Anyone had spinal fusion surgery?
My neurosurgeon has recommended spinal fusion because I have herniated discs at L3-L4, L4-L5, and L5-S1. I have tried physical therapy and it did not help. It just made the pain worse. I can't even hardly move and am in constant pain all of the time despite being on pain meds and muscle relaxers around the clock. I am not working right now. I am trying to move around as much as possible. I can't hardly sit, stand, or lay down for more than a few minutes at a time. What kind of results have you had with spinal fusion surgeries?
i had L5/S1 and L2/L3 herniated and gave in to surgery.I went to the Stenum Hospital and it worked wonders.
http://www.getadr.com/?ovraw=artifical%2...
Spinal fusion can really be a tricky situation. First, be aware that it does nothing to actually change the herniated or bulging disc...what it simply does it prevent the segment from moving and prevent further compression between the discs. If you actually have a herniation or disc bulge that has not been resected this very well may be the source of your symptoms. Yet, I would imagine that a microdiscectomy was probably part of your procedure as well. Another consideration is that sometimes fusion stabilizes the segment, but that the neuroforamena may remain quite tight causing nerve compression. I have recently had a patient who also underwent a fusion and responded poorly to PT...he later underwent a foramenotomy to further relieve his symptoms. So, you can see that if there is a problem at the SAME level that has been previously fused that PT will not help because the segment has been fused and cannot be moved...sometimes other conditions co-exist with the original problem and sometimes require further surgery.
Another consideration is that your herniated disc may have nothing at all to do with your pain and may, in fact, be coincidental. There are many considerations here that involve looking at you wholistically and deciding which "pieces of the puzzle" are not fitting together. This is a consideration in chronic pain syndromes. In these cases, mechanical problems are not enough to explain one's symptoms. In such cases, pain management, cognitive behavior therapy and spinal cord stimulators are often considered.
Good luck for a speedy recovery
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