[Spinal Fusion / Lumbar] Here to help ready myself and my 87-year-old mom for her upcoming XLIF procedure.

[Justin]

Hi Terrie,

I was just popping in to see how your Mother was doing. I do hope her pain has decreased, and if she had surgery, that her surgery was nothing short of a complete success.

[Cindylou]

Hi Terrie,

I was just popping in to see how your Mother was doing. I do hope her pain has decreased, and if she had surgery, that her surgery was nothing short of a complete success.

Terrie, I definitely concur with Justin....I hope your Mother's surgery was a wonderful success, and forgive me if I did come up a bit strong. My only intent was/is your Mother's best interest, but so sorry that it came across prickly. My sincere apologies. (I'm just now seeing your response to my post....must have missed it over the Holidays or I would have responded sooner.) Hope your Mother is well on her way in the recovery process. Take care, Cindylou

[Katie]

Hi Terrie, sorry that I didn't see this sooner.

I had two level surgery done last March, XLIF at L4/5 and ALIF at L5/S1, plus adr at my C5/6.

The one thing that caught my eye with your post was your mom's age....and what I can add is that before my surgery, my surgeon told me that he had operated on a 90 year old woman not long ago. The surgery was very successful. I hope your mom had a very successful surgery.

Do you mind me asking the name of the surgeon? Hugs to both you and your mom. She is so very lucky to have a daughter like you on her side. So very lucky.

[terrie]

I usually steer clear of forums (because of the flame factor), so while you may have thought your comments well intentioned, CindyLou, to me it sounded like you were signing on for my mother's "death panel." As a moderator, I would hope that you might consider your words before you "rant" during another new member introduction.

I did some more lurking and then decided to concentrate on the care of my mother. For what it is worth, she would have chosen death if there was a legal option. (Where is Jack Kevorkian when you need him?) Absent that, we chose minimally invasive surgery — ultimately a three-level XLIF procedure — to hopefully resolve the pain that has gotten progressively worse after five years, so that she could barely walk.

She had been promised pain relief after a hip replacement, then after a knee replacement, then after all of the "treatments" her "pain doctor" could deliver. She is now free of her pre-surgical pain. She is taking 5 MG of oxycodone every 4 hours for the surgical pain but is able to go as much as eight hours without any pain meds at all. Her surgical pain is almost gone as well.

Her surgery was on January 3 at Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks, California. Her surgeon, who I will recommend to everyone, was Russell Nelson (Nelson Spine Institute of Thousand Oaks, CA). Her surgery was a complete success. Yesterday we went for our surgical follow-up appointment and x-rays show that the spine is fusing nicely and is even straighter than those films taken immediately following surgery. She no longer has to wear a brace at home but they want her to refrain from bending for another couple of months.

She spent five days in the regular hospital, then 19 days in a skilled nursing/rehab facility. She is now home with in-home PT and OT. She has to build up her strength, since she waited for three months to get the surgery and those months were mostly in bed. Her strength is building each day. She plans on living independently again when I return home in three weeks. She has had outpatient PT almost continuously since her hip replacement in 2005 and looks forward to resuming that therapy in a few weeks.

I wish you all well and appreciate the information available here. It is a valuable place and I commend you all for your participation. While I would expect you to offer honest information about your own experiences, I would suggest you temper your opinions for areas outside of your expertise and instead refer folks (as some did for me, thank you) to articles and studies on areas of need.

A hui hou (until then),
Terrie

[Justin]

Terrie,

It's great to hear that your Mother's operation went well and was successful. Thank you for follow-up with us, as it helps others that "lurk" on the Forums. I wish you and your Mother the very best.

[ajj1001]

Thank you for coming back and sharing your mothers story, its so wonderful to read how successful the surgery was. I hope she continues to enjoy her new quality of life for a long time, send her my best wishes.