Post Thoracic Spinal Fusion Pain

I was just wondering how your surgery went and how things have been going for you. My son was just recommended to have his T11 and T12 fused and I'm nervous. He is only 24. Thanks for any feedback.

Karin wrote:

Wow this is awesome to hear. My doctor is recommending surgery for me at T11-T12 and I'm very nervous about it. He wants to do a spinal fusion. I already have one child who is almost two and we want to try for another child soon but my back problems are causing that to be an issue so I was worried about how long after surgery I would feel ok to start "trying again", Any advice?
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about to have t3 to t7 operated on hopefully i feel better with my balance and my mobility 36 yrs old i smoke i hate i do but need surgery or end up in a wheel chair let you guys know how my surgery went warrior julian c

im 37 yrs old i have a broken fibula bone the cast will be tooken off next week and my t3 to t7 surgery is to be a week later still have to learn how to walk with the broken leg and with the surgery coming up any thing i need to know before or after i have surgery

hi =)
i had my spinal fusion 3 weeks ago today somewhere around the thoracic area, i am unsure exactly but i had 10-12 vertebra fused.
I am very lucky that my surgery was a success, and I was out of hospital within a week. I will not lie, the first few days post surgery were horrible, and part of me wished I hadnt had it done. But I woke up on the 4th day and walked to the bathroom. I was so happy, only baby steps, but it was more than i expected. After that there was no stopping me, i felt like i the more i walked, the less stiff and aching i was.
My time in hospital wasnt the best though, sometimes they forgot our pain meds and i had a throat infection for 3 days before they noticed.
On a brighter note, I am now not taking any pain meds unless i feel like i really need them, most of my pain is tension related, so a lie down usually solves it.
I just wanted to post something positive, as its a scary world pre-op when you are looking through these sites and dont know what to expect.
But everyone is different, some people recover very well, and others take longer. I think everyone knows that it might not be the end of back problems, and I am certainly under no illusion that in 10-15 years, i will probably need a another op!
Im 23, and I had my surgery in england!
hope everything goes well x

cmc wrote:

I was just wondering how your surgery went and how things have been going for you. My son was just recommended to have his T11 and T12 fused and I'm nervous. He is only 24. Thanks for any feedback.
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please read/reply to my post. I hope i can help, as over all my surgery was a positive thing to me. x

I was fused T10-S1 in 2005 for a severe scoliosis.I was bent forward. Since then I have developed a scoliosis to the left side. I am having severe back pain at the T-9 level with pain starting in the spine and running along the ribs at that level into both sides. Pain is much worse when I try to sleep and I have been waking up around 4 AM and tossing and turning until I finally get up. I have not had a good nte sleep for several mo. It is not the bed because I have slept other places and still have pain. Percocet does not help. I am very frustrated w/the pain.

Dec. 8, 2011 I has scoliosis spinal fusion. T3 -t1 were fused. I'm 55 years old. The surgery went well and I was in the hospital six days. I was on Oxycodone and Valium for pain and don't remember much for the frist eight weeks. The worst of my pain is the muscles spasms between the shoulder blades. The pain has not improved much at four months after surgery. At three months after surgery the bottom of my fusion started to hurt. It feels like a stabbing pain, not a muscle spasm. My surgeon just keeps me on pain pills and muscle relaxers. He wants to see if pain will go away before he orders MRI and CT scan. I'm happy with my straight spine and I'm taller now. I was told it would take one year before I would fuse. The thought of living with this pain is hard.
Has this happened to anyone else and what was the outcome?

Doing Well wrote:

I was fused T2-T12 9 months ago. I feel like a jerk replying, because it sounds like you are all having issues, but I also want to reply so that others reading this can hear something positive. Before I had my surgery, I only found terrifying stories online about how bad things were post-op, but honestly, it's been much better than expected. I still have to be careful and am not to lift more than 10lbs for the time being (since it hasn't been a year yet), but I don't have any pain. I was off of pain medication after 5 weeks, pregnant after 8 weeks, and taking tap dancing classes after 12 weeks. At this point I am 7 months pregnant, using an elliptical or treadmill 2-3 times per week, taking tap class 2 times per week, and taking a modern dance class 1 day a week. Again, I'm being careful and following the advice of my doctor, but things are much better now than they were prior to surgery. My pain is better. My posture is better. Life is better. A few changes had to happen and I'm not fully recovered yet as far as my activity level and flexibility, but I had (and am having) a very positive experience. I think getting off the meds, laying down when needed, and trying to be as active as possible have helped me recover so well.

Thank you...thank you for giving positive remarks on your fusion. I have only read negative posts and those are scary to read a week before my own surgery. I am optimistic and confident in the surgeon doing my fusion. I do dread the long recovery time though.

Wow...I just had 3 discs removed, 4 fused in the thoracic region and 3 lamenectomies (sp?)...this week is 5 weeks out and today was the first time at physical therapy that he could actually massage and get to the knots in the muscles...this is huge! On monday he could barely touch me...every day is better and I'm desperately trying to remove the drugs from my system. That is a constant battle even though I don't have any of the pain that I had before the surgery...what I do have is horrible sensations in my back as the nerves grow back to normal...that is the worst part of this entire process...I had thought that I would be ready to be back at work, etc in 6 weeks but I cannot see that happening!

Mike...I totally agree...after reading these posts I'm heart broken!!

With respect to the questions about single level fusion T11-T12, I had this done Feb 29. My 3 month CT scan and checkup are tomorrow. I am completely pain free and doing everything I did before except lifting heavy things and playing golf (although I am using short game wedges with no issues whatsoever). First two weeks post surgery were very painful, got off all meds and back to work (office) in 4 weeks, began physical therapy at 5 weeks which involves lots of core muscle exercises. Now I do complete weight lifting routine for all muscles just not heavy weights. Fingers crossed that they find evidence of fusion tomorrow on the scan. Eating lots of protein and sleeping 8 hours per night.