[Sacroiliac Joint Fusion / Dysfunction] My Right Sacroiliac (SI) Joint Fusion Surgery- 3/10/09

[Carmen]

Ok, so I am a little excited. (I think this is my all time favorite happy emoticon out there. Love this little guy!) So I had the Cat Scan Wednesday and yesterday I met with my surgeon, Dr. Stark. He said not only was it fused, but it was one of the best looking, (smooth lines), fusion he has seen/done in a while. He even called his staff in to look at the DVD as an example of an excellent fusion. I jumped up in the exam room and did a little gig and sang "I'm fused, I'm fused, I'm fused!!" My doctor started laughing and then joined me with his arms jiving, like stirring the pot, , singing "she's fused, she's fused, she's fused!" Can I say it was a happy, happy moment? Yes I can!! He wrote a script for me to start physical therapy and when I asked him if I could work with a personal trainer too, to start getting back in shape he said yes, but nothing crazy. He also said he thinks the tightness across my back could easily be do to healing still and the fact that I have been sitting so much. Strengthening my core should hopefully ease that current problem. I am also weaning off the Vicodin too. I just can't tell you how happy I am. I look forward to starting a p.t. and exercise regime. Here's to healing and pain free (ok, I'll take almost) days in all of our futures. Thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers guys. I appreciate it more than you know.

Hip Hip Hurrah!!! Cincy from Carmen

[Dave]

Congratulations CL.

[dalhousie]

Hi CL,

Good to hear things are moving in the right direction for you. As Justin advises with the baby steps it's best to take it steady - you'll get where you want to be much quicker that way.

Know what you mean finding it hard getting motivated in the mornings. I'm like that too, I just want to snooze the mornings away in bed. I need to break the cycle & make the effort to get up earlier. I guess it's easy to get in a rut when you're recovering from spine surgery.

Hope things continue to improve for you!

[Cindylou]

I am having another Cat Scan in the morning to see if my SI Joint is fusing better. For some unknown reason, what started out as a great looking fusion process in the early months after surgery, is not looking so great and fused anymore. My doc changed me from Actonel to Evista (osteoporosis drug) and put me on a heavy duty script of Vitamin D, 50,000 units, 1 x a week for 6 weeks. So we'll see if this all helped.

[Ryan G]

Hi Cindylou. I really hope you get some good results this time and the fusion is well on its way. My wife is having her right sacro fused next tuesday, cant believe its come round so soon. Fingers crossed for you hun.

[scduggan]

Dear Cindylou,
Good luck tomorrow with your new scan. I have a feeling a LOT of people should be on those large dose Vitamin D packs....especially me. All of my pets instinctively know they need the D and will fight for the best position in my living room where the sunlight (when we have it) streams in. Keep us posted!
CD

[Cindylou]

Duggan....ain't it the truth?! Bring me my sunshine!!

[Cindylou]

Tomorrow I meet with my SI Joint surgeon to go over that Cat Scan I had done 2 weeks ago. I sure hope the fusion is looking better. My new internist wants to know why he put me on the Evista, because it has a higher risk of blood clots than the Actonel I was on.....and wants me to ask him that. Brother, he maybe doesn't even know I had two pulmonary embolisms, and how would I know that Evista has a potential side effect of increased clotting? I will likely go back to the Actonel after I discuss this with him, no doubt. More in a new post about this new internist, who I really like. :thumpup:

[Dave]

CL,

This is from WebMD. The same info is on all of the sites I checked. Your doctor should have informed you of these side effects.

Evista

"Raloxifene may infrequently cause serious blood clots to form in the legs or lungs. Tell your doctor if you have history of blood clots (e.g., deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism). Also talk to your doctor about risk factors for developing strokes (sometimes fatal) while taking this medication. Some risk factors include tobacco use, alcohol use, having high cholesterol/diabetes, or history of heart disease. Discuss these risks and the benefits of using raloxifene with your doctor."

[Cindylou]

I had my one year post-op of my right SI Joint Fusion this week with my surgeon. The Cat Scan is showing the fusion to have taken place. It's okay. It's not excellent, according to him, and by that I think he means there is still somewhat of a mottled look to it, but very likely my osteoporosis is playing into that. That's after taking the Evista and 50,000 units of vitamin D once a week too. But I am off the Evista now, after talking to him about the blood clot risk. He offered that the risk of a blood clot on Evista is about the same as the risk of taking birth control pills, but since I have had two already, why rock the boat, yeah? Now I just have to ask my new internist if it's Actonel she wants me back on or Fosomax (sp?).

I did have a very hard time doing the paperwork diagram on the human body and showing if I had shown improvement or not. He was quite disappointed that I couldn't tell if my pain was better since the surgery. I tried to explain to him that when you have had chronic pain for as long as I have, it does start to run together and since I still had significant right back pain and right hip pain, I just couldn't say if it was a success or not. He said he knows that can make it difficult but that I was smarter and more sophisticated than his average patient, and I should be able to decipher the difference. I told him he shouldn't have higher expectations of me just because of intelligence, and that chronic pain is the great equalizer. So then he did a very smart thing. He pulled open my thick chart and went back to my first pain diagram that I filled in a year ago right before surgery. I couldn't believe it. There were the wiggly lines indicating nerve pain going all the way down my right leg and I had filled in the x's indicating pain across my whole lower back. Now I am just showing it on the right side and no nerve pain. WOW. I was absolutely dumbstruck. How could I have forgotten about all that nerve pain in my right leg?! There's reason enough to keep a pain journal which I have NOT been consistent with. I do use my postings here to look back, which is great, but it was that actual pain diagram that blew me out of the water. So then he physically examined me, manipulating my legs, etc., and said it was my hip joint, hands down that was causing my pain. That is when he offered I should get a second opinion on my hip which I posted about separately, under my right hip thread. So that's that. I see that second opinion hip doc in about 9 days. Whew, sorry this was so long-winded.