How quickly can you go downhill?

[Guest guest]

,

I know you posed this question to ....but I thought I would chime

in!

Many folks know or thought that something wasn't right with them fairly

soon after their initial surgery. While the flatback diagnosis might

not have even been coined " back in the day " ...these folks had problems

from the get go.

Equally many members, and as with me, had a fairly precipitous decline

after 25-30 years. Honestly, looking back, I think a couple years

before I really became symptomatic I was not standing up very

well...and when I caught myself in a mirror from the side I

noticed....but no one else said anything...and so I went on my way. I

never dreamed when my hip acted up that it was in any way related to my

back...but as the pain go worse and worse I got suspicious....and did

my own sluething around. I stumbled into information on flatback...and

the second I read it I got chills because I KNEW it was me. Then it

took me awhile to get up the nerve to get a real diagnosis because I

knew that just hearing the words meant that it would be real...and I

would then have to decide what, if anything, to do about it.

I will say that I found the support groups on-line in 2004 that were

devoted to this topic didn't have many members sharing stories with

good or positive information...so I was more frightened to get help

than may have been necessary...for awhile. Fortunately people contacted

me privately and met me while in Boston and told me the " other side " of

revision. (... with this F_R group I know we try very hard to keep a

balanced picture of what this surgery is, the GOOD the bad and the

ugly!)

I have also wondered if my decline was harder or faster after the

diagnosis...or if in fact the diagnosis just became inevitable when the

forward tilting of my torso just became too much for every other

ligament and joint to hold upright any longer and was thus also

accompanied by an big uptick in pain. I am kind of comfortable now

thinking that it is just a " chicken or the egg " kind of choice. After

you get past the shock of feelng like the monster that was slayed those

many years ago has just regrown it's head (or 3 for cryin' out loud!!!)

you can just slowly move your way toward deciding how you will live

from here on out.

That said, I know that pain is more acute when you hold tension in your

muscles...and I think I was walking around with my shoulders up around

my ears for many months after diagnosis trying to get my head wrapped

around what was happening to me...so my thought is that perhaps you are

having more pain for both reasons...the structure is declining...and

you are noticing it...and reasoanbly feeling a little tense and upset

about it.

In any event...you are completely in the drivers seat as far as knowing

your own thresholds and situation and if you can do well with

palliative help, stretching and strengthening and not feel you are

sacrificing too much of your life to the goddess of pain...then you

always have the invasive procedures for backup, right? Persuing

alternative therapies with your doctors blessing, it seems unikely that

anything you do will make things worse.

Take Care, Cam

p.s. My timeline: I went from achey hip pain to searing hot buttock

pain/sciatica in 2 months. I was skiing one february and in surgery the

next february. For me it went as fast as that.