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Anyone ever had spinal surgery?

  • Thread starter Clint
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Clint

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Sooo... I'm facing spinal surgery. I have five disks that are in various states of herniation, bulging or compression. To compound that problem I had two mris done that found. Had congenital stenosis and my spinal column is half the width it should be.

I have a lot of pain and numbness. The pain is in mostly my lower back, the numbs is in both legs and feet. I also have "foot drop" the doc said and a lot of weakness in both legs and feet. I had an epidural and that helped and have to get another in a week, then two more before my insurance will pay for ym surgery. Ivebeen hurt for two months and the doc said I have a month before the risk of permanent nerve damage sets in. He wants to remove the top of one of my vertebrae to relieve pressure on my nerves/spinal column.

I'm getting a second opinion from a neurosurgeon. I'm taking four 7.5 mg percocet a day, three 300 mg neuronton, and three flexeril a day. I take a couple benadryl with each percocet to stop the itchies. So basically I'm in lala land all day, but the pain is mostly gone. I'd rather not have to take them and have no pain, however.

I have had to take a semester off school. Has anyone else dealth with this kind of problem? I tried a chiropractor and that didn't do anything, plus. Wasted month of my time and money because he thought it was one little problem he could fix. I'll never go to a chiropractor again.

All this started when I was pulling up trees (saplings) in the yard, then got a job as a waiter and that was the straw that broke the camels back.

I am extremely nervous. One neurosurgeon said he wasn't qualified to touch me... I didn't know I was that messed up. We are tryi to get an appointment with some head neurosurgeon at Emory but he's booked fora year. His office says he sees a couple of special cases like me per month so cross your fingers that he will see me.
 
been living with two compressed disks for a year that are bulged to the point they hit the nerve running down the back of my leg.....the neurosurgeon said after looking at my MRI that my back looks like im in my late 40's....i aint even 30 yet.....

opiates dont do a damn thing for back pain....the pain is mainly at the nerve roots and opiates work at the nerve endings....there is a reason Rush Limbaugh was taking massive amounts and after this last year i cant blame the man one bit....

so what have i learned after 1 year, 3 epidural shots of cortisone(didnt work) and enough opiates and NSAIDs to choke a donkey?

a $300 inversion table and a chiropractor that knows what they are doing has brought me more relief than any drug known to man......hanging for bout 5 minutes a day upside down reduces the bulging big time.....

but all back injuries are individual and you sound like you have more problems than i do.....give an inversion table a try and see if it works....aint gonna hurt, i found out it worked for me trying it out in the store....relief was immediate......

as for surgery itself, it depends....a very good friend of mine had surgery for my same injury only slightly worse and he is 100% back to normal but ive heard some ppl havent been happy....the worse off you are the happier you seem to be with the results and dont listen to those that had surgery 20 years ago, alot has changed since then....
 
Good luck - sorry to hear it, I think chibae just had something done to her back medically so maybe she has some words of wisdom?
 
Clint, if you need someone to babysit any plants just hollar mate...

got that covered for ya if needed
 
I have friends who have had spinal surgery. They said it brought them immediate relief. Sometimes subsequent surgeries are needed if scar tissue builds up affecting the nerve, but all in all they regarded the procedure as a success, and were glad they had it done. I hope the future brings kinder and better days!
 
Clint,
wow, sorry to hear your back is in bad shape!
I havent had spinal surgery myself, but my wife has, so I have a lot of personal second-hand experience..

She had a buldged lumbar disk..
spent about 2 years doing all the things you are supposed to try first, before surgery..
(supposedly if its not too bad, things can mostly heal without surgery)
but it wasnt getting better..it kept getting worse..
one morning she tried to get out bed, and collapsed to the floor with unberable sciatica pain..she could barely walk..so she went in for a laminectomy..thats where they snip off the buldging disk, and try to take the pressure off the nerve..(this was about 2 years ago)
she didnt have the full disk removed, only the buldged portion..and she didnt need any fusing..

it worked!
she was instantly 90% better after the surgery..
although she will probably never be 100%..
that area is still sore, and has "flare-ups" if she isnt careful (like doing too much weeding in the garden)
she cant lift much, and her lower back will probably be a weak-spot for the rest of her life, which she will have to constantly "baby" and make sure to pay attention to what she doing..always lifting with your legs, no twisting, etc..all that stuff..

but overall the surgery was a success..she is glad she had it done. even though it cant really be "100% cured", its still much better than it was before the surgery.

there is now a new procedure, which wasnt available when she had her surgery..
(Im not sure if its actually available in the US yet..they might still be doing trials and all that, and it has to be approved) but it looks promising! its basically installing an artificial disk! rather than messing around with the disk and doing joint fusings and all that, they simply take out the offending disk completely and replace it with fully artificial disk! sounds like a fabulous way to go..

http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00502

I dont know if that is a procedure that can be helpful to you right now, but its definately something to be aware of and to look into further..

Scot
 
Sorry to hear that Clint. In 2000 I fell off a flatbed tow truck onto the curb of the highway on my lower back . I didn't have the $ to go to the doc so it never got taken care of. For years after my back would suddenly lock and I'd have to spend a week laying flat on my back. The one time I did go to a doc about it during one of my lock ups (when my legs go numb and I can't bend/twist my torso or even walk good) all he said was "Just take about 6 or 8 Ibuprofen at a time, is that all you needed?" I paid $200 to hear that sentence out of his face. Apparently he thought I was faking and just looking for a script. So it still never got fixed or looked at. I'm lucky I haven't had any lock ups for a couple years now.

Rattler, I can't imagine hanging on one of those contraptions, my back hurts just looking at it! LOL
 
Yeah, the percocet is like a miracle pill for me thankfully. The neurontin helps the numbness by 50% ( I know it's the neuron tin because when I skip it, thee numbness gets worse.) I don't really think I need the flexeril (muscle relaxer) but take it because my doc told me to.

The pain isn't that bad if I sit in a chair or pay in bed all day, but if I get up to walk to the bathroom it hurts my back like hell and if I walk around someplace like walmart, I limp and look like I have cerebral palsy or something. The pills I'm taking at least let me walk around the house without pain.

Prescription and OTC NSAIDS don't do anything, period, so I don't bother to take them. Tramadol didn't do anything, either.

I'm mainly worried that the surgery will go wrong somehow and I'll be paralyzed or worse. I would be happy getting an epidural once a month and popping pills if it meant I didn't have to take the risk of having my spine cut open, but the doc said I HAVE to get the surgery if I don't want permanent nerve damage. He said if I didn't have stenosis, I wouldn't even need surgery, Im still going to get a second opinion from a neurologist/neurosurgeon. I heard you're always supposed to get a second opinion before surgery.

A few months ago I told my mom to just cancel my insurance since it's like three grand a year and nothing bad is likely to happen. Good thing she didn't listen to me.

---------- Post added at 02:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:20 PM ----------

Clint, if you need someone to babysit any plants just hollar mate...

got that covered for ya if needed


LOL. I'm good but thanks. They don't need that much maintenance ;p

Scotty, I'm sorry to hear about your wife's troubles, but glad she is better. Sciatica is what I've been dealing with for two months and we thought the chiropractor would fix it, but I saw zero improvement and we found all this out. We had no idea it was this serious, I really feel like my spine is a ticking time bomb. I will research those artificial disks, but from my understanding of what the orthopedic surgeon said, he want a to just cut off the top honey portion of the vertebrae to expose the spinal column and let scar tissue form over it. I don't honk he wants to touch the discs, at least not for now... I don't know why not, though.

Swords, my first doctor (just a general practitioner) didn't believe me, I think. She refused to give me tramadol which is unscheduled ( I asked for it because I knew they had a policy against opiate.) She was pretty dismissive. Once I got my MRIs done my new doc didn't question me , and gave me the good stuff. He wanted to give me an epidural that day and said I really needed it. My mom told me how horrible they feel when she had one when she was giving birth to me, so I was terrified until I got it and it wasn't bad at all lol.
 
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Rattler, I can't imagine hanging on one of those contraptions, my back hurts just looking at it! LOL

#1 you dont have to go full vertical....there is a limiting strap, im usually about 15-20 degrees or so from vertical....full vertical puts to much stress on my screwed up knees.....

#2 it takes almost all pressure off the spine, it works really well just dont go back upright to fast or the vertebrae like to slam together, i usually take 30-60 seconds to ease my way back up....

as i said try one out in a store, i found mine at Scheels and tried out the floor model i went from barely walking i was in so much pain as i had just come from my last epidural less than an hour before and the increase in pressure from putting in the meds often causes more pain than when yah walk in(takes 4-7 days for cortisone to kick in) and went to 90% pain free in 90 seconds.....and the effects lasted many hours.....

---------- Post added at 12:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:22 PM ----------

but the doc said I HAVE to get the surgery if I don't want permanent nerve damage. I heard you're always supposed to get a second opinion before surgery.

yes, constant pressure will quit sending signals down to the ends and back.....with the body the general rule is "if yah dont use it, you loose it"....the nerve damage is hard to reverse.....if you can stand on your tip toes on one foot at a time you have time, if you physically can not your either nearly out of time or the damage is already done.....

always, always, always get a second and even third opinion unless its an emergency and cant due to having time measured in minutes to make the call....
 
  • #10
Just tried it... I can stand on the left foot for 10 seconds, the rig for 5, and on my tip toes for 6 seconds (but the right tip toe starts to give out on me , but if they were both even I could probably go for ten seconds.)

My right leg and foot are much wore than the left side.

The doc did that test where he holds your foot/toe and I can move em (some limited mobility) but had pretty much no strength in them. I couldn't move my right foot all the way back.

The messed up discs are between my L3 and L4 vertebrae, L4 and L5 vertebrae, T8 and T9 Vertebrae, T10 and T11 vertebrae, and finally the T11 and T12 vertebrae. The MRI showed the nerves in my spinal column being compressed in two different places (I ink he said L4/L5 was the worst place) and it was "pronounced". It was like... Any Joe Schmoe could look at the MRI and tell I was messed up, it didn't take a doctor to show me where on the MRI I was messed up at.

Im also concerned about getting hooked on pain pills. I'm taking them as prescribed but if I said I wasnt tempted to take an extra one here or there I'd be lying. Not for fun but for pain. The non narcotic pills were as good as a placebo.
 
  • #11
Sounds like you should really take care of that right away Clint!
NYC is known for having some of the best specialist hospitals.
If it's something as important as your spine, I'd say it's worth taking the trip and ASAP!
 
  • #12
Okay..

  • DO NOT try an inversion table wihout docs advice, it may cause more harm than good.
    Ask for a stronger/more frequest dose of the neurontin, baclofin works even better
    flexeril and nsaids are almost uesless
I've had the surgery done twice. The first time, my neck, they carved away overgrown bone, removed two discs and replaced them with cadaver bones and held it all together with a titanium plate and six screws.
Even so, the bone spurs left lesions on my cervical spinal cord leaving me needing bacolfin four times a day.

The one I just had on July 23, 2 weeks ago, was more complicated. They removed discs and bone spurs, encircled the spine in the area with a cage supported by two rods and twelve screws. The ground up the bone spurs, mixed them with some type of syntheitic bone material and my own bone marrow and incjected it into the spaces where the discs had been.
The pain I had prior to the surgery has dropped almost 50% already.
Two tidbits of additional advice:
1. Get the surgery done asap, foot drop can not be cured once it occurs.
2. have the other two insurance required nerve blocks, but this time ask them to aspirate some of the surronding spinal fluid and inject some lidocaine/cortisone in it's place. That will help with the pain, just don't tell them how well it worked or they may decide to skip the surgery,
 
  • #13
So I'm like this forever with regards to the foot drop?

I will look up baclofin, thank you. I have no idea what the aspiration of spinal fluid stuff you mentioned means, but I will bring it up at my next appointment.

I really can't believe the part about foot drop being uncurable. That really pisses me off. I asked my mother to let me get an MRI a month before I actually got one. She wanted me to keep giving the chiropractor a chance.

I really can't believe it. I am so angry about having messed up motor skills permanantly in my feet.
 
  • #14
The foot drop was probably caused by the spinal stenosis. Once the pressure from the stenosis is releved from the nerve there is a chance for some recovery depending on how badly the nerve was compressed and how much use of your foot ank ankle, motor control, you still have.
The quicker you can get the pressure releived, the better. I still have residual issues with nerves in my neck. In my case the stenosis, bony overgrowths and disc degeneration are genetic.
Hope all goes well for you. What level discs are involved?
 
  • #15
the discs are in between my L3 and L4, L4 and L5 , T8 and T9, T10 and T11 vertebrae, and finally the T11 and T12 vertebrae. I don't remember which disc is herniated, which s compressed and which is bulging but vie got it all going on. I think the herniated disc was the one between L4 and L5.
 
  • #16
Im also concerned about getting hooked on pain pills. I'm taking them as prescribed but if I said I wasnt tempted to take an extra one here or there I'd be lying. Not for fun but for pain. The non narcotic pills were as good as a placebo.

on this...keep in mind being addicted to doctor prescribed pain meds and being an addict are two completely different things.....

as you know ive been on opiates for what seems like forever because my knees arent formed right and ive got the opinions from two orthopedic surgeons that are very good that i need to put up with them for as long as possible before i get artificial knees and that i would be getting artificial knees at some point no question about that and that any other surgery barring a new injury is just going to make things worse and increase the pain long term.....this doent mean its everyones situation but it is mine, i had a bad roll of the genetic dice and so did 2 out of 3 of my siblings....

i am addicted to my pain pills, but thats to be expected as opiates are addictive and its going to happen if you take them long term......no way around it....you know it, i know it and i guarantee your doc knows it......that in no way makes you and i an addict......i have gotten pissed a couple times at the side effects of the drugs and quit cold turkey......im going to tell you right now its no big deal to get yourself off hydrocodone(vicodin) or oxycodone(percocet and oxycontin).....you can wean your self off over the course of a week or two if your taking a ton or if your like me or you, if yah have no underling medical condition to make it a bad idea you can go cold turkey with the smaller amounts....the main thing is that you want to quit....most addicts are addicts cause they dont want to give up the high and other stuff of the drug....

7.5mg of oxycodone isnt all that much, will tell you im at a higher level than you and my doc isnt concerned though im on the upper limit that he is comfortable with without getting a second opinion from a chronic pain specialist which i will have done in the next few months....but my doc is also aware i hate being on the drug as he has watched me modulate my own dose and due to the quitting for awhile and such have dropped my tolerance back down to lower levels so i could use fewer drugs......

also most chronic pain patients like myself dont get stoned off the drugs, my tolerance is such that 90% of the time i get therapeutic effects at a much smaller dose than it takes me to feel stoned.....aint felt truly stoned by my meds in a number of years though i still get fuzzy and tired occasionally....you hit the outrageous dosages by chasing the high or because of back injuries unfortunately as opiates really arent that effective for them compared to other types of pain so more is needed for my back than is needed for a similar pain level from my knees.....if they help you they help you thats great....

the difference between an adict and being addicted is a state of mind and behavior....if you are getting all you pain meds from a single source and your doc knows what your taking and such you are in no way an addict....be honest with him and show your looking for a solution to the problem and their shouldnt be a problem....

also you may want to look at Tricyclic antidepressants such as the elavil i am on.....for some reason in small doses(usually at 25-50% of the antidepressant strength dose) they seem to help modulate pain like a dimmer switch allowing you to get by with less pain meds.....ill tell you right now ill quit taking the opiates before i give up the elavil.....i ran out one time cause i got lazy and thought they werent doing much and i didnt need them....holy hell was i wrong.....when they worked out of my system i could not get to the pharmacy fast enough, you dont actually notice it but they can help with the pain in a big way.....only side effect i have had from it is a lil dry mouth for an hour or two after taking it....ask your doc about them....
 
  • #17
I take Doxepin at night to help me go to sleep. It's a tricyclic but only 10 mg. I havnt been taking it lately since e percocet puts ke to sleep, though. I think it's 10% of a dose for depression.

You did ease my mind about addiction. I guess dependent is a better word... Just like I'm dependent on my asthma medication.

I just want to get well enough to go back to school next semester.
 
  • #18
dependent is a very good word for it.....so long as yah dont quit looking for ways to get off it and aint trying to get stoned and arent trying to get your hands on them in illegal ways you aint an addict.....even though ive gotten opinions im comfortable with every so often i send my files to another doc that i hear good things about to get another opinion which is how ive wound up with two of the same opinions.....ran through 3 boneheads that dang near screwed me up worse which is why im a big fan of getting several opinions before getting cut on.....when things first started going wrong i trusted the first guy i saw and because of it im in alot more pain than i should be given my condition....
 
  • #19
also, cymbalta, although being used primarily as an antidepressant, is listed in the PDR, and other drug books as being appropiate for nerve pain. I take 60mg a night
 
  • #20
Sooo... I'm facing spinal surgery. I have five disks that are in various states of herniation, bulging or compression. To compound that problem I had two mris done that found. Had congenital stenosis and my spinal column is half the width it should be.

I have a lot of pain and numbness. The pain is in mostly my lower back, the numbs is in both legs and feet. I also have "foot drop" the doc said and a lot of weakness in both legs and feet. I had an epidural and that helped and have to get another in a week, then two more before my insurance will pay for ym surgery. Ivebeen hurt for two months and the doc said I have a month before the risk of permanent nerve damage sets in. He wants to remove the top of one of my vertebrae to relieve pressure on my nerves/spinal column.

I'm getting a second opinion from a neurosurgeon. I'm taking four 7.5 mg percocet a day, three 300 mg neuronton, and three flexeril a day. I take a couple benadryl with each percocet to stop the itchies. So basically I'm in lala land all day, but the pain is mostly gone. I'd rather not have to take them and have no pain, however.

I have had to take a semester off school. Has anyone else dealth with this kind of problem? I tried a chiropractor and that didn't do anything, plus. Wasted month of my time and money because he thought it was one little problem he could fix. I'll never go to a chiropractor again.

All this started when I was pulling up trees (saplings) in the yard, then got a job as a waiter and that was the straw that broke the camels back.

I am extremely nervous. One neurosurgeon said he wasn't qualified to touch me... I didn't know I was that messed up. We are tryi to get an appointment with some head neurosurgeon at Emory but he's booked fora year. His office says he sees a couple of special cases like me per month so cross your fingers that he will see me.


Dude, that sucks man. I am really hoping for the best for you and I hope you can make a full recovery. Please do keep us updated on how things go. Were all thinking positive thoughts for you man.
 
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