I am considering having a spinal fusion from L4-S1. I have had chronic back pain for over 6 months now and it has disrupted my normal active lifestyle. I have tried physical therapy/chiropractor/pain meds/bracing and nothing has helped. I have been diagnosed with an odd disorder where my L5 is so far into my sacrum it isn't really a vertebrae. There is still a disc with it though, so it is attempting to move abnormally. This has placed a lot a stress on my abnormally fused L4-L5 joint and has cracked it in several places.

I am leaning towards having the surgery but would like to know about some other people's personal experiences concerning: the surgery, the hospital stay afterwards, pain levels, recovery process, improvements or worsening, how long it took to get back to school, and anything that u feel may help me before i go through this process.

Thank you,
Marie

Just wanted to say 'WELCOME' to a fantastic place for support, friendship, and genuine care and concern

I'm so glad you found NT!

So many wonderful folks here can relate to what you are going through, so you'll get plenty of !

I see that you've already found a good place to start at the spinal forum....there are so many places here that sometimes I find it very useful to use the 'search' feature at the top of the page....type in key words that pertain to your upcoming surgery and other concerns you may have...and other posts will pop up for you to reference to!

Feel free to peek in on any of the other forums, there are friends around every corner! I don't know what I would have done without the support I got from so many people going through the same issues I was and B4 I came here, I felt so 'alone' in my battle.



Wishing you the best during your surgery and recovery! Allow yourself the recovery period and don't get discourged......Take Good care of yourself!
I pray this is a lifechanging experience for you!

Rae

Hi - there are many of us here who have had spinal fusion with varying levels of success. It is not necessarily the best choice if what is involved is mainly herniated discs. That is NOT the case with you, though, and because it is more of a structural correction, I think fusion would be a good choice, provided you have done your homework (as you are by being here!) and pick your surgeon carefully and wisely. It is also IMPERITIVE, I BELIEVE that the doctor utilizes a technique where your nervous system is being monitored throughout the entire operation. I went to one of the best, the Rothman Institute, and my surgeon did, of course, use this system. Unfortunately, I can't remember the exact name for it, and didn't have time to 'Google it' being on my lunch break here at work. If you don't have this done, the doctor could mistakenly possibly leave the screw in place impacting one of your nerves - L5 or someting, not exactly sure. One of my friends had this happen - the screw was too long, and it put pressure on that nerve and, tho now removed several years later, it did permanent damage. I don't mean to scare you, but I believe this is a very important thing!

EDITED TO ADD: I think the term I was looking for is neurophysiological monitoring ! At the time when I had to sign the consent form for it, I didn't know nearly as much about medicine in general as I know now, and I thought it was some big, long word. [Which I guess it is!!] I've been a Social Security Disability Claims Adjudicator for over four years now, and, believe me, I've seen it all Probably not really, but it sure seems that way!!

At any rate, keep reading here and pick your surgeon with care. Keep us posted, too!

Since I already wrote this once, I'll make this brief - to answer some of your other questions:

The surgery is HARD, and recovery is painful and fairly long. Of course, I was 50 when I had it done. If you're younger, you may bounce back faster !!

It's been eight years, and I'm still glad I did it! My problem was a cyst pressing on one of my nerves to my left leg - and the vertebrae were out of alignment - called spondylolisthesis. Once the fusion was in place, the cyst didn't return (it had grown back after only 5 months after surgery #1 - done by a Neurosurgeon.) Generally, I believe an orthopedic spine specialist is your best bet!

Take care!

Jaquie
Thank you very much for your responses. My surgeon also discussed how fusion is not helpful for disk problems and gets a bad reputation from that but it works for structural problems like mine. Thank you for mentioning the nervous system monitoring it sounds important. Im currently seeing both a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and an orthopedic spine specialist both who have very high success rates. I am only 15 so i'm really hoping my age will help me recover fast as i just want to be active again. THank you very very much for your advice
Marie