Positive results from fusion????

[Greg]

Good question about the meds. I have to drive 40 minutes to get my script for oxycodone IR and I was having to take off work early every two weeks. At my last appt. after much persistance My doc gave me a month supply (240 5 mg). So maybe you could ask about this. Also my friend who is in the pain clinic at Duke gets 2 scripts written but on the second one it will say fill after the 9th (of the the next month). Maybe if your operation goes well you won't need pain meds for months!!! It sounds like you have found a great place to have your surgery. However It would be great if you could just have it in Wilmington. Only you can decide which Dr. is the best.
Linda

I couldn't have put it better myself. That is truly the ultimate goal here. 6 months ago I NEVER would have thought about considering surgery. It only gets worse by the day pain and meds are ruinging my life. If they would just give me what works in a quantity that would last, I would think otherwise and wouldn't be so cut-happy. Meds are just not the way to go for me since they make it so ridicously hard to get and one little slip and its hell again. Especially given the fact that a simple mistake put me in the ER and I didnt want to live, that is some serious reasons to fix the problem, not the sympton, and never think about meds again....hopefully

[linda]

Greg,
I have a positive fusion story. One of our sales reps who is about 57 had a fusion at L5-S1 and he is a golfer (very good one) and in good shape. He was glad that he had it instead of ADR because he had to have some sacro issues adressed. I think it was fractured or something. Anyway he is way better and says he wished he would have had it done 10 years ago. He had it about 2 years ago and was back to golfing in about 6 months. He is really pushing me to go ahead and have surgery. We can only assume that the people who have surgery and never come back to the site are healed. I wish they would come back more often. As I have said before I love the stories that say "all of my presurgery pain is gone!"
Linda

[Greg]

Linda,

That is great news Thank you for putting that on there for me. This is giving me more reassurance than I expected because I do have much issues with my sacroilliic joints I only hope and pray that if my back isnt hurting and my body isnt twisting trying to cope with the back pain, that the inflammation will go away. I know now that NSAID, narcotics, and steroid injections are not going to help those joints

[dalhousie]

Greg,

I'm in the UK & had ALIF @ L1/2 in 2005 & had a good result from that. As it was at such a high level the surgeon removed one of my ribs to get better access, ground the bone down & put it inside the cage. When I woke up my spine no longer felt like a pressure canister about to blow & my body felt so relaxed & at peace. I have a really lousy track record of bone healing so the surgeon used Bone Morphogenetic Protein. It still took me a very long time to start fusing & it fused only anteriorly. Back then I started in the gym at 6 weeks post op but from what I can gather now they wait 'till you start fusing before starting formal exercise - maybe that contributed to why it took so long for me (I don't know)? It was a long while before I felt good but techniques are much better now with XLIF/PLIF etc.

When I had the surgery I'd heard negative things about harvesting hip bone, i.e. chronic hip pain, so was pleased my surgeon didn't need to resort to that. Techniques have changed dramatically since 2005 so things should have improved in that area.

I was in a really bad way pre fusion & had been for a very long time. After a long recovery process I started doing a degree & was able to sit for long periods of time without clock watching to see how long I'd been sitting down. I could drive distances as well with only very occasional walk breaks. It did take me two & a half years to get as good as I could be though but I am a slow recoverer.

Four years later I started with problems at L4/5 but this is nothing to do with my fusion as it is 3 discs below. Currently I'm 6 months post op from ADR with activ L on L4/5. It's another slow recovery but I'm optimistic for a good result. The pain I had pre op has gone but I do have nerve pain which is normal I understand for maybe a year post op.

Thus far I haven't regretted having my fusion. At the time I was told that as there is little movement at L1/2 compared to the L4/5 area it reduced my chance of adjacent segment degeneration (ASD). Time will tell though. I've heard 10 years post op is a significant milestone to pass with ASD. In 2005 ADR wasn't recommended for L1/2 but I believe some surgeons now do it at that level although it's not ideal.

Hope this is of help. There were no forum sites that I knew of when I was being fused & it wasn't until I changed surgeons & had my recent ADR that I was pointed to the UK site & this one so I guess your right - the successful patients are out there living there lives! To be honest I couldn't believe it & found it hard to accept when I had another disc go & these forums have kept me sane knowing I'm not alone going through all this. I hate the rehab as it's so slow with me but it's a means to an end.

Good luck with what you decide.



PS Sorry if I've waffled. Hope you don't fall asleep before you get to the end of it!

[New-disc]

Greg,

Best of luck finding a fix for your spine.

My neck will be fused on Nov. 2nd

Todd

[Greg]

Greg,

Best of luck finding a fix for your spine.

My neck will be fused on Nov. 2nd

Todd

Good luck with that. Neck fusion seems scary to me (and I'm not trying to frighten you) because if there is one place on my spine I would see the need for the most flexibility, it would be my neck. I am sure you have done your homework and are fully convinced that this is the right treatment for you. I will keep my fingers crossed for you!

[KBear]

Greg,
Definitely talk to your surgeon pre-op about your anesthia issues and request an appointment with the anesthiologist too. I would stress to tell them how hard you are to sedate, tell them your various experiences and let them know this is a huge concern. I have had several doctors over the years and more procedures than I can count, and always stress this, yet it's about 50/50 if the believe and get it right.

I live in North Texas and had surgery in Miami, Florida. My surgeon wrote me scripts for a month, one was the triplicate (which is basically anything above vicodin.... Justin posted some good info on this, here it is: Pain Management Resources -- Drug Schedules, Pregnancy Drug Categories, Neuropathic Pain Medications, etc. ) I went to a local pharmacy and had it all filled. I then had an agreement with the original surgeon who was going to do the surgery, but didn't since I didn't qualify for their trial, that he would treat me post-op. He was also a surgeon in the trial that I was in; but had already filled his patient load when I had surgery. So, he is following me for all my post-op and I still see my regular pain management doctor who does all my scripts. If this kind of arrangement is not possible, talk with your surgeon about writing you a 2 or 3 month supply. What my pm will do is call in my vicodin, zanaflex, lyrica, and cymbalta and then give me my current script for Kadian (has to be on triplicate paper). He will date that one normal, and then date the next two for the refill dates the following months (as they have to be filled within 7 days of being written) and he just puts 2 refills on all the called in scripts. He has also done it where I call when it is refill time, they call in all my scripts and I have to go by the office and pick up the triplicate (but since you are far away, I think your surgeon would probably work with you.) If he can do this also depends on your state laws regarding scripts.

[Cindylou]

Greg, you definitely don't want to have bone harvested from your hip. Some folks never get over the pain from the grafting surgery taken from their hip. Besides, there is lots of better options now and you should discuss these options with your surgeon. Hip harvesting is really pretty yesterday. Pain from fusion is still way up there. My experience was it wasn't quite as painful as my ADR's but still quite high, especially those first few days. The big thing with fusions is the no bending, twisting, etc. So important so the bone can fuse properly. Best of luck with this upcoming surgery.

[New-disc]

Good luck with that. Neck fusion seems scary to me (and I'm not trying to frighten you) because if there is one place on my spine I would see the need for the most flexibility, it would be my neck. I am sure you have done your homework and are fully convinced that this is the right treatment for you. I will keep my fingers crossed for you!

Donor bone will be used for my fusion.

My family history of foward tilting necks when old age comes along .. pushed me towards a fusion.

I'm 45 .... some limited motion will be of more benifit for the long run.

Be good to your self!!

Todd