Has anyone had a second spinal fusion?
I had L5S1 fused over ten years ago. Now I am again in terrible pain and they are talking about fusing L2L3. I am no spring chicken, this terrifies me but the pain is giving a lousy quality of life. Did your second fusion help?
skylucy
(3,853 posts)Jirel
(2,259 posts)Friend #1: 9 back surgeries, 7 of them fusions. He has a congenitally horsecrap spine aggravated by playing football in college, doing stunts in Hollywood, and finally breaking his neck in a riding accident. For him, fusions were necessary to keep him out of a wheelchair. After about 10 years, because a fusion reconfigures stresses on the spine, its pretty automatic that youll need another. The key to fusions isnt how many youll have, but whether theyre done early on enough to be of help, before you have a ton of nerve root or cord damage. Once you wait too long and the damage is already done, they prevent a person from becoming paralyzed, but they cant help much in terms of pain or numbness. But pain can be dealt with fairly effectively through pain management, if the core function is solid and not degrading. With 9 back surgeries in 31 years, he is retirement age, still rides (a horse makes a hell of a wheel chair), does shows in multiple states, and yes, is part-time in a wheel chair and part time walking bent over with one or two long canes. But, hes walking. He has some bad days when pain makes him want to bite heads off, but mostly he does better than 90% of people his age whove taken half the beating he has. He wouldve been fully in a wheelchair over a decade ago, if not for the last 4-5 surgeries. That being said, its risky. You can only have your spine operated on so many times and not have something go wrong. Hes as hampered as he is now, not because of the spine itself, but because a bad bed transfer by a nurse, not long after surgery #8, busted something lose and he essentially had a stroke, necessitating spinal surgery #9 as an emergency.
Friend #2: scoliosis and 2 spinal surgeries, the second because again, the spine remodels eventually. She died 3 times on the table and right after, the second time. But, she is fully active and nearly fully functional. Her need for a second surgery took her out of a physically demanding LEO-related position. After dying 3 times, she had some minor brain impairment, and decided to turn a leave into a retirement. These days she is as capable physically as she was before that surgery, and in less pain, but of course she has some bad days.
Both these friends are poster kids for if they say ya gotta, ya gotta, but do it on time rather than waiting for it to be an emergency when all they can do is stabilize permanent damage. You wont go back to pre-bad-back-normal, but assuming surgical competence, youll be much better able to do all those things you want to do, with a little help from science and chemistry.
captain queeg
(11,780 posts)The first one when I was about 55. I was in a lot of pain for a long time and tried everything to avoid it. Finally bit the bullet after trying everything else. It went good BUT the jackass surgeon didnt install the screws and cage that I now know are standard procedure. I guess he thought the bones would just fuse without support. Everything looked great until my 3 week checkup when the X-rays showed the fused joints slipped. Took several weeks to get another surgery to install the hardware scheduled. The new surgeon was great and the surgery went well but I lost about 6 extra weeks of work. Anyway, I was pretty much pain free for the first time in years. I dont know the joint numbers, but the lower lumbar.
A couple years later I got into a car accident and got a compression fracture in the next joint up. Again I tried to avoid surgery for a year or two and finally went back in. The surgery went well and was pain free in a couple weeks. Then it suddenly went to shit and the pain was worse than ever. I saw the doc for about a year with the worst pain ever, finally becoming bedridden. They couldnt really say what was wrong beyond some of the screws coming loose. Finally went back in and it turned out the previous fusion was infected but they didnt find that till they cut me open. They had to fuse a couple more joints to get enough screws in for support. By this time I was in my 60s and things dont fuse as fast as you age. But that surgery was succesful and pretty quickly was pain free again. But I think almost all of my lumbar is fused now and I lack flexibility in my lower back. That was almost 4 years ago.
redstatebluegirl
(12,477 posts)yankee87
(2,339 posts)Had 2 fusions because the first one failed. This happened within a month. Same as you, pain was unbearable. Still trying to recover. Good luck and my prayers with you.