Lumbar 5 and Sacrum 1 fusion.

[treemarks]

I have spondylolthesis with recommendations of surgery because the L5 has hypermobility and thus physical therapy and core muscle exercises are not an option..  I have severe sciatica down my left leg and into my foot.  My neurosurgeon told me that I could either have surgery or visit a pain clinic if I was against surgery.  Of course with pain clinics, you raise the risk of further nerve damage and possibly loss of bowel and bladder.  Great..  All I see are horror stories.   Doesn't anyone on here have any success stories?  I would imagine that people with success stories would not be posting b/c if not in pain, why be here, right?  However, I was just hoping maybe someone out there watches these posts.  If so, could you share your story?

[angiebee]

Hello,
I had spondylolisthesis and  surgery to fix it in Jan. Prior to surgery I couldn't walk/stand for more than 15 minutes without extreme pain. To make a long story short after nothing helped I went ahead with the surgery. I too, had read nothing but negative stories and was terrified but in the end I didn't want to spend the rest of.my life in pain, I am 38.
I had a posterior fusion from L4 to S1 and am now pain free. It has been a little over 3 months since the surgery and I still have aches and pains but those are still surgery related. I stopped taking pain pills 2 weeks after surgery and was back to work 1 month after. However, I do not have a strenuous job. I now have my life back. I can walk and no more pains down my legs. The first week after surgery was hard but it .progressively got better.
If you have any questions I would be happy to try and answer them.

[bigsissie]

You are welcome. Re-learning how to live with back problems is a pain and most of the times a hassle. It is the little things that will get you. Like picking something up you drop or spring cleaning lol. It drives me nuts. I was also always called stout. I actually got into weight lifting but quit because it was irritating my back. (I didn't know about my disk then) I was a little bitty thing that could bench 200 and it freaked people out lol. Not like that now, now I am a big girl and not supposed to lift more than 15 pounds. Good for your mom. Some times it pays to listen to yourself and no one else. If you have any questions that I could help with just let me know. I have studied different surgeries and therapies for my back. Good luck and God bless.

[treemarks]

Thank you for your response.  I abused my back thinking it was as strong as my arms and legs.  It will take a lot of retraining because I never thought twice about lifting something very heavy.  Now I will have to think more than twice.  People often commented about my strength as a woman - but my back was taking the brunt of it.  Now in my forties, it is retaliating.

I loved your response:  It is possible to over come anything I believe. I have been asked by doctor how I can walk if I have such nerve damage (78%) and the only answer I have is because no one told me I couldn't.

It sounded like my mother after her quadruple bypass - no one can believe she walks around with a 'saggy' heart like hers.  Seven years later she still is because she says she can and her heart hasn't told her otherwise.  Thanks again.

[bigsissie]

They both can be a lose lose situation. I wrote my story in my journal if you are interested in it. I do know that surgery is not always the better road. Any back surgery causes your back to become unstable therefore making it more likely to have problems with more disk later on. The shots are not always effective can, cause damage themselves and you can also build up scar tissue at the injection site. I would suggest going over the pro and cons of both with your doctor and asking what the long term effects are from each. I don't think there are really any success stories when it comes to back problems. I think we each start out small and work our way up to more and more problems. I have yet to hear of anyone being 100% pain free not matter what they chose to do.It really ***** but I think we get sick of having to baby our backs and go out and do things we should not do and pay the price later as if our backs are a credit card. We go out do what ever we want (even the simple things) and forget that we will have to pay later.

   It is possible to over come anything I believe. I have been asked by doctor how I can walk if I have such nerve damage (78%) and the only answer I have is because no one told me I couldn't. I have learned to walk, got out of diapers, retrained my bladder and legs. Nothing is impossible. You just have to work with what you have. I am trying to do that although I do get frustrated and max my credit out. I think forums like this give us a place to vent our frustrations of our problems and pain where people actually understand, (lets face it this is one of those things that you have to go through or you don't understand)  but they also make it easy to forget our blessing on what we do have. Good luck to you on your pain and problems. I hope you get everything settled soon.