Hey all,

I am 30 years old and fused l5-s1 2 years ago and had never gotten any better. Long story short, I am now diagnosed with Psuedoarthorosis (failed fusion) along with another the level above l4-l5 ruptered torn etc.... Surgeon will be fusing the l4-l5 and adding more bone graft to the Failed l5-s1. He will be using 2 titanium rods and 6 screws total from a posterior approach (first surgery was anterior and he wants to avoid the scar tissue). So anyhow i have been in pain now for a total of 4 years and am only 30 years old, i cant even pick up my children with out crying in pain. I currently take dilaudid 4mg 6x a day and soma 350mg 3x a day. I would LOVE to not depend on those to feel "normal". my question is have any of you ever experienced this failed fusion situation and did you improve at all once it was redone so to speak. Thank you all and god Bless, hope your pains are far away.


Jason :angel:

:wave: Love your name!!

I just wanted to welcome you to the board and tell you that you have found an awesome site with alot of caring people on the board. We all love to chat. Although I can't answer your question about failed fusion, I am sure someone will chime in to answer soon. :)

Do you have a date yet for the surgery? Take care and I pray that this upcoming surgery will do the trick for you. Back pain is not fun.

Yes my surgery is scheduled for 4/27/07, received a surge date very quickly (thank god!) i know that the pain when u wake up is sooo bad but rapidly improves, just not looking forward to the whole hospital experience but i have a GREAT trust in my Dr.'s and hospital staff. Thank you for the warm welcome also. I have posted here before, just been a long time you ladies and gents are wonderfull people. Look forward to hearing from you all and maybe even answering some other posts with my experiences.


Jason

Hi Jason. Im not a failed fusion patient (thankfully), but I do know the pain you live in all to well as all of us on here do. Also I raised my children in pain as well. I herniated a disc at l5/s1 and just dealt with it. It took over 15 years to heal. I didnt get proper treatment, so I just suffered with it.

The idea of the redo sounds like a good thing for you. They can go back in fix the bad one again, and also take care of the one above it. This might be the fix to your problems.

You do know that there is a good chance you will never be pain free, but if not, hopefully it will be at a much more tolerable level so you can get back more of you life and enjoying those children more the way you want. Kids love and accept you as you are.. they don't care if you aren't a star athelete. But I do understand what you mean.

The idea of trying to reduce scarring is a plus plus. You dont want a build up of scar tissue, as this can create all sorts of complications and create pain for many people.

I think you will be glad after the redo. Take care and keep us updated. :wave:

Hi Jason
Welcome you have come to the right place. We are all here for you. I know you are not looking forward to this surgery but hopfully it will work for you and you will be on your way to recovery.

You saying you have great trust in your Dr is the most important part. I have an awesome Dr that listens and understands.

Good luck and keep us posted.

My prayers are with you.

Hi Jason. I don't have any experience with a failed fusion but I have experienced chronic pain while trying to take care of my toddler. What fun! If my son wasn't such a blessing, I'd be crazy by now. I've been dealing with my back problems since my son was 5 months old - he's now 15 months old. I have 3 herniated discs in the lumbar part of my back. On 4.26.2007 I'm scheduled for a fusion (l5-s1). I'm nervous b/c my doc is leaving 2 herniated discs alone. He's focusing on the disc he thinks is causing the pain. Good luck on Friday. I will keep you in my prayers!

God Bless,
Shannon

:wave: hello there Awsam and I wish you the best of luck with your fusion as well. L5-S1 is the first level that I had fused, I would be very concerned as well with the Dr. leaving the other discs alone and focusing on what "he thinks" is causing the pain. I would be worried about the stability issues of the spine and wether or not these would be placed under more strain and further problems after fusion of l5-S1. Just a thought but has the Dr. ever talked about a discogram to diagnose the source of the pain to rule in or out that pain could be coming from these other discs as well. Discograms and definately no fun to do but I myself would do another one at the drop of a hat. The test itself was painful but was tolerable to a certain extent and diagnosed my disc problems spot on (more than a CT, Mri etc could ever do).
I had an opinon from a NS (nuerosurgeon) he was also going to only fix the failed fusion and not the "new hernation" at l4-l5. My ortho surgeon insisted on the Discogram and I am glad he did as it was definately a source of my pain. ( A LARGE source of my pain) so anyways I will keep you and all of the board members here in my prayers for fast and painless recovery's. I will keep everyone up to date on my progress and hopefully will give some insight for us all from my experiences as well.

Jason

No, my doctor hasn't mentioned a discogram. That does concern me. My biggest fear is that after I go through surgery and recovery I'll still be in pain and unable to do normal everyday things. I'm going to call my doctor today and ask why he decided not to do a discogram first. Thanks!

Jason,
Pardon me for being stupid, but I have not heard of a discogram?
Can you enlighten me?

Here is my non-medical explanation explanation of a discogram.

A discogram is where the inject material into multiple discs to try and try to duplicate your pain. This helpful in determine which disc is responsible for your pain. Sometimes the doctor will lightly sedate you but as a rule they don't like to because they want a true reading on your pain.

I believe when Justoneofus had this test done they discovered the disc they thought was the problem was in fact not the problem it was the one above it. This test is worth its weight in gold because would it not stink to have surgery done on the wrong level?

Hope this helps.

:) hello pastor's wife and hope that drpepper answered that question for you she is correct in the explanation of it. the test itself is to try and recreate your pain (but much more intense normally when they do mangae to do so) This test has soooooooo many bad stories about it (kind of like root canals...lol) . You will lay flat on your bell and the dr will inject a dye into your disc/disc's. This dye is abe to be picked up on CT scan following the procedure and will tell a magnitude of info about the disc being studied. The dr gave me 5mg of oral liquid valium just to take the edge of but not put me out. VERY important that you are awake to tell them what you are feeling or else you can throw the test out the window. Also, even if the test is only for one disc to be studied it is very common to see at least one more done either above or below that disc. this Disc is referred to as the "control" disc. When the Dr. injects the control disc and you have no pain recreated and then he injects the "bad" disc and then recreates the pain he is able to more positively show that the bad disc is really bad and that your "good" disc's do not respond in that manner. Wow i think that was a run on sentence lol !!! Anyhow, the test is great in helping to determine where the pain in your spine is coming from. Hope that helps as well.



God Bless and great day,


Jason :angel:

I can add i bit more information to what discogramm is. They inject dye and they try to aggravate the area they think is a problem. The level of your pain during the procedure shows them also how bad the problem is this. Right after they done, they do MRI right after and the way dye goes thru they see if you got stenosis, discs damage, etc.
I know what you are talking about. I had 2 level fusion, open decompression laminactomy, rods, screws, hip bone graft a year ago. And resent MRI showed that i have herniation, stenosis abobe and below the surgical area. So this means that i may need another surgery to fix these new areas. I wonder what if after the second one the other areas will not be able to handle new fusion again - than what???
Good luck to you, let's hope for the best. And you always can chat to us - we are here for you.

I know exactly how you fell Maldova! I too am worried about them fixing my 2 lumbar levels. The first i understand did not fuse and the level above is "broke" since the fusion weakened it, but at what point does it stop. Yuck! Wish i had answers to this but i dont and i am aware that it is diferent with everyone. Sorry about the spelling and gramar, Pain meds in full effect right now.

Jason.

Thank you for your replay, Videogamecraze! I wish to have the answers too!
I read here about some Doctors who on a patient side, who care and even call their patients home to see how are they doing! My Doctor has a big name, big ego, cares more about his reputation than me and would not explain or addmitt that something is wrong. And i can't leave him for some stupid reason, i feel that he was already there, he performed 8 hours surgery, he knows what was done... how do i trust someone who did not do the surgery on me, does not know what exactly and how bad in was inside??
Maybe i am wrong, but i am still with him. I go for second and thirt opinion though.
Feel good!!