Hi all,
I have been reading a lot of posts (havnt been on posted for ages) and i was wondering how many fusions are a success? I know mine has offered no improvement or relief (i did feel for the first few weeks that it had worked but it was only drug relief) .
Now i have my original pain plus heaps of added problems .
I am very interested to hear from others maybe i have failed at doing something,
I would love to have my happy life back its 2 years this year scince my ops i have sort of givin up hope of ever improving. cheers rachel
ps hope that made sense
Hi Rachel,
sorry to hear you still have pain 2 years post-op i'm sure its not fun and hope things improve for you somehow. i wish you would of went into more detail about your problems and your pain. for instance, did the fusion fail? do you know why you still have pain? do you have back pain or nerve damage pain or both?
i'm only about 5 months post-op 2 level fusion. i have already been told by doc that i'm fully fused. my back feels good and seems to be getting better although very slowly. my real problem is the post-op nerve pain in my lower leg and foot. its still very painful and has not healed as fast as my back it still has a very long way to go. of course my doc keeps saying give it time blah blah blah. i can't even begin to think about living with this forever.
is my fusion a success ? i'm sure in my docs mind it is, but in my mind if i have to live with nerve damage forever it was not a success. BTW i did not have any of these nerve problems pre-op.
did you or do you have any nerve problems? as someone who is 2 years post-op i'm sure you could tell me alot about what my future might hold.
To Bob... be patient. That nerve pain will most likely come around. Might take a couple years but I had nerve pain from a previous back surgery that eventually came around. Of course, it might not, and you don't know until it does or doesnt, but keep hopeful. The nerve heals sooooo slowly.
To others who feel they may not have had a succussful fusion - while this is possible, don't mistake tightened unworked muscles for a failed fusion. (Yes even years later). Not accusing anyone of doing this, but if a person has surgery and then comes home, does a couple of their PT exercises and then forgets them after a couple months, they are most likely going to experience continued pain. Muscles are lazy and will go soft and it takes more than twice as long to build them back up with continued effort.
Something else to consider is that perhaps the pain you're experiencing isn't coming off the same disks that were fused. There may be additional or new problem disks. I know with my surgery, they didn't do all of the disks that needed attention at once. I may, or may not, need additional surgery down the road.
You mentioned your doctor seems to feel it was successful. He probably feels the success in that the bone matter actually fused. Ask him what his plan is for your pain.
[B]How many fusions are a SUCCESS??[/B] 
cheers rachel 
