Spinal Fusion?

Question

I am 37 yrs old will have spinal fuison at L4& L5, can anyone tell me what kind of pain after surgery I can expect? and will it last for a short while or be on going?

Answer 1

I work in a hospital on a floor where we get quite a few patients that have had back surgeries. Some people do really well after surgery and others have a hard time. How well you do depends on quite a few things. How good is your doc? How much pain meds do you take, what kind, and for how long? How well do you tolerate pain? Those are just a few things. If you have a good doctor then things should go good as far as the surgery it self. If you have been in pain for a long time and have been on quite a few different pain meds to control the pain, you might have a hard time with pain control issues. Some of the heavy duty pain meds are morphine, oxycontin, and methadone, that's just some of the more commonly used ones. If you have only been on the smaller doses of like vicadin and percocet, pain control might not be that much of an issue. If you have a low pain tolerance then isn't much to control that.
You also have to remember that surgery probably won't get rid of all of your current pain, but will hopefully help.
Also, the best advice I can give you is to have a good attitude about it. Those people that get diagnosed with cancer and stay positive about beating it do way better with recovery then those that have a negative" I'm dying" attitude. And that holds true for anything you do. If you stay positive and have the little engine that could (yes I can, yes I can) attitude about everything, you will do very well.

Answer 2

The pain will be better immediately after surgery for about 6 months then you willhave worse pain than prior to surgery. At 37 you shoudl not have surgery unless the pain ins really unbearable. Do you have neurologic deficits such as weaknesss in the distribution of the L 5 nerve. There are studies suggesting that there is no difference in outcome between surgery and conservative measures. Once you have back surgery with a fusion you will not be able to bend again. If you really want surgery, why not a partial discetomy or a microdiscectomy. Why do you have to go in and take the whole thing out and put a plate and bone and screws? You need a second opinions from a neurologist and/or neurosurgeon if you really want surgery.

Answer 3

I know 5 who have had spinal fusion surgery and not even one is glad they did. I would not do it. I am 47 and hae three herniated discs but also haev severe spinal stenosis and both specialists I went to said no to surgery. Three of my friends have more pain now than before. This is very common and I would re-think it well. You likely have trouble with your sciatic nerve if L4+5 are involved, right? You can get a good chiropractor to get rid of the nerve pain you know.They are quite effective. Surgeons don't like them though. They don't seem to like it when something can be fixed by someone other then them. I've been dealing with these problems since 1979. If you check back about three pages their is a question from someone who just had this surgery turn out bad.

Answer 4

I am 66 years old and had a laminectomy and spinal fusion on the same area three years ago. For two weeks, I experienced severe nerve pains down my legs when I moved around. After that things went well and I have had much relief from the surgery. I think I had the best orthopedic surgeon in the world from Southern Hills Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee.

Answer 5

Can nicotine have a bad result in a spinal fusion procedure?