harrington rod problems

[short4wheels]

i have had a harrington rod since 1986 from t-1 through t-12 and am now experiencing pain in my middle spine radiating to my ribcage and numbness in my right hand and am wondering what could be causing this and what to do to fix it please help

[Benbeare]

Hi please tell
Me you found some help?  I was I a car accident when I was four that left me a complete paraplegic at T1. At age of 11 and 13 I had Harrington rods put in all the way down to L3 to stop the severity of scoliosis . Until now I have lived a very active life playing wheelchair sport and working . I am now 28 and 8 months ago I fell off a ramp backwards onto the road from a metre high, I started getting syptoms in the following weeks with lhyperreflexia,loud cracking in my lower neck around the t1 area ( never used to have any cracking of the spine) following the cracking I started getting more constant pins and needles and nerve pains in my arms and hands then eventually arm would go completely numb, I've always had a sore ache in my neck and pins and needles in fingers from time to time but just went the physio whenever it got real bad . I got sent to get mri done on my neck and found out I had a degenerative disc problem at c5 and slight bulge . I then started getting back spasms around the L3 area were my back would stay in a hyperextended position for a few days before going to the emergency department and Valium eventually relaxed the spasm .months went by and symptoms started easing aslong as I didn't do anything physical such as swimming and turning my neck to much ,  I then decided on a weekend away I would get into the spa , I had to get help as it was above ground , I went in on my stomach , as I got mostly in my legs were lifted , to stop my head from going under I pushed my upper body up , at that moment I heard and felt the sensation of crunching around the area the rods finish at l3 , I immediately started getting hyperreflexia syptoms but took a few panadol and it started to ease .not sure if the drinking alcohol all day was helping . The next day in the car on the way home I was in agony with every bump causing more pain around my level of injury t1 including sharp stabbing pAin , ( only other time felt the same pain sensation was when I had the Harrington rods put in . After that incident my pain got worse and my sitting tolerance got less and less , I was able to last at work from three hours each day aslong as I went straight home and laid flat until the next morning , usually had no
Pain at all when lying flat , I was then referred to a neurological physio by a rehab physician , the physio tried pushing and massaging the lumber area twice , which both times left me in the most pain it had been to were it was unbearable to sit for even seconds without full support behind back after several weeks my sitting tolerance returned to a few hours , I found I was able to increase my sitting tolerance with no referred pain aslong as there was no cracking of the spine at the base of the rods , which I could manage with very conservative transfers and little movement , I managed to get the sitting tolerance up too about 8 hours a day ( sitting very still )  . I then rather embarrassingly thought it might be OK to have sex again , unfortunalty the next day I started hearing and feeling the sensation of the crunching again and the pain tolerance decreased day by day the more I tried to increase it , would get twitching of the muscles in lower back down to buttocks that would last for hours , would be constant ( also like to add I have found there is a hundred percent correlation with the cracking and crunching at the t1 level with the nerve pain in that area and numbness of right hand , feels like it's really cold . At this stage I am bed ridden 22 hours of the day apart from showering and toilet . I have been referred to a surgeon and had a bone scan done ,result :   Some signs of extra bony growth osteoblast is a cell that develops bone) around your L3/4 area associated with degenerative changes
-          Bony projection (osteophyte) on right side of L3/4 level contacting rod . ( also should add when I sit up within seconds my feet go purple and stay purple , usually left side is a bit worse , when I go from laying to sitting I get very strong spasm around trunk and very strong spasm in legs when sitting and leaning forward , as of late back is continually In a hyperextended spasm.  i havnt received any help and not sure what I can do , your story sounded very similar to mine