NeuroTalk Support Groups - L4-S1 Fusion Success Story

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- - L4-S1 Fusion Success Story (https://www.neurotalk.org/spinal-disorders-and-back-pain/15857-l4-s1-fusion-success-story.html)

here i am, home from the hospital for....3 days? 4? and one week after surgery.

i really don't have any pretty speech planned out, so i guess i'll shoot from the hip.

my doc said the surgery went perfect. that was good to hear. tho the cut on my gut is a little bigger than i expected.

before the surgery, i surmised that this surgery would either be:

worse, because i'm having a more invasive procedure done.

or better, because after it, all the injured and cut stuff would be immobile.

i'm pleased to say i'm doing MUCH better than after my discectomy. i'm walking better, longer, and sooner than last time. and i think most, if not all, of my nerve pain is gone. that's not to say that getting eviscerated doesn't hurt. and i'm running a around-one-degree fever. it's not doing much besides throwing off my internal thermostat, but, still, that's pretty annoying, the sweating and shvering.

the drugs, norco, aka hydrocodone, are ok. they take the edge off the pain, and i guess that's better than nothing.

but my rate of recovery is noticeable, and i'm able to care for myself as long as i don't need anything heavy. this time it doesn't even hurt to get down onto or up off of the toilet.

if you've got a good doctor, i'm sure you will have excellent results with your surgery. just make sure you don't overdo it. you WILL hurt yourself if you do too much. whatever it is, it can wait a few months for you to get better.

good luck!

Congrats! Better days await you. I hope you get out of the bat cave soon.

You sound great - glad everything went so well.
As to myself, it is 3:30 am and I am in terrible pain, just waiting for the aspirin to kick in. I am so damn sick of this, could scream. My surgery got postponed until Feb 25th, not that much later, but still, can not wait.
was surprised to hear you had incision in front. My doctor said he will be doing minimally invasive in back. I don't really care where it's done, just to have it done is all I want.
Take care Bat, your posts make me laugh.:D

that's too bad libra. it's kinda funny...looking forward to back surgery. but, that's what happens when you live with that kind of pain for so long.

i haven't heard of a 'minimally invasive' back surgery. unless he's comparing it to mine, in which case, one hole certainly is more minimally invasive than two.

yea, i suppose it IS a bit unusual to go anterior/posterior, but the doc liked that way, and i agreed with his reasoning. either way, at this point, everything went ok, so i really don't care what they did. they got the job done, and everything's on the up and up.

on the down side, it stinks waiting for my meat to stitch up. i can walk, but i start getting pain like i pulled a muscle after about 5 minutes of walking. but i'm still getting a little better every day, so i guess i'll just continue to take it easy until the doc takes me off of weight restrictions, at which point, i'll have to attend to my frustrated woman. =D

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiwimike (Post 81241)

Firstly i just wanted to post this to encourage all those out there that are thinking of having spinal surgery because there are good success stories out there. Before i went through mine i had read alot on the internet about peoples horror stories and it almost put me off having it. but the constant thoughts of suicide were annoying me and i didn't want those things in my head anymore and i thought it surely can't get any worse than it is now. So i had a L4-S1 posterolateral fusion with instrumentation and now 3 months later i am pain free. Please be encouraged , these guys can get it right, sure there are horror stories out there and i know that those people to can be fixed, just hang in there (thats you Pam :wink: ). And to those who are thinking about it please go for it, because you don't want to carry on as you are with pain and always think to yourself, "i wonder if the surgery would have fixed it ?" , i waited 10 years before i finally had the courage to go through with it and i wish i had done it years ago.

This was briefly my situation somedays my pain was bearable , other days I could hardly bend over or climb stairs, (the day I was to have the op in hospital I felt great , always the way though isn’t it! , but I still went through with it)

Heres a few tips if you do decide to go through with it.

1. Firstly ask around about surgeons, find a good one ,ring around as many medical places as you can and ask “who’s the best spinal surgeon?” I managed to speak with a patient of one surgeon who raved about her op and how good this guy was (she had the same problems as me and had the 2 level fusion done to fix it and never regretted it) so I went with him in the end.

2. If you have the op TAKE IT EASY !!!!, no running, jumping , lifting for at least the first 3 months, this was hard for me as i am an active person, but fight the urge!, the best thing you can do is walk, just a little to start with , then go further and further each day.Listen to your body, it will let you know if you over do it (i had this happen twice) I have only just started light running after 3 months but will continue to not do much up until month 6. There is still lots of healing going on inside you, even though you may feel great, TAKE IT EASY PLEASE! , i can not stress that enough. This is major surgery and your body needs lots of time to heal , don't stress it out by thinking that you feel great after 2 months and can do whatever you like. I laid out on the couch for the first 3 weeks and just watched movies, the only thing i did was my walk each day and i believe this aided big time in a successful recovery.

Well that's all for now, if anyone has any questions, please ask me!! and please all those who still have issues from things that have gone wrong , hang in there! and all those considering this type of surgery , as long as you have exhausted all other options (ie physio, chiropractic, orthopaedic methods just as i did as surgery is the last option) then go for it and i wish you the best!

Cheers
Mike :)

PS Don't expect to end up so your as good as you were when you were 18 cause i'm def. not! , but i'm active again without pain and i'm happy with no more suicide thoughts at all.My goal is to beable to play soccer again, i am aiming to play my first game on the 1 year anniversary of my operation.

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your story - I am getting anterior-posterior lumbar surgery in a week, and at this point even if they accidentally paralyze me, it will be better than the pain I'm in. I am 24 and hoping I will bounce back. I am going to definitely take your advice to take it easy though, as hard as it will be!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spillary (Post 459505)

i'm telling you man, as long as you've got a doc that has a good record, you got nothin to worry about!

my own cousin, who is a nurse, heard i was getting a fusion, and just jumped on the old bandwagon i'm sure you've heard about. "don't do it! it won't work! it'll cause you more pain and trouble!"

forget that BS. as long as you have an experienced doctor (that should be understood to be: old), with a good track record, you're gonna love it.

i'm 3 weeks out, and great. NO more nerve pain, just the surgical pain, which is fading at a fair rate. the biggest trouble i've been having has been my gut, which has been fairly sensitive these days. so i eat bland food. and am lookin forward to high impact activities!

good luck!

L5 S1 Fusion with cage fixation

Hi Mike I was really happy to read your story and I think I maybe following in your footsteps so to speak lol. I had my surgery Jan 7 2009 4 weeks out and I am feeling better, as a matter of fact something happened last night and I had no one to tell it to lol. My wife is a nurse and works nights my youngest was asleep and our oldest is a Marine so like I said couldn't tell anyone, but laying in bed last night for the first time in 15 years I had no pain while I was in bed. I just couldn't believe it, still got about 2 weeks before my first post op xray, but I am feeling pretty good that its gonna show some good things. But I would like to thank Mike for starting this thread it was great to read about your success, it gave me some hope that maybe mine may turn out like yours. Time will tell, and I wish everyone dealing with chronic back pain to seek help and I wish you allthe best. I was a 22 year sufferer. John

Good luck with your pending surgery. I'm hear to say that barring complications and being the right candidate this surgery is a miracle. I'm 39 yrs old and 13 weeks out now from S1-L4 fusion just like Mike and I believe the Batfish. Last Doctors appointment was 5 days ago and he was amazed at the almost completed fusion on S1-L5 and ahead of schedule fusion between L5-L4. I feel great. However the doctor wants not PT until 6 months to avoid the risk. Somedays I never feel like I had a surgery and I'm normal again. Walking 3 miles a day and swimming up to .5 miles have been the best form of PT. Suggest doing a much as possible when released by your doctor to do so. Still under bending, twisting and lifting restriction until month 6 but after that I'll be golfing. Sometimes have a dull surgical pain but other than that not a lot of pain at all. When Chicago hits -21 degrees I do feel it more. Best thing I ever did was to have the surgery.

That's great!!! I'm having the exact same op on march 13th. 09

I am told that it should be a agreat success. Did you have to take Iron pills a month before surgery and a month after surg.?? My blood is good and apparently this is standard for major surg. in Toronto.

I just wanted to thank you, for your positive, and uplifting story. I have just had done the L4-L5 fusion 4 weeks ago, and I have been reading these horror stories (too late now anyway) but I was interested to see how other people recovered from this and the long term results. What I have found have scared me a great deal, but your story is giving me some hope. I am actually doing pretty good for 4 weeks post op. The only thing scares me a little is that now I have a little sciatic pain on the left butt, which I have not have before. I only had lower back pain and left leg pain, and some days were ok, and some days were not. I had a herniated disc (discectomy) operation 7 years ago, now I developed stenosis and the remaining disc collapsed so the Dr. suggested fusion. I took Motrin almost every day, and I could function pretty well without much pain, but I was afraid that eventually I would destroy my kidneys. So I have opted for the fusion, because my Dr. said there are great results from this surgery (95-98% succes rate)He never said anything negative about the outcome. So I am hoping that this sciatic pain is only from the surgery, and will not remain permanently. Did you have this kind of pains after post op? and for how long? I try to stay positive, and I hope I'll be like you,.. Painfree !! Thanks again, Maria:)