Pain 7 months after fusion

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shananava

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I had L5S1 fusion in January. Recently I have started having pain radiating from the surgical area. My tailbone pain hasnt returned and I hope it doesnt. My left leg is now very weak again. The pain goes to my hip and then down my legs. I am wondering if there is something wrong or if my meRAB just arent strong enough anymore. Is it normal for them to only do xrays around 3 months to check hardware and no more after that? Would xrays or another MRI be normal to do now to check the fusing? Thanks for any help!
Shannon:confused:
 
Hi Shannon,

I'm sorry to hear you are having so much trouble. You shouldn't have that sort of pain after the surgery. Is it sciatic nerve pain or something more? My sciatic nerve is really out of control since my surgery 2 years ago and I have been fighting that battle ever since. It took quite some time to determine it was my SI joint (not S1) so now I basically have to start over with my care as my previous Neuro refuses to treat it and released me. It is usual for your doctor to follow every 3 months for the first year and then 6 months from there if you are doing well. I'm sure every doctor is different but that is the standard. If you haven't called them to explain the new pain, I would asap, you could have a loose screw or something pressing on a nerve. Are you in Pain Management? If not, you might want to look into that. The surgeons don't continue with pain management and give meRAB after a while. You might already know all of this but I thought I would share it just in case. I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. Hopefully, someone here will have better advice or offer more information.

Good Luck!
Lisa
 
Shannon I am sorry that you are having problems and I won't be much help to you because I had my surgery in January and March and I have started getting weak in my spine and my legs also. If it keeps on getting worse I am going to have to call the doctor because I am not suppose to go back until Deceraber.

I wanted to ask you a question. Have you seen your x-rays? When I saw mine in June I had the roRAB and screws on each side but they also put a screw in the middle of my spine where they did the fusion. Did you have that extra screw? I have been curious on why they did this because when they explained the procedure to me before surgery they did not mention the screw in the middle but I do have severe osteoporosis so I thought maybe they put that in for extra support. Just wondered.

Let me know what your doctor tells you if you do give him a call. I know when my back started hurting again I was so discouraged because the pain is not just in the area of the L5/S1 but also higher up.

Take care
Linda
 
Hi Shannon, and I'm sorry to hear you're in pain. Please contact your doctor to let him know what's going on. He should check on the progress of your fusion and also make sure the level above isn't showing any problems, which could also result in leg pain.

Good luck hon.

Paula
 
Thanks for all the replies. I am in Pain Management and plan to talk to them on Thursday at my reg appt. Im hoping they order more xrays or mri, even though Im strapped financially I cant afford any more problems either. I had SI injections prior to surgery. I dont know if they just didnt last or the disc pain just overrode the relief. My surgeon said only call him if I had further problems. I did do a survey to my insurance complaining about my treatment though. The papers I got on fusion before surgery said I would have more appts/xrays but they said only if i had problems. I will try and see a different dr if he will take my case after another dr working on me, im hoping so. I could kick myself for not seeing one more surgeon for an opinion before chosing this one. My hospital stay was a nightmare. My parents said I was an a** when I woke up but how can they be used to let me suffer when Im doped up???? The next trip to dr was too look at incision and lasted 5 min after a drive over an hour. The next one was for xrays and 5 min again to say they would look at xrays and ck hardware and send me the report. Im hoping pain dr will do something to ck this out. I pray thursday will give me some good results, at least in pain management. Its a vicious cycle. Pain makes me depressed and stressed, stress makes my FM worse on top of the back pain. I just want relief. I have gotten more active as suggested by 2 of my drs, including PM dr. Then I suffer and pay for longer. This has got to give. Thanks again,
Shannon
 
I will have to find my xrays to ck on the extra screw question. This place is unorganized so Ill try to go thru the junk to find them. Thanks
Shannon
 
Had my PM dr appt today. They did send me for xrays to see if there is a problem w/ my fusion or sciatic problem. Changed muscle relaxers so we will see how that works. I did not have the extra screw in center of my spine as one of you asked. I get results Sept 2nd unless they see something really bad in xrays.
Thanks,
Shannon
 
Shannon thanks for getting back to me about the extra screw. I guess I will just have to wait when I go back in Deceraber and ask them why this was done. Please keep us informed about your results and I hope everything is okay. What kind of muscle relaxer did he put you on? I tried Flexeril and it caused my blood pressure to drop and I can only take Soma which really helps me with the spasms.

Take care
Linda:angel:
 
He gave me zanaflex 2mg 2x day. I took it yesterday and had eaten. I took it this morning before eating and was nauseated most of the day. I think its from that anyway. My fentanyl patches are wearing off fast too since it got hot so Im not sure. I think they start you off low on this one and then go up. It certainly hasnt helped me today. Thanks for your concern. Im calling to have a copy of xray report mailed to me on monday. Drs appt isnt until sept 2 unless they see something very obvious.
Shannon
 
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