wout
10-04-2006, 02:31 AM
anyone ever heard of mechanical pain? neruo dr says that my pain might be coming from my hardward flexing. Because of the lack of bone surrounding the hardware. He is thinking on implanting some kind of simulator for my muscle cramps. Not sure what kind. By that point in our conversation, I was already frustrated and feeling like I hit another brick wall. I need to talk to my PM dr and ask what he meant. Anyway, If you are experiencing the same symptoms, please let me know what med's are helping you the most.
Thank you
"Tim
Thank you
"Tim
Sponsor
Shoreline
10-04-2006, 09:45 AM
Hi Tim, It sounds like your doc is using every description to describe your pain without coming out and saying your fusion failed. Hardware is designed to hold things in place untill a fusion grows, once the bone and Donar bone grows the hardware should be comletely reducndent. However if the fusion failed, the hardware will continue to carru the load ,maintaing the disc space untill the hardware fails. Hardware isn't designed tolast forveer and it doesn't. Screws and rods snap, screws toggle in the holes and can pull out, screw head can shear off and the movement of hardware is very distinct, crunching grinding and squeeking, not the kind of symptoms you had before. he hardware may be preventing nerve impingement for now as long as it maitains the proper spacing but if the fsion failed it's just a matter of time untill theharware starts to fail. I've broken 2 sets of hardware from failture to fuse. I crucnh and squeek and grind but so far the 12 screws abd 8 rods haven't colapsed so they maintain the disc spacing and prevent nerves from getting crsuhed. However without the fusion, the hardware won't last forvery. It may take 1-2 years for signs of broken hardware to start apearung or it may take longer, it just depends on multiple factors, youir weight, the amount of stree you put on the fused area, theharware he used etc. But titanium hardware does and can snap, I', living prooff. Each time they went in to revise the fusion and replace the broken hardware I came out of surgery with ore of my spine fused and twice as much hardware. The last set is already fauiling anbut it took several years for the implanted bone for fusion to be reabsorbed. Otherwise, the standard felexion and extension Xrays that show everything is still being held in place either by fusion or by the hardware on it's leads docs to call failed fusion a success untill enough bone is reabsorbed or the hardware starts failing.
The last revison on me turned into a 12 hour surgery that doubled the length of y fusion to cover L1-S1. Screws pull out of my sacrum and LA, screw jheads are sheared at L2 and L5, there is no bone left after 5 years that they implanted and the only thing keeping my spine from topling and shearing off nerves or damagng the cord is the remmaining hardware that hasn't broken yet.
If hes' talking about mechanical pain in that sense, you either lean to live with it and mask what you can with meds, but regardlessof the dose of meds, when a screw pulls half way out and you can't get it back in the hole the pain is crippling and you can'tmask it with meds.. I feel like I need a rubber mallet to smack the screws in my sacrum back into my place.
The implanted stims are for nerve pain,I haven't heard of them being used for muscle pasm or pain, not that irt's going to make a failed fusion grow,. There are implanted bone browth stims but hat;'s usally done at the tinme the revise the fusion. So i really don't know what he's talking about as far as muscle sim for spasm.
If you staill have nerve pain or radicluopothy "p[ain running down your eg, he's likely taking about a spinal cord stim. Again it's just a tool to mask a muych greater problem, the lack of fusion and stability. The hardware only last so long before you through a rod, snap screws or pull them out when you bend forward. Stengthening your core muscles help with stability but without a fusion and once enough harware starts snappjng the fused area can loose all stabiltiy and you can develop mechanical problems that involve the movement of vertabrea When vertabrea shift out of alignment it's called spondyliotheises or retrothesis, dependiong on which direction they slip, once this occurs it stretches or compress nerves and can eventaully lead to complet toppling of vertabrea called spondyliotopsis.
Afte the last 6 level attempt, my options are either learn to live with it and the pain or try agan and have the fusion revised again. A 4th surgery to replace the broken hardware, revise the fusion by atempting a global fusion where an anterior aproach and posterior aproach is taken is my only surgical option. The discs would be completely removed, replaced with cages, They would remove a rib from each side and extend the fusion from L1-S1 up to T10 and then run a cross bar from hip to hip to build an posterior ladder up my spine that suported by the cross bar rather than the 2 screws that toggle in my sacrunm and hope this surgery doesn't leave me in worse condition.
The last 6 level fusion reviision left me bed wridden for almosty a year and nobody would admit this fusion failed untill hardware started snapping again. The odds of a succesful 4th surgery iinvolving 9 levels is so outragous, the odds are actually about 150% chance of failure. If you think thngs can't get worse than they are know, your very mistaken.
So mechanical instability could be referring to the hardware or refering to the actual vertabrea. Vertbrea interlock with facet joints and slippage or movement that's unnatural is also considered a mechanical problem. The spine itself is a mechanical mechanism that everything has to work properly or you have problems. So It's hard to say exactly what your doc means by mechanical dysfunction, Sounds like a nice way to say the surgery and fusion failed and it's just a mater of time untill the hardware fails if it's not already failing, snappjng, cracking, togglling or bending.
Hopefuly the PM doc will be a little more upfront and give you a DX you can actually investigate and consider your options, whether it's surgery or trying pain management. But the goal of pain anagement is never complete relief and you will remain unstable untill the problem is corected. Either through more surgery and new hardware or a different aproach to fusing like anterior instead of posterior or combinging the two methods.
Good luck, Dave
The last revison on me turned into a 12 hour surgery that doubled the length of y fusion to cover L1-S1. Screws pull out of my sacrum and LA, screw jheads are sheared at L2 and L5, there is no bone left after 5 years that they implanted and the only thing keeping my spine from topling and shearing off nerves or damagng the cord is the remmaining hardware that hasn't broken yet.
If hes' talking about mechanical pain in that sense, you either lean to live with it and mask what you can with meds, but regardlessof the dose of meds, when a screw pulls half way out and you can't get it back in the hole the pain is crippling and you can'tmask it with meds.. I feel like I need a rubber mallet to smack the screws in my sacrum back into my place.
The implanted stims are for nerve pain,I haven't heard of them being used for muscle pasm or pain, not that irt's going to make a failed fusion grow,. There are implanted bone browth stims but hat;'s usally done at the tinme the revise the fusion. So i really don't know what he's talking about as far as muscle sim for spasm.
If you staill have nerve pain or radicluopothy "p[ain running down your eg, he's likely taking about a spinal cord stim. Again it's just a tool to mask a muych greater problem, the lack of fusion and stability. The hardware only last so long before you through a rod, snap screws or pull them out when you bend forward. Stengthening your core muscles help with stability but without a fusion and once enough harware starts snappjng the fused area can loose all stabiltiy and you can develop mechanical problems that involve the movement of vertabrea When vertabrea shift out of alignment it's called spondyliotheises or retrothesis, dependiong on which direction they slip, once this occurs it stretches or compress nerves and can eventaully lead to complet toppling of vertabrea called spondyliotopsis.
Afte the last 6 level attempt, my options are either learn to live with it and the pain or try agan and have the fusion revised again. A 4th surgery to replace the broken hardware, revise the fusion by atempting a global fusion where an anterior aproach and posterior aproach is taken is my only surgical option. The discs would be completely removed, replaced with cages, They would remove a rib from each side and extend the fusion from L1-S1 up to T10 and then run a cross bar from hip to hip to build an posterior ladder up my spine that suported by the cross bar rather than the 2 screws that toggle in my sacrunm and hope this surgery doesn't leave me in worse condition.
The last 6 level fusion reviision left me bed wridden for almosty a year and nobody would admit this fusion failed untill hardware started snapping again. The odds of a succesful 4th surgery iinvolving 9 levels is so outragous, the odds are actually about 150% chance of failure. If you think thngs can't get worse than they are know, your very mistaken.
So mechanical instability could be referring to the hardware or refering to the actual vertabrea. Vertbrea interlock with facet joints and slippage or movement that's unnatural is also considered a mechanical problem. The spine itself is a mechanical mechanism that everything has to work properly or you have problems. So It's hard to say exactly what your doc means by mechanical dysfunction, Sounds like a nice way to say the surgery and fusion failed and it's just a mater of time untill the hardware fails if it's not already failing, snappjng, cracking, togglling or bending.
Hopefuly the PM doc will be a little more upfront and give you a DX you can actually investigate and consider your options, whether it's surgery or trying pain management. But the goal of pain anagement is never complete relief and you will remain unstable untill the problem is corected. Either through more surgery and new hardware or a different aproach to fusing like anterior instead of posterior or combinging the two methods.
Good luck, Dave
wout
10-04-2006, 12:42 PM
thanks Dave for all the information. I am glad on one thing. The neuro dr that I saw is not knive happy. He did say that I needed another 360 fusion. And that he did not have the experience to do it, or the faciality to proceed with it. He adviced me to go back to Calif. to my well know surgeon and have the proceedure done. My Calif. dr. says that he will do the proceedure when I'm ready. Problem now is that the Hospital UCLA doesn't take my insurance now. Now it will be a fight among the hospital and my insurance to get it approved. I will just sit back and wait for the answers. I've been referred to the University of Washington. I've been told that they have very good neuro surgeons there. But have not heard back from them yet. I've have already started the proceess of sending films, ct reports and everything else that they have requested. It is thou a 6 hour drive for me. So it will be a huge hassel to get the ball rolling. I think I will just have to do whatever it takes to reduce the pain that I'm in.
Thank you again
TIm
Thank you again
TIm
wout
10-04-2006, 03:31 PM
Hey shoreline..........
check out my post on appt with neuro surgeon.
Tim
check out my post on appt with neuro surgeon.
Tim
feelbad
10-05-2006, 10:03 AM
your doc could be talking about trying a baclofen pump.instead of using things like morphine in it,they just use baclofen instead,this does have a pretty good track record but only if you are really suffering from actual spasticty issues would it really be of any actual help.have you been trying various anti spasmodic oral meds at all for this first?valium works really well to keep my constantly developing spasticity in check.I have constant non stop motor signals being sent to my legs and that energey will just build and build til i either dissipate it on my own by just getting up and walking and stretching for about ten min or it will explode all on its own with horrid spasms,really tight snappy types of spasms.pretty nasty stuff.i wouldn't go leaping into the pump just yet til you know that is truely what you are experiencing(true spasticity)and not something else.doing some trial runs with the anti spasmodics would really be the best way to go.if you can handle these with meds,why go thru yet another sugery and all that will go with maintaining that pump?good luck,Marcia
Shoreline
10-05-2006, 01:10 PM
Hey Tim, I went back a few pages and didn't se your post regardng surgery. You can paste the web page from that thread here and I can trackit down, or if you can let me know what page or the last date someone responded I can find it that way.
Good luck, Dave
Good luck, Dave
wout
10-05-2006, 02:28 PM
Hello shoreline
I found your post, and was wondering if you had a redue done, or did you have another 360fusion done. How did it work out, and were there any complications.
thanks, Tim
Right now my bigest problem is the pain at L5-S1, the screws n my sacrum just toggle in the wholes and the sdcrews at L5 sheared off at the bone level.
I've been considering surgery if I could find someone to simply patch and repair that one area of my fusion because fusion from L5-S1 done posteriorly jus look doomed for failure when you look at at skeleton and realize how little bone on bone you actually have from the facets of L5touch the facets of S1, alot of movement occurs at thi area and when fusing facets particularly L5-S1, it pretty much looks like trying to nail two 2X4's end to end rather than overlapping them.
IF I could find a surgeon willing to do a partial redue, not the entire thing which would be a mosnter surgery, I would go with an anteror aproach and have that disc completely removed, this wouldgive you more bone surface to bone surface to fuse too. It doesn't even make sense when you look at a skeleton to try and to a posterior L5-S1 fusion.
Sp the paroach, the technique, whether they use your own donor bone or cadavor bone and hope to bring it back to life m,akes a big dfference. Some docs use bone plugs, some docs use chps, some docs crush live bone and adavor bone into paste and add enzymes. Unfortuantely there are no definable statistics on what aproach works best. But they do know smoking can limit your ability to fuse by hinfdering blood flow on the smallest level.
An anterior aproach or global/360 fusion 10 years ago was extremely invasive and posterior sounded better with the little knowledge I had at the time. Try not get into the blam game, we would then start wondering why we were the ones tit failed on or why children get cancer or young people die. It's not a punishment or retributuion or something as simple as syang, well you smoked , what do you expect.
People in car accidents come in needing fusions ASAP and whether they smoke or not doesn't dertermine the surgeons willingness to fuse or not. Even anti-inflamatories ike alieve, celebrex or Ibuphrofen can hinder a fusion.
But why ours failed, I can't be sure, I just know 2 fusions and the original disc surgery failed on me too. Assigning blame and livingwith the blame would be even harder than simply living wtith the pain.
HGuge leaps in spine surgery have been maed since my first in 93. Back then they did a huge laminectomy from where they reoved the spinous process from L3-4 and 5 which is the joint tha prevents movem,ent from front to back. This instabilkity and reinjury, rupttured dscs s what lead to my first fusion. Perhaps they removed too much bone doing the lami and created too much instability. There is something called post lami syndrome. But with newer techniques like endo and micro discectomies, If I had to start over, I would choose the least invasive first attempt poosible. No bone is removed so instability s rarely created by the initial lprocedure, you also don'e have the musckele and scarring problems with less invasive surgery.
I definitely went through the why me, still do from tme to time, and still wonder wha I'm going to do,. Even with the pump, it doesn't prevent movement of the lower hardware and vertabrea and when they crunch, no amount of meds will mask it. This is why I would still consider havig some patch work done to reparir the most dameged area that didn't fuse at all. I would allow them to do an anteror aproach knowing it seeems to be the most mechanically sound aproach.
I wish I had a clear cut answer as to why fusins fail, but don't elet anyone turn it around on you, you smoked, your didn't try hard enough, you din't wealk enough during recovery ectc. Nothins works 100% of the time. There are anatomical variatons from one person to the next and a procedure that works for one person may simply not worjk for another. If docs claim very high fusion rate success, I doubt they have done anything longer than 6-8 month follow up to see where the patient is at the 1 year point or the two year point. My first surgery they used non aproved hardware that the doc who did the surgery had developed himself, that snapped after a a year or so, The next was done with more non aproved hardware for sines and that failed too. Alot of us that went through earlier procedures that failed . hopefully the docs have learned from the failures and have a better doaproach technque and use every possible modality to increase success.
I even met one guy from floirda who had a 360 global and the surgeon used coral in BAK cages,m the only problem was overgrowth of coral and controlling the growth. Obviously that brilliant dea fell by the way sde, Just as Ziconidine seems to be falling by the wayside for the moment as psychosis is a pssoible side effects of use cone snail toxin to mananage pain.
I need to run to the Pharmacy but will beback later. ZBUt don't subject yourself to what you might have done different. There are dozens of ways to fuse a sine and the way you choose was based on the best information at the time and trusting relationship with your doc.
Hang in there, talk some more later, Dave
I found your post, and was wondering if you had a redue done, or did you have another 360fusion done. How did it work out, and were there any complications.
thanks, Tim
Right now my bigest problem is the pain at L5-S1, the screws n my sacrum just toggle in the wholes and the sdcrews at L5 sheared off at the bone level.
I've been considering surgery if I could find someone to simply patch and repair that one area of my fusion because fusion from L5-S1 done posteriorly jus look doomed for failure when you look at at skeleton and realize how little bone on bone you actually have from the facets of L5touch the facets of S1, alot of movement occurs at thi area and when fusing facets particularly L5-S1, it pretty much looks like trying to nail two 2X4's end to end rather than overlapping them.
IF I could find a surgeon willing to do a partial redue, not the entire thing which would be a mosnter surgery, I would go with an anteror aproach and have that disc completely removed, this wouldgive you more bone surface to bone surface to fuse too. It doesn't even make sense when you look at a skeleton to try and to a posterior L5-S1 fusion.
Sp the paroach, the technique, whether they use your own donor bone or cadavor bone and hope to bring it back to life m,akes a big dfference. Some docs use bone plugs, some docs use chps, some docs crush live bone and adavor bone into paste and add enzymes. Unfortuantely there are no definable statistics on what aproach works best. But they do know smoking can limit your ability to fuse by hinfdering blood flow on the smallest level.
An anterior aproach or global/360 fusion 10 years ago was extremely invasive and posterior sounded better with the little knowledge I had at the time. Try not get into the blam game, we would then start wondering why we were the ones tit failed on or why children get cancer or young people die. It's not a punishment or retributuion or something as simple as syang, well you smoked , what do you expect.
People in car accidents come in needing fusions ASAP and whether they smoke or not doesn't dertermine the surgeons willingness to fuse or not. Even anti-inflamatories ike alieve, celebrex or Ibuphrofen can hinder a fusion.
But why ours failed, I can't be sure, I just know 2 fusions and the original disc surgery failed on me too. Assigning blame and livingwith the blame would be even harder than simply living wtith the pain.
HGuge leaps in spine surgery have been maed since my first in 93. Back then they did a huge laminectomy from where they reoved the spinous process from L3-4 and 5 which is the joint tha prevents movem,ent from front to back. This instabilkity and reinjury, rupttured dscs s what lead to my first fusion. Perhaps they removed too much bone doing the lami and created too much instability. There is something called post lami syndrome. But with newer techniques like endo and micro discectomies, If I had to start over, I would choose the least invasive first attempt poosible. No bone is removed so instability s rarely created by the initial lprocedure, you also don'e have the musckele and scarring problems with less invasive surgery.
I definitely went through the why me, still do from tme to time, and still wonder wha I'm going to do,. Even with the pump, it doesn't prevent movement of the lower hardware and vertabrea and when they crunch, no amount of meds will mask it. This is why I would still consider havig some patch work done to reparir the most dameged area that didn't fuse at all. I would allow them to do an anteror aproach knowing it seeems to be the most mechanically sound aproach.
I wish I had a clear cut answer as to why fusins fail, but don't elet anyone turn it around on you, you smoked, your didn't try hard enough, you din't wealk enough during recovery ectc. Nothins works 100% of the time. There are anatomical variatons from one person to the next and a procedure that works for one person may simply not worjk for another. If docs claim very high fusion rate success, I doubt they have done anything longer than 6-8 month follow up to see where the patient is at the 1 year point or the two year point. My first surgery they used non aproved hardware that the doc who did the surgery had developed himself, that snapped after a a year or so, The next was done with more non aproved hardware for sines and that failed too. Alot of us that went through earlier procedures that failed . hopefully the docs have learned from the failures and have a better doaproach technque and use every possible modality to increase success.
I even met one guy from floirda who had a 360 global and the surgeon used coral in BAK cages,m the only problem was overgrowth of coral and controlling the growth. Obviously that brilliant dea fell by the way sde, Just as Ziconidine seems to be falling by the wayside for the moment as psychosis is a pssoible side effects of use cone snail toxin to mananage pain.
I need to run to the Pharmacy but will beback later. ZBUt don't subject yourself to what you might have done different. There are dozens of ways to fuse a sine and the way you choose was based on the best information at the time and trusting relationship with your doc.
Hang in there, talk some more later, Dave
zoey1
10-05-2006, 03:15 PM
i am so sorry you are going through that! I had a similar happening when i turned my neck i could swear i felt the hardware and heard a noise . Went in and the doc said it was "in my head" told him no it is in my neck.
The interesting issue when i heard the click/pop i would also get muscle spams in that excat spot radiating down my neck where the surgery site was. Oh man the pain levels would shoot through the roof. He then told me well maybe nerve pain is assoicated with that.
My suggesting before going to something drastic see if they are willing to try some oral appraoches first. I.e. topmax, nurotin mucle relaxors all have some benficial affect and at least for me it seems a cotail approach does better then just one or the other.
Wig had a question for you, do you notice a point and time when the issues start? Like reaching bending or just sitting down and going nuts with the spams?
In fact that is a question for the rest of you on this thead too. It use to be only when actively doing something. Now i can be sitting down and the spams start in the neck and radiate down .... Frustrating isn't it?
The interesting issue when i heard the click/pop i would also get muscle spams in that excat spot radiating down my neck where the surgery site was. Oh man the pain levels would shoot through the roof. He then told me well maybe nerve pain is assoicated with that.
My suggesting before going to something drastic see if they are willing to try some oral appraoches first. I.e. topmax, nurotin mucle relaxors all have some benficial affect and at least for me it seems a cotail approach does better then just one or the other.
Wig had a question for you, do you notice a point and time when the issues start? Like reaching bending or just sitting down and going nuts with the spams?
In fact that is a question for the rest of you on this thead too. It use to be only when actively doing something. Now i can be sitting down and the spams start in the neck and radiate down .... Frustrating isn't it?
wout
10-05-2006, 03:32 PM
Zoey, sorry so confusing. Trying to post a thread that shoreline posted several years ago about non fusion and a second 360 fusion. I considering a second 360 and am alittle worried of the outcome. I have no fusion in my allocraft cages and no fusion surrounding the hardwared. They want to go back in anterior and posterior to do the proceedure. They say it is risky, and I'm interested to know if anyone has done it before.
Tim
Tim
Shoreline
10-05-2006, 05:43 PM
Hey Tim, All my surgeries were done posteriorly, from the back. The first was disc, the second a 2 level fusion and I broke that hardware and had it revised in 99 which turned into the total lumbar fusion.
The last surgery took almost 12 hours and left me bedridden for almost a year. As time has gone on, more and more hardware has borken and pulled out so I still think about trying to revise this one or the day may come when something slips enough to crush a nerve or dmage my spine, I may even through a rod through the skin and if that happens I would feel like I had no choice, for now I do. It's probably not realistic to think that a new fusion will do anything more than stabalize things the way they are now. But the thought of a 360 aproach,. removing 9 discs, using cages and more posterior hardware along with the rib removal and bar to stabalize my sacrum to my hips. It's hard to imagine coming out any better off than I am now even though mechanically it sounds like it would address all the problems at each level..
The improvement in my life came from excercising once I was on a dose of meds that allowed me to deal with the pain but didn't remove the motivation.
I worked harder than any PT would have ever pushed and it took 6 months to go from 8 minutes a day to where I was excercising twice a day for 30 minutes.
I still crunch and squeek , but loosing 25 lbs and the endurance and strength gained has made returning to work part time possible and worth while. I knew I was going to hurt regardless of what I did. If I layed in bed all day I hurt more at night and if I excercised I hurt at night. Hurting a little more isn't anything new after 13 years of surgery and PT and PM, so I figured what did I have to lose by pushing myself beyond what seemed possible.
My life sucked the way it was, years were passing and I wasn't getting better, just more out of shape and simply managng the pain so that my life was tolerable was no longer enough.
My docs said I was doing well given the circumstance. I was suposed to be happy I could walk and take care of the house, but that really wasn't satisfying to me. Being able to be a good Mr mom really didn't make me feel better about facing the next 30-40 years. I would rather function and hurt a little more than not function and still hurt anyway.
The pump made a difference both in pain control and the clearity not to accept that this is as good as gets. I don't know how much better things will get and there is a good chance I may have to have the surgery at some point to stabalize things. For now I want to be able to work out on my days off and still be able to function, not just collapse after working a 6 hour shift. So that's what I'm shooting for now. If I can do that, maybe full time is possible.
All the excercise I did was oriented towards endurance and strengthening my core, the muscle in your abs, back and sides. Fusion patients have notoriously poor balance afterwards, and that comes from core strength. I basically walked as fast as poosible on an elyptical trainer without holding on. I used dumbellls so that in 30 minutes I got a great cardio, did hundreds of curls, overhead press, straight arm extensions and had to keep balanced or fall off the machine.
The excercise has done as much for me as the pump but probably wouldn't have been possible without it. I don't know what the future holds, but for now I'm doing better than I have in years. The pain is still manageble, I have good days and bad days, but having something to do is a great distraction and makes me feel like I'm contributing more than a disablity check.
Good luck with whatever you decide. It would be nice if there was a simple solution or surgery came with a gaurentee, but in the words of several docs I saw about trying to fix my back, 3 surgeries have failed, what makes me think a 4th would be the answer. I've ended up worse off and in more pain from each surgery. For now I'll keep doing what I'm doing, it seems to be working better than expected.
Take care, Dave
The last surgery took almost 12 hours and left me bedridden for almost a year. As time has gone on, more and more hardware has borken and pulled out so I still think about trying to revise this one or the day may come when something slips enough to crush a nerve or dmage my spine, I may even through a rod through the skin and if that happens I would feel like I had no choice, for now I do. It's probably not realistic to think that a new fusion will do anything more than stabalize things the way they are now. But the thought of a 360 aproach,. removing 9 discs, using cages and more posterior hardware along with the rib removal and bar to stabalize my sacrum to my hips. It's hard to imagine coming out any better off than I am now even though mechanically it sounds like it would address all the problems at each level..
The improvement in my life came from excercising once I was on a dose of meds that allowed me to deal with the pain but didn't remove the motivation.
I worked harder than any PT would have ever pushed and it took 6 months to go from 8 minutes a day to where I was excercising twice a day for 30 minutes.
I still crunch and squeek , but loosing 25 lbs and the endurance and strength gained has made returning to work part time possible and worth while. I knew I was going to hurt regardless of what I did. If I layed in bed all day I hurt more at night and if I excercised I hurt at night. Hurting a little more isn't anything new after 13 years of surgery and PT and PM, so I figured what did I have to lose by pushing myself beyond what seemed possible.
My life sucked the way it was, years were passing and I wasn't getting better, just more out of shape and simply managng the pain so that my life was tolerable was no longer enough.
My docs said I was doing well given the circumstance. I was suposed to be happy I could walk and take care of the house, but that really wasn't satisfying to me. Being able to be a good Mr mom really didn't make me feel better about facing the next 30-40 years. I would rather function and hurt a little more than not function and still hurt anyway.
The pump made a difference both in pain control and the clearity not to accept that this is as good as gets. I don't know how much better things will get and there is a good chance I may have to have the surgery at some point to stabalize things. For now I want to be able to work out on my days off and still be able to function, not just collapse after working a 6 hour shift. So that's what I'm shooting for now. If I can do that, maybe full time is possible.
All the excercise I did was oriented towards endurance and strengthening my core, the muscle in your abs, back and sides. Fusion patients have notoriously poor balance afterwards, and that comes from core strength. I basically walked as fast as poosible on an elyptical trainer without holding on. I used dumbellls so that in 30 minutes I got a great cardio, did hundreds of curls, overhead press, straight arm extensions and had to keep balanced or fall off the machine.
The excercise has done as much for me as the pump but probably wouldn't have been possible without it. I don't know what the future holds, but for now I'm doing better than I have in years. The pain is still manageble, I have good days and bad days, but having something to do is a great distraction and makes me feel like I'm contributing more than a disablity check.
Good luck with whatever you decide. It would be nice if there was a simple solution or surgery came with a gaurentee, but in the words of several docs I saw about trying to fix my back, 3 surgeries have failed, what makes me think a 4th would be the answer. I've ended up worse off and in more pain from each surgery. For now I'll keep doing what I'm doing, it seems to be working better than expected.
Take care, Dave
wout
10-05-2006, 10:31 PM
Hey shoreline
Sorry to hear about all your troubles. I sure hope that someday you will be all fixed up.
Hey, if you know of someone who has had a 360 twice, I would really like to talk with them. I'm alitte worried about it. But I so want to get rid of this pain, or at least some of it.
thanks again for the post
Tim
Sorry to hear about all your troubles. I sure hope that someday you will be all fixed up.
Hey, if you know of someone who has had a 360 twice, I would really like to talk with them. I'm alitte worried about it. But I so want to get rid of this pain, or at least some of it.
thanks again for the post
Tim