repost from 16 hour surgery below, Help please
 

Hi again, my surgery was on the 22nd, I have had past lag and mid torso problem that developed very fast into complete numbness from the knees down, and burning and tingling legs and mid torso lack of feeling, WELL that's seems to be all gone down, I had a 6 level Thoracic 1-6 laminectomy decompression of the spine with hardware, I have 15 screws in my back and metal rods of course. But here is the *****... I now after surgery have almost 0 use of my hand and arms, They say it is from nerve inflammation/compression from my weight, and being on the table so damn long. I sure would have never saw this coming!!! you would think they would be better prepared to move me, Yes i am heavy, But I really feel like precautions should have been taken so I was not in the same spot so long. on the padded bars of the back table. I am totally freaked out, and scared to death. I have OT and PT coming over 2 times a week each, I cannot yet walk I guess it's the learning curve??? everybody is telling me that it is only temporary, My surgery was on the 22nd July this year, There has been some improvements I will say, But the nerve pain in my hand is almost unbearable, I cannot grip anything! hold anything! use the bathroom by myself, feed myself, etc.... Please can someone who has been though this or has had similar experience reply??? I go in with leg problems only! and come out like this. I just dont get it and I am scared. Thank you all. Shari
litezoner is online now Report Post

I have cervical issues and damage,I experience left leg and left finger numbness and weakness.Today I actually have a bad flare up of the numbness,weakness. It seems to be as Dubious said cervical. I don't want to scare you anymore than you are,but possible an error occurred? It doesn't make sense waking up with totally different issue.I had C5\6 disc fusion and have a small herniation at C6\7,and along with other cervical issues. Keep posted on how you feel..lots of ice!! Start with ice on your neck possibly and see if the numbness is affected by that. May give an idea.My prayers are with you Litezoner!!

thanks checker
 

my docs are all telling me inflamed nerves because of the long surgery and the fact that i currently weigh 300 lbs, not a good thing to be supported on the back table that long with bars across my chest and hip area which now have very hard tissue masses under the skin? I woke up with severe skin damage and blisters all over my chest and arms along with burns on my arm I believe from the cauterizer and my arms not being properly positioned or supported correctly, (really not sure) I want to start on some kind of NSAID medication, but I am not sure if or how long the Lovenox stays in the body, they did not refill it so i have to assume they do not want me on it anymore, but of course I don't assume anything, I have an email into my doc to be sure. I do consider the surgery a success since i no longer have the issues with my legs burning and not wanting to work, but dammit, it is just absolutely unimaginable to me that I go in with poor legs and come out with useless hands and arms. Very tough to wrap my head around. I have to take percocet because of the hands, but have absolutely no pain related to the surgical area any more. Guess im sending someone to buy me an ice machine LOL. cheers, and this too will come to pass.

severe burning in hands Help Please.
 

any ideas on how to treat the compressed nerves that are causing my hands to burn really bad, they are really bad at night. BTW, I am Shari's husband and have been writing all this time, because she cannot use her hand at all. the pain was unbearable last night, we did not get hardly a couple hours sleep probably, I have tried ice, cold rags, tiger balm, not sure what to try now??? any and all suggestions are welcome. I know these nerves are deep in behind the collar bone i believe, Just not sure on how to attack it tonight so she can get some kind of relief? Watching my normally bullet proof wife cry at night is killing me! she is usually the strong one, so this is extremely difficult on both of us.
Thank you

Hello litezoner
 

I understand about you being afraid at this point. I would say that you need another physician. You need someone other than the person who did the surgery, out side that practice or group of doctors. If things do not go as expected, some do not want to admit to that. This happened with my first fusion. He basically dismissed my concerns. You are having some serious issues, and another consult really would be a good idea. If you can bring someone with you to the appointment, one of your therapists for example, that will go along way toward a new physician really trying to figure out what is happening to you. I am not sure about the issues concerning MRI's after your hardware is in, but I am sure there are other forms of Xray to see what is going on. Maybe a CT scan would be in order.
I hope many of the people with Back issues will respond to you. I do care. Please contact me at any time. You are not alone in this, NT will be here to support you and so will I. ginnie

Thank you so much ginnie.

If nothing else I would think a dr would rx some PT to help with the arm pain & nerve issues.

An independent opinion on this situation/result would be good I think.

I believe you can request the surgical report..

surgical report? who would i ask for this, better question who prepares this report the surgeon i would guess? we have PT 2 times a week, and OT 2 times a week, the OT came yesterday and did a lot with the arms and hands, most likely caused the extra burning or nerve pain last night that was so horrific for her. I have looked in to something called neurogen, it is suppose to be a topical anesthetic, has anyone used this before with some results, i have tried the aloe sunburn relief so for tonight, the green goop as it's called, seems to soak into the skin fairly fast and she indicated some minor relief with that.

we have another doctor over at the Physical medicine department, i was thinking of getting an appointment scheduled for an evaluation, is physical medicine the way to go here? or would a neurologist be a better way to go? the neurosurgeon was a bit worried in the ICU, so he did numerous MRI and CT scans after surgery to check for nerve damage and stroke etc...he indicated to us that none of which were found and it is just inflammation from compression?

surg report - hospital maybe?:confused:
I just heard it mentioned before..

If they are blaming her size for this , perhaps they should have used more padding:confused: Did they know ahead of time the surgery would take that long? Or did they have extra issues arise during surg?
(that info should be in the report if they haven't told you of anything extra happening)


So her skin hurting & hypersensitive as well as the numbness?

And it has been how long since the surgery now? over a month?

You might read on our RSD/CRPS forum, just in case..not sure but it can happen after surgery or any injury, no rhyme or reason..
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum21.html

Husband is posting

Hi litezoner
 

To get your medical records, and the disk which you MRI is on, just go to the office. Your neuro doesn't have to say OK for that. Most of the time there is a charge for the records. This is worth the cost, as then you will have them if you have to go to another physician. No worry with getting records to them.
the surgical report is important.....Impressions are given, or a synopsis, of what was done to you. Good way to learn the terms and language of the condition too. Your records are yours, and you do have a right to a copy of them." No "from the office is not an option. All my best to you. ginnie

Hi-
Did you document your wife's immediate post-op condition...the electrocautery burn (that should have been an incident report in all hospitals in the US), as well as the other abraisions???

I am assuming the surgeon knew the weight of your wife?? I mean no disrespect...the surgeon should have been prepared w/ adequate padding, what the weight limit of the frame was, etc. I am also guessing this is not his first "spine instrumentation" case...He/she should be aware of the potential lentgh of time.

PM me.
:hug:,
Stacy

Thanks you all for your great responses and information, i will be obtaining postoperative MRI Images and CT scans on disk as well as x_Rays etc... i do remember the surgeon saying he used extra padding. still makes no sense to me, we did rule out TOS as it is most common only on one side. Had an interesting doctors visit today at her primary, it turns out that some of the fusion surgery was done at the cervical C-7 level down to the Thoracic T-6 The Doctor read it right off of his computer to us, It read something like partial C-7 to partial t-6 laminectomy with hardware. I was not aware that the Cervical spine was involved in this surgery in anyway. So her primary called the surgeon, because he didn't know what the hell to do for her, and basically was told to just treat the symptoms, that the images were okay and no nerve damage or anything a foul if you will, and that it will just take time and OT along with PT. anyway needless to say i'm ******:confused: I think this is all Bull *****, someone somewhere is not being honest about something, Primary doc did prescribe some anti inflammatory meds, so I am hoping still that i an get the swelling down in her hands, we did find a good remedy for nerve pain it is a product called NEURAGEN if you have any type of tingling or burning pain especially, it works pretty good, ahhh Finally some relief for her. I hate the fact that she still has to take percocet and muscle relaxers, Volume, to sleep, this crap is addictive and dangerous and it should have been over with by now with absolutely no surgical pain any longer present and has not now for several days, Yet she still has to take this crap. we are ramping up on the neurontin/Gabapentin we are up to 600MG a day on our way to 900, added a new one starting tomorrow night called nortriptyline, the two together are for treating the symptoms of nerve pain. NOT THE CAUSE!!! man I'm ******. I am thinking about seeing an independent neurologist and taking all these images with me, I think someone here above recommended this as well. this would be a huge expense? I am not sure what it would cost out of pocket, but i'm sure its not cheap. just to refresh, we are now 5 weeks post op with all symptoms that we went in for gone, they were all lower body symptoms, we are now trying to figure out why the hell she has no use of her arm and hands when they were fine before this damn surgery. BTW yes husband is obviously posting. thank you all for taking your valuable time to help us with this by way of your suggestions and comments, they are all warmly welcomed and very much appreciated. Thank you

TOS can be on both sides :confused:, or one, or worse on one than the other, depending on the cause.
I'm assuming her positioning placed the compressions on both sides fairly equally..

There may be nothing causative that shows up on her imaging, soft tissue & impingement's often don't, at least when it comes to TOS, unless there is some bony anomaly. But it would be good to have some other surgeons look them over in case something was missed.

Have you searched the web for any other stories of extremely long surgeries causing problems like this??

It might be helpful to email some surgeons ( usually you can do that from their websites) that do similar surgeries and ask them if this does happen and how long might it take to resolve?
That is what I would do, you need some professional opinions to find out if this is normal or rare & maybe a time frame for improvement.

Hi lite zoner
 

I think you have a right to question what has been done. Not to have known ahead of time what vertebra are going to be addressed is a no no. A full explanation of all the steps for surgery should have been told to you. C-7 as you mentioned,was worked on from your post, without you being told..
Do see an independent Neurologist, and go over all those results with him or her.
When something smells fishy it usually is. I hope your wife gets some resolution to where she can be off her medications.
Sometimes however the nerve damage is there, regardless of the fix for surgery. I do have some pain. I do have some medications, that I try desperately not to take. I am fused C3-7. Most times I get along without it.
I wish you all the best. ginnie:hug: