Hey all,
Some of you may have heard that I had my fusion and am now 5 weeks post op. There were some complications during my surgery but I'm not going to get into all of that right now. The just of it is the fusion was done with screws, however the plate was not able to be put in due to a large nerve that was laying where the plate needed to go. After the 6 hours of surgery my doc said he would play it safe and do an anterior once I'm healed from the first surgery. My question to all is whether or not any of you have needed this? I'm just wondering how long you waited after the first surgery until the second? And also besides the obvious MRI's and diagnostic testing is there any other way to tell if you are fusing? Does it have anything to do with the amount of pain that I would or would not have?
I hope this makes sense, I'm really tired and pretty dopey from my meds.
Take care all and I hope someone has some words of wisdom for me. KRisty. ;)

Good to see you able to post and to know your surgery is over.

Quite frankly - I wanted to bump your post, and questions up ~
for this sounds crazy to me :confused:

I suppose since the (6) hrs surgery took .... perhaps doc and/or anesthesiologist did not want to keep you under any longer?

I hope someone with far more experience than I have will see your post and give you some insight.

Best Wishes for a good recovery ~
BionicWitch

Thanks very much BionicWitch! :angel: I appreciate your thoughtfullness. I hope someone will come along with some advice, especially because I have to wait even longer now to see my surgeon (my appt was changed). Anyway, thanks again. Take care of yourself. Kristy. ;)

dont know much but I would think he couldnt get the whole job done from posterior approach so he needs to go in anterior to complete the job. why he didnt flip you over i dont know. maybe a vas surgeon was not availabe to do the anterior part. Is your doc a ortho,neuro, or spine specialist?
Sheri

My Ortho is extremly qualified and is one of the best spine specialists in the country. The reason why he didn't flip me over is because he said I had been through enough and the recovery would have been very long, difficult and extremly painfull. I'm happy with his decision but I'm just hoping to find someone else out there that may have been through the same situation. Thanks for your reply. Kristy. ;)

Kristy, I'm sorry that you are going to have to go through another surgery. I can't answer your question about that but I can tell you that the way they track whether or not you are fusing is by xray. Just a simple xray will show bone growth so you needn't worry about having to go through the mri or other tests.

I would guess that your dr. won't want to operate for at least 8 weeks....but that is just a guess.

Take care and be good to yourself.

Carol

Hi Kristy,
I have had 4 surgeries, the last 2 were with in 4 days of each other. I had my 3rd fusion this past nov. 11 and 4 days later I had the anterior. My dr has discussed doing the two at the same time, I was all for getting it over with. He decided to do the posterior one then we could decide from that one if and when we would do the front. Well after the first one I was in the worst pain of my life from my back to the end of my toes on my left leg, the root of the nerve that had been compressed had suffered some damage, and it was waking up as the doc put it, besides the trauma of having the surgery.
They( my dr and the dr that trained him) decided to do the front and hopefully ease some of my pain. Needless to say I was begging for the second one. I can truely tell you it really wasn't as bad as I thought it might be. It was much more difficult than recovering from just the one, but I feel it was better than recovering from one and then having another to recover from all over again six months later.

The reason we did the front then the back, was he had better access to the front of my spine by going to the front, he put the screws and rods in the back and the cage in the front. Now you must realize I have had two failed fusions so there are many complications that you may not have to deal with. They could not put my vertibre back where it belonged cuz of the scar tissue from the other surgeries, they couldn't get all 6 screws in, only five, due to the weakness of the part of the vertibre that had screws in it before, they were removed cuz thay came loose.

They have always tracked the success of my fusions thru normal x-rays, so that is a piece of cake, no pain involved. I hope I have helped you and not scared you. I was terrified of having the two but now that it over, it was all worth it. But it is a very long road. I hope you have great success and a speedy recovery.

May God Bless and watch over you.

Carol

hello Kristay how are you I am also 4 weeks post op and I cant sit or stand long the pain is bad down my legs and thighs. And my feet feel like burning coals at time (not that I walked on any burning coals ever lol) but I am having a hard time still too. I had the posterior surgery with the cage, screws etc. I go see my doctor next week, dont know what to expect now and this horrible neck pain is a mess I got to get that fixed next like real soon. I want my life back!!!

Love Ya., Msmo