thoracic fusion and DDD of whole spine

[lincslady2]

Hi everyone, I have found it really difficult to find anyone with similar problems to mine, so to find this board with so many people with thoracic problems was a real surprise!
I'll try not to waffle on too much, but here goes with my story.
I badly injured my back about five years ago, rupturing two thoracic discs. I had emergency surgery to decompress the spinal cord, then a year later, had a thoracic fusion, T11 and T12, which was done in two stages, from the side and from the back. I have titanium instrumentation in place, which will stay there forever. I continued to have severe pain in the thoracic area, and also my lower back. I am fairly unlucky as I have DDD in the whole spine, neck included. I use fentanyl patches, 250mcg, which is a very high dose. Two years ago I had a total collectomy, a corabination of nerve damage and strong medication caused my large bowel to stop working completely. I was in hospital for a total of nine weeks for that.
Now, my pain management consultant has applied for funding from the local NHS for a "pain pump". He is fairly sure that funding will not be a problem, considering my history. I would love to hear from others with similar problems. Thanks for letting me go on! Hope everyone is having a "good day" today. I look forward to any replies!

 

[Moldova]

Dear heart,
first of all - welcome on board! You will find people here are very supportive and glad to help you in any way.
Unfortunatelly you have a lot on your plate and I did not hear yet about anybody who would have exactly your problem.
I had my 2 lurabar fusions with instrumentation and some other work was done too. I got a lot of nerve damages in my legs; I have problems with my colong and bladder.
Can you tell me please what was so bad with your colon that they had to remove it? I just wonder since I have so many problems with it too.

I am so sorry you are leaving in so much pain. Your Fentanyl Patch is very high in dose - are you OK with it? I had 25mg and when he moved me to 50mg I got severe reaction and now I can't take it anymore. I am on Oxy as LA and as BT.

Hopefully you will find some answers for you; I know some people on this board had stim done (I am a canditate also) and some of them doing OK with it.
I wish you all the best and good luck in evrything!:angel:

 

[lincslady2]

Hi Moldova, thank you so much for your kind worRAB. RegarRAB my colon, I was originally addmitted to hospital with severe constipation, the x rays and scans showed complete blockage. The doctors tried everything to get things moving, you name it, they tried! I looked as though I was about to give birth, my abdomen was huge. After about five weeks of trying, I was getting more and more poorly, I coudn't eat either. My consultant was very concerned that the large bowel would rupture, so he met with several other consultants, and they took the decision to operate. I was very lucky really, he was able to re-attatch the small bowel, so I didn't need a collostomy. This was huge surgery, and I was very ill afterwarRAB. The cause of all this was a corabination of nerve damage from my spinal injury, and the high doses of opeate medication.
I really need to get off the fentanyl, as there is a danger that my small bowel will go the same way. As I said, I am now waiting for funding for an intrathical pump. This will be fitted in my abdomen, and a catheter is tunnelled around in to space around the spinal column. The drugs are then delivered straight to the place that neeRAB them, by-passing the stomach and intestines.
The trial I had was successful, so I can only hope and pray that this is going to give me some relief.
It sounRAB as though you know all about chronic pain too, how long have you had problems? Again, many thanks for your reply, take care.:angel: