HI, Abby

I'm a gal who has had many spine surgeries to to a hyperelastic spine (rubber lady)
and I've had several kinds done, some with autograft (your bone "harvested from ileac crest bone) and even have had cadaver bones put in, and now allograph (sterilzed bone from a bone bank) along with a man-made substance called BMP.
I'd say this: if you have any say in the matter, I'd stary away from autografts as it is TWO surgeries--an incision and removal of your own bone slivers to use---so two incisions to heal. If you talk to many people , theyll say that the "harvested bone" area hurts more than the spine incision. Once it played havoc with my leg and I had to use a walker for about 10 days; not nice,not needed. I'd tell your Dr. you know about allografs from bone banks and also BMP (sometimes it's mixed together for the fusion). See what he says. If he has it available to him, he should offer it, I''d think! Keep us posted as to when you have yyour surgery.

[QUOTE=Jetty;315375]HI, Abby

I'm a gal who has had many spine surgeries to to a hyperelastic spine (rubber lady)


-- they did not use my hip bone, and I seem to be recovering nicely. Thanks.

Hi everyone. I want to thank kiwimike and abbygirl312 for all their posts of encouragement to others. This is the first time I have not read posts that made me want to faint.
On the 18th I am going to have a bi-level fusion L4-L5-S1. I have had reoccurent foot drop and intense lower back and leg pain/and numbness. I also have three children.
My question is how long do you think it would be before I could lift my three year old? She is 32 pounds and we have always enjoyed lots of hugs and the like. I will have the help of my mother for the first month but after that it will be mostly myself. I am 36. Also any tips would be great. Thanks.

wow, what a great thread. i wish i had found this earlier. both before my first surgery, and just earlier now, before i started posting around the net.

i'm 30. i did gymnastics for about 10 years, and competed for 7 of those 10. my doctors and i agree this prolly gave me minor problems from the outset.

september 07, i fell two feet, landed square on my butt, and within a day or two developed completely incapacitating pain in my lower back, and down my left leg.

(drama edited out - hospitals suck, btw. if you're insanely curious, i did write a very amusing blog of my experience, email me and i'll forward it to you. just be nice or i'll throw poo at you )

turns out i had ruptured/herniated/bulged my L5/S1 disc 13 MM onto my spine. through the hurry and pain and drugs (that first hospital had me on about a dozen things), the doctor just went with a microdiscectomy (small cut in back, small hole in vertebrae, they scrape out the disc 'ooze', sew you back up).

morphine didn't work for me, it just made me dizzy, no pain relief. diladid worked great. i don't know what that stuff is, but it worked. percocet at home worked, too. and no prollems coming off of it.

then i was ok for a few months, after the PT, of course.

then the pain came back.

my new doctor (the old one was kind of a jerk) says i have scar tissue buildup, and my disc is so 'deflated', the vertebrae on top of it is flopping around and hitting my spine again. he wants to try epidural cortisone injections, along with another round of PT. i'm not confident this will work, since it didn't last time.

the other option, so he says, is a L5/S1 fusion. i'm only 30....well... 31 in a few weeks, but that's hardly old, and i don't have any family history of spinal stenosis or other bone problems, so i'm not worried about that. AND the doctor wants to go in ANTERIORLY, which, since he has a colleague who regularly does this (it's the other guy's specialty), and the way he explained it, i'm not worried about that. i'm not particularly worried about the fusion itself, either. rehab is going to SUCK, but after that, the man says i can go horseback riding. he also says that my loss of flexibility will be minimal, if i even notice it at all.

i'm also not worried about the doctor. first, he's old. and still practicing, so he hasn't been sued into retirement. also, he was one of like 15 doctors nationwide asked to participate in disc replacement experimentation, so i'm guessing he knows his stuff.



what i AM worried about is going under the knife. again. and the eviceration. not for the sake of the actual cutting (well, that's another subject), but for the additional rehab'ing. i'm also worried if i'll really be THAT capable again. i hurt right now. pretty much all the time, but as long as i stay as lazy as possible (i can't walk more than 15 minutes before i get bad back pain), i'm mostly ok. but what kind of life is that? and i'm putting on weight, and worried about keeping my girl around (at least the rest of me works ).



WILL it be ok? WILL i be able to be as active as a 30-something body should be? how common ARE staph infections? how LONG will it take until i can drive to the grocery store? how long until i can walk my dog for an hour? how long until i've reached maximum medical improvement (MMI)? what kind of settlement should i try to get out of my worker's comp (which, thank god, union labor mandates)? can i avoid bm's be having nothing but soup broth? (sitting on and getting up from the toilet REALLY hurt post-op, and i'll be damned if i need help wiping)

at the very least, thanks for keeping this going, especially you mike!

justin

Hi Busymom - I would talk to your doctor for an estimate. But even then, I'd see what you think you can handle. I pushed myself some in my inpatience to heel. I lifted a of case of water about 6 weeks into it and rapidly determined that wasn't such a great idea. I gave it more time and tried lifting 12pks first. I can tell you that now 10 months later, I can lift a case of paper at the office but my staff really frowns on it and hurries to help, and probably with good reason. If I were in your shoes, I'd play it by ear (or backpain?). Don't overdo it but maybe lift smaller items first just to see how it feels. I had a 5 year old want to sit in my lap a few months into it, and I asked her to climb up. That worked for both of us. Good luck to you!

Hey Justin; I just tried replying and think I lost the post

I would check with the hospital about the rate of staph infection for a start. If that hospital has a bad risk rate, maybe another hospital would be in order.

Also, I would think walking the dog would be a great idea! BUT not at first. If there was a problem with the dog, could you handle it? What size dog? Honestly I wouldn't risk it with the dog right away. But walking is encouraged.

I think you have two choices here; either be in pain the rest of your life, or have the surgery. I chose the surgery. Putting ice packs on my back every night for years just wasn't a pleasant thing to do especially in the winter.

Good luck to you! I hope this finds you both well healed in short time. Keep us posted.

Thank you Abbygirl 312. My surgery was bumped in the later part of the day on the 17th. I now am waiting for the next available date but I will post again when I know. I really appreciate your encouragement. My precious little one will just have to learn to be patient.

Busymom, they postponed mine at first too and it upset me! I was so looking forward to no pain Then ya have it and for the first few days you wonder what the heck you did to yourself! lol.....

Your little girl may be old enough to explain that mommy has a hurt on her back but if someone can lift her into your lap or she can crawl up, you would love to hold her. That's how I handled the little 5 yr old. She didn't quite understand at first because I'd always hold her, but soon she became adapt at crawling up. I didn't even dare carry her infant sister around for a bit. But before long I was able to.

Wow, I sure wish you all the best of luck. I'll be honest with all of you, I still have problems lower then the L4, L5, S1 that they worked on (they want to give that another 10 years), and I do still take a couple of tylenol morning and night. But I can't tell you how much better it is now. No more ice packs, no more constant pain. Make sure you have a good doctor with a good history of success on this type of surgery and then I'd say go for it!

Be sure to keep us posted!

thanks abby, it's great to hear from people about this.

my dog's only a 40 lab, and well behaved. she doesn't pull her leash. and i really should be getting her a lot more excercise than she is. it's hard to walk a dog if you start hurting after 15-20 minutes of walking. and at this point, it's either the hurting or ultram, and that stuff....that's no way to live.

but, worker's comp convinced me to try the cortisone shots, at least for a little while. i sure ain't looking forward to it, but.... a needle before a knife.

at this point, worker's comp is still pushing paperwork, so i just have to wade through that.

but, tomorrow is another visit with the orthopede. the PT/shots request was denied last time, the doc suspects this is because a proper transfer of care didn't officially happen.

so, we'll see what happens.

thanks again for the info and support!

For over 12 years I was functioning as best I could with sciatica, bilateral neuropathy, and impaired gait. I finally found the time and motivation to seek a surgical solution to this chronic condition since conservative therapies were only temporary fixes. I am a very active, athletic 44 year old male who isn't ready for the rocking chair.

Working in the medical field I am accustomed to calling the medical staff offices of hospitals to ask for a professional referral to the top specialists on their staff. I found an incredible young neurosurgeon at Duke who specializes in spinal reconstruction.

To me this man is a GOD considering what I endured for 12 years, now how I feel now, just 2 months following a double lumbar fusion with double disc replacement. I have 2 colleagues preparing for the same surgery later this year, and I have NO reservations recanting my experiences to anyone interested.