Re: chronic lower back pain -- L4/L5 & L5/S1 -

March 5, 2007

,

My name is Robyn and I had a spinal fusion L5/S1 in November of 2004. I was in

the hospital 4 days and then at home to recover for about 6 weeks. I needed

help the first several days just to get up and down from bed to go to the

bathroom. Luckily, I have a great spouse who did everything for me.

The surgery was successful according to my doctor. He does not do any follow up

physical therapy after surgery because he says that you can do anything you want

once the body has healed. There are, according to him, no restrictions on your

activities after a fusion.

Initially, I felt good about the surgery. I could tell that the mechanical

aspects of my back were fixed. Like you, I too would " lock up " now and then and

not be able to move at all. I had gotten to the point where I couldn't even

lift a gallon of milk.

However, and this is a big however, it has been over two years and I am still in

pain and still take pain meds. As a matter of fact, I take stronger pain meds

now than I did before the surgery. I went through pain management clinic and am

now under the care of a rheumatologist for fibromyalgia which I didn't have

before as far as I new. I now believe I probably had symptoms before the

surgery. Epidurals also never helped me so they did no good.

On one hand I'm glad that I had the surgery because now my back works better.

However, I'm not so sure that I haven't put myself in a worse predicament

because now I hurt all the time more than I did before the surgery. I'm not

sure if the two are related but from what I've read, any intrusion of the spine

can aggravate fibro symptoms if not make them begin.

Hope this offers some insight.

Robyn

> wrote:

>Please tell me about your surgery, especially 2-level fusion and tell me how

you are now.

_

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