Vetebral fracture symptoms - Osteoporosis Message Board

DesertBloom · 09-04-2006, 05:34 PM

Hi All: I was wondering if any of you with the above problem could explain your symptoms, chain of events that led to it, and how the problem was diagnosed (x-ray, etc)?

I have constant pain in my lumbar, rt. leg, tail bone and rt. foot that vary from moderate to severe. I've had 7 failed spinal fusions, degenerative disc disease, osteo arthritis, spinal stenosis L3-4, severe nerve damage and osteoporosis with 52% bone loss in the lumbar area.

I've been told that if I had a fracture, I wouldn't be able to walk across a small room or possibly not at all. Would those of you with this problem repaired or not, agree? I have times where the only thing I can do is stay in bed, which is multiple times each day because of the intense pain. Because I can still walk, regardless of how excruciating it is, the dr say's the pain can't be from a fracture, does this sound accurate? I'm mainly asking this question because I want to know from those who have experienced this, if you have to look for an intense increase in existing painful areas, or intense "new" pain.

If anyone could shed some light on the 1) intensity of pain , 2) physical limitations , 3) how it occured (spontaneous or not), I would appreciate it greatly.

Pam

taape · 09-05-2006, 12:29 AM

I'm no expert but I think there are people walking around everyday that have spinal fractures and don't even know it. So something doesn't sound right to me about what your doctor said. Were your surgeons checking for fractures before/during/after your fusion surgeries? If your in severe pain I would think the doctor would offer you pain medication for your present diagnoses and then keep trying to find out if you do have a fracture because you sound like you desire to find this out. I hope someone with better answers comes along soon.

DesertBloom · 09-05-2006, 04:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by taape

I'm no expert but I think there are people walking around everyday that have spinal fractures and don't even know it. So something doesn't sound right to me about what your doctor said. Were your surgeons checking for fractures before/during/after your fusion surgeries? If your in severe pain I would think the doctor would offer you pain medication for your present diagnoses and then keep trying to find out if you do have a fracture because you sound like you desire to find this out. I hope someone with better answers comes along soon.

Taape: Thanks for your input... Yes I've been checked for fractures in the past, but it was always something I initiated. My last x-ray was a little over a year ago, and no fractures were found. Because I have many problems the Ortho and Neuro tend to think it's just my old problems getting worse, or existing problems I may have temporarily aggravated. In the past 6 months the pain and limitations have worsened, so I'm going to have the Ortho order another x-ray to see what's going on if anything, this week. I'm also wondering if an x-ray is enough with the amount of scar tissue I have that might block the x-ray image.

I was hoping that someone could explain a specific type of pain, or movement that may have caused a fracture so I would have something to compare this to. The main thing, is when the pain is intense, it will diminish some over time, and then return. Several Dr.s have told me if it was a fracture, the pain would remain constant, but I've also heard about compression fractures that have varying types of pain that come and go, so I was just hoping someone could explain their experiences for a point of reference for me.

I'm on a pain med, but it does very little, but is better than nothing.

I'll just wait to see what the Dr. say's. I also wanted to know if anyone here had kyphoplasty after having fusions? I seems that it would be very hard to perform that procedure if not impossible because my spine is fused in the lumbar area, unless the fracture occurred above or below the fusion. I know that some people live with compression fractures, hence the widows hump, but there are different types of fractures I thought, and was hoping to find out here from someone who actually experienced it.

Thanks, Pam

taape · 09-05-2006, 06:08 PM

I was wondering if you had 7 different fusion surgeries or 7 levels fused. Did your osteoporosis prevent you from fusing or did you have it then? I think that spinal fractures could occur on any of the bony parts of the spine, maybe some so small that it won't be picked up on xray, how about a bone scan?

DesertBloom · 09-05-2006, 07:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by taape

I was wondering if you had 7 different fusion surgeries or 7 levels fused. Did your osteoporosis prevent you from fusing or did you have it then? I think that spinal fractures could occur on any of the bony parts of the spine, maybe some so small that it won't be picked up on xray, how about a bone scan?

Hi Taape: I had 7 seperate lumbar fusions where each fractured and or cracked into many pieces. I also had a fusion with hardware where the screws just fell out of the bone and one of them (screws) embedded itself clean through my sciatic nerve and it stayed that way for 9 mos. because the Dr. would not listen to me about the excurciating pain which was totally different from all the other post op pain. He finally had to remove all of the hardware.

I don't know if I had osteo... when all this happened because it was over a 27year period and I was only diagnosed in 2005. First surgery was 1979 from a horrific rear end car accident, being hit by a drunk driver. It's my opinion that all the fusions fractured and disentergrated from osteo... but I can't prove it, or get anyone to confirm it, but what are the odds of this happening if I didn't have some sort of bone disease. I went through very early meno... shortly after my first surgery and wasn't given estrogen plus had a family history and risk factors etc. for osteo... What baffles me is that not one dr. thought to check me for osteo... with all the problems, and I guess even if they did I don't know what meds were able back in the early 80's but if there were some maybe I wouldn't have had all these problems. Well I can't worry about that now, it's too late, but maddening just the same. BTW they won't put me on estrogen for long, or at all, because each time I would grow over a dozen cysts per breast with each mamo. All were benign thankfully, but I'm exhausted all the time with horrible night sweats and hot flashes for years.

I agree with you on a scan, because I don't have much luck with x-rays, too many negative variables that would interfere.

Good Luck again with your appt in Berkeley!!!! Hope you get a solution to post Forteo treatment that doesn't involve biophosphonates, I hate them.

Pam