Disk Fusion Surgery Soon - Scared

[3DArtist]

A little background - I have had lower back and neck pain for the last 7 years. One year ago I had a disk fusion in my neck which went extremely well and i have very little pain except the numbness in my hands. Now i am at the point that i have exhausted every resource i can think of to help my lower back which is getting worse every month. I am now at the point of scheduling surgery for L4 L5-S1 in early January. I have to admit i am scared to death after reading some other peoples surgery results on these boards. The doc said 6-8 weeks recovery ? how accurate is that. I guess it depends on each person. Also I have been taking soma and lortab for a while now. Not excessive but i stick to the schedule which is 4x a day 10-500 I am building up a tolerance to it and its not helping as much as it used to. I know what its like to stop taking this medicine and do not look forward to the day that i have to detox myself. I am thinking of either going the tapering method or check into a rehab for a few days to get it out of my system under a controlled environment.  After i completely heal i never want to see those crappy pills again.. its like a leash around your life.. if your not in pain you still have to take it because well you know the reason.. so i have been out of meds for a few days now - i took a few extra this month because after the diskogram my back is so much worse and when i went to the pharmacy they gave me all kinds of **** about it saying i was a week to early and were going to call the doctor and meanwhile what can you do the doc wont see you for a few days so you get withdrawals and your life stops for the time being. i just want this whole thing to be over.. any advice on anything i have written will be greatly appreciated.. :)
Cheers

3D-Artist

[3DArtist]

well I am at the end of my 4th week after surgery. Starting to feel better but still have some pain mostly from the incision. It was probably the hardest and most painful thing i have ever done in my entire life. the first week at the hospital just sucked big time. I have never had so many holes in my body with things hanging all over the place, i just couldn't wait until i was ready to go home and get some of the stuff removed. 2 weeks and they removed the staples in back  and luckily no stitches in front.. If all goes well with the xray next week i will start therapy in about 2 weeks. I just cant wait to be able to drive again I am going nuts from sitting in this house for the last month. What i really think about alot is how do i know i am ready to start tapering off this percocet or not. I know that i cannot discontinue alltogether but i would like to cut it back from 5 a day to as needed which is the night and morning. do i talk to my regular doc about this or just try to cut back myself.. i know there is some other meds to help the withdrawls like clonodine ? it would just be dumb to go cold turkey because i am only 1 month out from surgery and will have pain for a while im sure.. ughh so frustrating

[Joface]

Best of luck with your fusion surgery....I went a different route, since my doctor feels that fusions put undue stress on the levels above and below where it's done...making them more susceptible to future problems.  One thing about surgeons is that they ALL have the procedures they are most comfortable with.  You could go for opinions to 5 different surgeons and each one would recommend the procedure that they perform as being the best one!  I went through 4 evaluations and proving the point, each doctor indicated favoring a different operation - laminectomy, fusion, laminoplasty, posterior entrance, anterior entrance, with instrumentation, without instrumentation.....I thought I would at least get two doctors to agree on the procedure, but it turned out to be impossible.  In the end, I had to make a final decision based on  my own research about the procedures as well as the doctors' qualifications.  I ended up having a cervical laminoplasty at C-3 through C-7 and a year later, with a laminectomy at S4-5, S5-L1.
I still have some pain, but that is due to something they can do nothing to correct....it's called arachnoiditis and is a "clumping" together of the nerves that come out of the end of the spine....although it usually comes from a "failed" epidural injection put into the wrong place, it can also be of unknown etiology.  In any case....best of luck with your fusion.  The most important thing is to have faith and trust in your surgeon's abilities and knowing that they'll be there for you, if needed, and not abandon you when they put down the scalpel!  Jo

[levy1110]

All I know is I had the best spine surgery and surgen in the world, here in Cleveland at U.H., I had degenerative disc disease L4-L5, pinching #5, the disk , both dead and black on the MRI, L5 pinching and herniated, pain like you would not believe (oh yes you can), went to pain management Dr. what a mistake, as we all know, if the disc is dead, the medication well not help, so anyway, this idiot gives me two shots, again, more pain then you would think, passed out after second one, low and behold, he ask my wife to go and get the MRI so he can read it, thats right folks, he did not read the MRI until after the second shot (just filed a case and hired attorney today), when he realized the discs are dead, he can not help, do not let them tell you it can help, if the disc is dead and black in the MRI, surgery is the only way to go, TRUST ME, my Dr. went in and removed the L% (said I dont need it anyway) and shaved the L4, I am almost pain free, in my back, no pain in leg except for top of foot, numb, and am telling you , if the ediot pain management Dr would not have put me on 60 mg of ms contin twicw daily, i would have heald in 4-6 weeks, instead it has taken me 3 months and guess what?, I am now addicted to ms contin, have to go to a detox, but I can not afford one

[3DArtist]

ok so monday jan  14th is the big day L4-S1 fusion i am so ready for this. it seems that after the discogram the pain has gotten worse and i mean really bad over the last few months.. makes you wonder what those pain management doctors are really doing to you.. I was in so much pain the last few weeks i went into my docs office in tears because the lortab was not working and i was ending up taking more then i should of too keep up with the pain so he has me on roxycodone which is like 15mg oxycodone.. not really much of a difference the doc says 2 of these will put out a horse.. well sorry i took 2 of those things when i couldn't handle the pain and besides feeling drunk the pain was still there and hardly any relief. i just hope that Monday goes well and i am out of the hospital in 3-5 days and get ready for the next phase which is getting my life back to the way it was 10 years ago.. pain free and able to go out and do things like bike riding or play baseball with my kids. i haven't been to sleep before 5am in like 3 weeks part of it is anxious to get this done the other part is it just hurts to lay down.  
i am looking forward to cutting back this medicine if the pain is gone but i know the withdrawals can be hell so i think i will ask the doc when its time that i want to taper it slowllyyyyyy.. anyways thats my story for this evening.. i will write again after the surgery or before if someone responds here..

[alinpain]

hi,ive just had a fusion l4 l5 on oct26,im doing great .you get a good surgen,ask around ,thats what i did all i would hear is good things about my nerosurgen.great man.ive had 5 surgurys from him starting sept 1 06,emergency surgury to start,twi in my neck,three in my back,third one finally had to be a fusion or libve like i was living,not being able to walk half way through a market,ive been in moderate to severe pain for 14 months now,but after my fusion,i could walk.and yes listening to everyones problems on here almost made it so i didnt get it.but i put my trust in god and prayed and met people on this site who prayed with me,and my church prayed all the time for me........i was on there pray list.you see on these sites you get the worst of the worst.......do you think on the most part the success storys are hanging around in a forum like this,no i dont think so they have moved on with there lives,well i come back from time to time and ........so to speak ,check in o0n my friends and see if what i went through  can be of any help to anyone,so far I AM A SUCCESS STORY.......through the grace of god gave me that inner strenth we lose when we go through things like this..........keep him in your mind amd look up a verse for me which i read everyday,keep in mind now im not perfect ,but im at least 85% better then i was and in no pain.just got to get off the pain pills which i depended on for so long.........
john 3:16.........psalms 23;1-4
god bless-al

[kimberlyj]

I have had a Harrington rod in my back for 33 years and have had neck issue for many years. I am unable to sleep well and have a lot of muscle spasms.  I am going to Florida in January to have laser surgery (I live In PA.) to alleviate my pain. If you want to check this place out go to www.bonati.com  This is a non invasive surgery.  Look and see how thousands of people have been helped. A good friend of my did this last year and is now pain free after living in pain for 10 years.
Kim

[luvmyfrogs]

i understand your pain!! in both cases.. iam having cerival disk fusions jan 15 and scarred to death.. this has been going on for some time now, some days are better some are bad. but just to be able to have some sort of life i take pain meds too same as you have been on them from my g.p. for like 2 years. finally got in so much pain./numbness in right arm and hand decided to get it taken care of. so here we go.. ive been on pain meds for so long for both the pain and the well being feeling i get from them. but when i started seeing the nero surgern he knew i was still in pain i was honest with him and told him i have been taking 120 lortabs a month  (didnt tell him it was more like every 3 weeks) but it wasnt helping as good anymore. he gave me 5mg perc's and i found some more relief from the pain which was nice.. you might ask your surgern.. i think im ready to be pain free and med free. i hope all goes well with you keep me informed.. diane