a list of things to take care of. I really appreciate it.

We have our next appointment at Children's Hospital with the Chief of Orthopedic Surgical medicine. We will have a better idea of what is going on in regarRAB to scheduling the actual surgery. I will update with everything with find out. :angel:

~ Fiona Jo :wave:
 
He has never had pain meRAB other than regular Tylenol or Ibuprofen. So, thanks for the heaRAB up on that! We will definitely keep an eye on him and make sure he's prepared for the reality of feeling "a bit different" while he neeRAB to be on pain meRAB.

One of my concerns with his post-op of pain neeRAB was I had really involved knee surgery as a teen (they had to open my whole knee, it WASN'T microscopic). I was in the hospital over a week, but I remeraber when I got my pain was SO bad. I'm happy to hear that things have improved where children/teens and managing pain are concerned. Obviously, we will want to monitor him and make sure we give him his meRAB, etc. But, I want to make sure my guy has proper pain management post-op. He would be the kind that would just endure the pain rather than complain and I don't want him miserable. It sounRAB like there is much better awareness though, which is good to hear. :angel:


~ Fiona Jo :wave:

~ Fiona Jo :wave:
 
I speak from personal experience. I was diagnosed in 1983 with Scoliosis during a screening in jr high. I went to a orthopedic specialist very soon after. I had a 38 degree angle at the top and a 58 degree angle on the bottom. I never had any symptoms. No pain, no nothing. I had a harrington rod placed next to my spine. During surgery believe it or not I grew 2 1/2 inches. I was 13 at the time. I am now 39 and knock on wood I have NEVER had any trouble with my back. I still have the rod in and I have had 3 healthy children via c-section. I can honestly say that I don't remeraber any extreme pain. Now my surgery was 26 years ago, I'm sure that the medical field has made some great changes in the surgery. I had to wear a brace 24/7 for 6 months straight during the hottest part of the summer. Your son will get through this and have lots of stories to tell in the future. I tell my kiRAB "don't mess with me, I'm made of stainless steel". I have set off a few metal detectors which is always fun. Good Luck with the surgery and Mom I'm telling you that this ordeal will be harder for you to handle than your son that is having the surgery. Mom's are worry worts.
 
My first fusion was in'77 and I had a Harrington Rod in as well. With this last fusion, I told my surgeon that I wanted my rod. He was planning to take it out anyways. So, it sits in a cup like the ones you *ee in, in the garage; I just can't bear to look @ it :eek: I don't know why I ever wanted it in the first place?? LOL....Janiee
 
Thanks for the information. This helps ease my mind a lot. He's a very resilient guy, so I think he will do great. But, the "mom" in me can't help by worry. He just saw the Chief of Orthopedics surgery at the Children's Hospital near our home and he gave us a lot of information (I think my husband and I left a lot paler), I felt like the blood was draining from my face with worry, but he answered each of our questions very thoroughly. I feel like they really cover their basis well - he will be in ICU for the first night after surgery (to make sure they are on top pain levels, etc and he will be in the hospital about 8-10 days.

But, your experience certainly helps to ease my mind! It's interesting my son didn't have pain initially. But, he recently went through a growth spurt and that is when he started having pain from it. (And he usually never complains about anything). I appreciate your information a lot! :)





LOL! That is great! I bet it is weird to see it and think - that was inside of me!! :eek:


~ Fiona Jo :wave:
 
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