Originally Posted by frenchfri1003

Cathy,

I am so sorry for the extreme pain that you are having. Not that it makes it any better. I had 2 similar episodes. I thought that i must have moved all of the hardware or done some damage when I tripped up the stairs running to the bathroom because of a stomach bug then all of the heaving. I was probably only 4 weeks post op at the time. I thought I cracked or moved some of the hardware. Thankfully nothing seriously wrong with the hardware. The OSS office told me that unless I fell down an entire flight of stairs or was in a serious car accident not a fender bender that the hardware would be okay. That made me feel a bit better. Then I tried blow drying and styling my hair at 4 months post op. I was back in the pain I was prior to the surgery. I almost had my husband take me to the ER. The heavy duty pain meds helped and I slept most of the day and then was in extra pain for a few days. It really scared both of us since I am so far post op. Guess the ponytail look will have to continue for a lot longer. That was only 1 1/2 weeks ago. I did not show any bone growth at 6 1/2 weeks. It only showed up in the x ray at 3 1/2 months. The OSS told me that I shouldn't worry about the bone growth, that it will come in time and that the hardware will keep everything stable. Some of your muscle spasms can be from wearing the hard collar for so long. I know that your muscles need to stand on their own and get their strength back. I wear the soft collar to bed and in the am I am stiff and have some spasms but it wears off as the morning progresses.
Yes it is a long difficult journey. No one told me how emotionally difficult the journey of recovery would be. I am still going through it. I told myself that at 6 months I hope to have limited amount of pain and pretty good ROM. At 1 year I want to have no pain, great ROM and much more strength. Hope I am being realistic. If at the one year mark I am not where I want to be then I will start getting upset and more frustrated. I hope that this note finds you a bit less painful. Please keep me posted. Have a healthier day.