Prodisc L4/L5 TDR HELP!!!

[Crystal33]

Greg,
I could easily be wrong, but it seems to me that after ADR surgery and rehab your doctor should have not have lifted all restrictions and should have told you to go very easy on your spine for many months at least due to other discs issues.
Tragically your issues may be too severe but some people manage to improve with time and care. Sometimes rest and then rehab possibly helps. These are recent links that i kept as I have torn and bulging lumbar and thoracic discs, though still do not know whether i will avoid surgery. Personally i remain loathe to consider thoracic surgery despite the pain because it is major, risky and fusion i think has only about 50% patient satisfaction. plus it can accelerate deterioration in any compromised adjoining discs.
having the best doctor you can find is essential regardless.
Thoracic Spine Pain: Case study Sally’s confused spine | Sports Injury Bulletin
Functional Restoration for a Chronic Lumbar Disk Extrusion With Associated Radiculopathy -- Hahne and Ford 86 (12): 1668 -- Physical Therapy

[kajari]

Please excuse my typo and grammar....in excruciating pain. On March 22, 2010 at 10:30 a.m. I went in for the start of my SCS Spinal Cord Stimulator trial surgery. Surgery at 12:30 p.m. and ended somewhere around 3:00 p.m. I awoke from the surgery with some discomfort as expected but some suttle surprises. To my dismay the orthopedic surgeon had installed the permanent SCS paddles which were around T8/T9. Since I have 4 younger children at home it was decided to keep me overnight in the hospital to give me some quite time to start the healing process. The surgeon stated the surgery went fairly well but he had to make a few holes in my spine for the paddle to fit properly.Around 9:00 PM that night I started feeling a good bit of discomfort in my back which the nurses said was normal and they administered some IV pain meds. Around 2:00 in the morning is when things went all wrong. I woke up with excruciating pain in my middle back and had a HORRIBLE banding of pain that went from near where the paddles were and wrapped around my middle section. It was like a horrible hot knife that was being stabbed around my ribs. The pain was 15 to 20 plus on a 10 pain scale. It was so bad that I was banging my head against the wall, pacing from wall to wall and could not get comfortable. The pain was so bad that they called the on call surgeon who said to give more IV pain meds. About an hour or two later I was able to lay down on a hard couch type bed in the recovery from and with some Zanex I got about an hour or two of broken sleep. Next morning pain had subsided a bit but my heart rate was over 145 BPS and they could not get it down. After lots of pain meds they were able to get it down around 110 BPS. Next day pain was a bit better so they discharged me from the hospital. I still had horrible pain banding around my chest, lost feeling in my left side, abdomen, and my testicles & groin. Loss off feeling in groin causued me to have to urinate by gravity since I could not feel the urine flow. Pain got worse at home that night and I started urinating on myself and hand not had a bowel movement in two days. I got about 2 hours of broken sleep that night only getting a bit of comformt on a hard couch in the living room. Around 6:00 AM I woke up with the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in my life….pain banding around my ribs and horrible pain in my t-spine area of my back. I tried to get up off the couch and collapsed to the floor in pain. Could not move or get up from this excruciating pain banding from the middle of my back around my chest, urinating on myself and still hand not passed a bowel nor felt a need to have a bowel movement. Paramedics were called, Blood Pressure was 186/116 due to pain. My wife said I was screaming louder than she thought was humanly possible. Was taken to the hospital by paramedics with morphine drip to control the screaming/pain. Surgeon ordered a CT Mylogram with die. Was in so much pain they could not get me to lay flat on the table. Docs decided to put me on constant IV Morphine and then Dilaudid. I was giving so much pain meds I do not recall many of the events (My wife is dictating). Surgeons took me in for emergency surgery. Performed double laminectomy at the area where the ortho placed the SCS Leads. I still do no know whey but surgeon is being very reluctant to share information. He removed to huge pieces of bone from around T7 thru T9 and also for some reason went ahead and installed the permanent SCS battery, etc. I woke up with TOTAL Amnesia which they attribute to the incredible mount of pain and stress that my body had been subject to. Still no feeling in my groin, scrotum, lower abdomen, and left side. A day or two later they discharged me from the hospital even though I was still having the bad banding of pain from mid back around ribs in front. Next day pain got so bad (Pain banding again) that I went in to see my pain doc. He took one look at me and said that there was something horribly wrong and due to me urinating on myself and no bowel movement for over a week that he thought I was in spinal cord compression distress. Hospital only 10 minutes away but he demanded that I be taken by ambulance to hospital. Admitted again, and was placed under General Anesthesia for CT Mylogram (due to my pain and inability to lye flat). Ct Mylogram showed some flattening of my spinal cord now and neuro states nerve damage. How could this have gone so horribly wrong and the ortho wont tell us what went wrong. States that the pain banding may last for a few years and may never go away. I feel so guilty for wanting to get rid of the leg pain and now these horrible complications have made things so much worse. I don't even know how to pick up the pieces from here and am scared to death of where to turn. I do have an a appointment with antother neuro this week but I just cannot even begin to think when or if anything can be done from here. I am an absolutle mess both in pain and emotionally a wreck.

[dshobbies]

Though I have sympathy for what you're going through, I can't begin to imagine the pain you describe.

It isn't for me to say but it does sound like your doctor did something questionable if not outright wrong. I have absolutely no experience with sps but this simply sounds terribly wrong. Good that you're getting another opinion. I do hope this can be fixed. I suppose time will tell.

Quite honestly, I'm at a loss for words because this should not happen, ever, to anyone. Please let us know what your new doctor has to say.

You are in my thoughts, Dale

[Maria]

Greg,
reading your initial post I could identify with several things such as my injury too was work related tho not a fall, I had the flash backs re terrible frightening pain after having a successful first surgery tho then the disc above had problems ...

I also have a cervical disc bulge plus the remaining low back disc problems altho with time and many a surgical consult and recommendation tho no further surgeries after my 2nd (which failed miserably) I am doing far better.

Yes I do take pain meds altho have been pretty much on same dose now for nearly 10 years. Light dose of pain med and 1800mg of Neurontin. At least my pain has really subsided/stabilized and so forth after many years of debilitating pain that forced me into a very early retirement.

I too recommend multiple consultations with highly reputable doctors. Ditto on the recommendation to contact Mark M. with your situation/history and that's a serious ditto! Mark has been so helpful to so many of us and even with my WC situtaion he was greatly helpful to me and I believe the outcome of my case in the last few years.

My original injury was in 1982 working in Neurosurgery and taking care of a post op patient (transfer from gurney to bed). So ... I've had a long history with back pain and have been thru much however am just happy to be where I am today altho there was a time when I would have NEVER thought I would feel this good again.

Good luck and even tho it seems as tho your life is controlled and ruined by pain just remember that you don't really know what is going to happen in the future with your spine so just take it day by day. Sending yourself mentally into the future and dooming yourself to a life full of pain because you feel it so horribly today isn't necessarily what the future will be like.

Hang in there and do the best you can for now and give yourself credit for that even if it's just telling your kids you love them very much, hugging them and helping them to be the best they can be~ Love is very strong and can do so much~ even if you cannot physically.

[kajari]

It has been a few weeks since my last post about the complications I am having from the Spinal Cord Stimulator and Multi-Level full Laminectomy. I was in high hopes that the crippling pain that I am now experiencing from the Laminectomy would be getting better with each passing day. WELL I WAS WRONG! I had a week where the pain (banding pain around my chest and thoracsic pain) did not get any worse or better and I thought that I might be able to deal with this type of pain with the help of medications. Over the past week the pain has become increasingly worse and is sometimes worse than anything that I have felt so far. This past week I noticed a lot of pressure in my thoracsic spine where the laminectomy's were done. My wife looked at my back and said the swelling is really bad...it is very noticeable over the t-spine but also goes out to my shoulder blades. The banding pain around my chest has become unbearable and I have now started to have severe contractions from the area of the laminectomy around my chest. It feels like someone places a belt around this area and tightens it as hard as they possibly can. It is so bad that it takes me to my knees and takes the breath out of me. This comes with no warning and the pain is HORRIBLE! I do not think it is an infection since my temperature is normal. I have also noticed that my feet get REALLY cold and start to sweat...this happens even when I am laying down on the couch. It has become so bad that my wife has to assist me in getting into/out of the bath, she has to bathe me, help me in and out of my recliner, and has to pretty much help me with most of the simplest tasks that I was able to do before the surgery. I am also dropping things constantly. My wife has to get my medications for me now since I have dropped them on several occasions. I have also started getting quick "jolts" from the SCS. The jolts are really quick and happen in my lower back and middle back around my t-spine. The SCS is still doing a good job controlling the pain in my legs and is about 70 percent effective. Ice and Heat do not have any affect on the swelling in my thoracsic spine. I still have lots of numbness in my right side abdomen, numbness in my groin area, and do not have any feeling when I urinate. I have to concentrate really hard to get the urine to flow and it takes about 15 minutes to drain my bladder. My bowels are working as expected now.
I have an appointment this week with the Boston Scientific rep and the surgeon who performed the surgeries. Ever since I had the SCS surgery and the emergency laminectomy's there always seems to be a gut feeling that something is not right. I also forgot to mention that it feels like there are rocks/pebbles in my back where they did the laminectomy.
Is there anyone on ISPINE.ORG that has experienced anything like this? I am getting really worried since it has been 1 month since I had these surgical procedures and I would expect things to be getting better by now not getting worse like I am experiencing now.

Take Care,
Kajari

[Gil Denis]

Hi Kajari

I am for a lost of words, your experience is like reading a Steven King novel
I have a brother in law who is an engineer at Boston Scientific, mostly working on heart stints.
I will contact him and see what SCS is all about etc...
God Bless
Gil

[kajari]

Gil,

The SCS is a spinal cord stimulator which helps an individual with pain the limbs. The SCS is working great and I could not have asked for a better outcome as far as the SCS controlling my leg pain. The issues I am having now are a result of the surgery to implant the SCS. I am trying to find out what went wrong and why the doctors had to do the laminectomy's and why I am experiencing the horrible complications from the procedure. The surgeon is being very quiet about the whole thing and I feel that he is not being completely honest with me about what led up to the emergency laminectomy. I went from having extreme pain in my legs to this HORRIBLE banding pain around my chest. The banding pain is far worse than the leg pain ever was..... If I could only go back in time I would have elected to have another sureon do the surgery or not have it done at all. BUT I am trying not to look at the past and am keeping my head up high hoping that this banding pain will eventually subside. My nerves are freaking out right now and it may be due to some nerve damage from the laminectomy surgery. From what I have been told it can go away in a few months, a few years, or be here for a lifetime. It is so frustrating and depressing right now.

Take Care,
Greg

[Aaron]

That is the exact level I have a herniation T6-T7, along with tears in 3 discs around it. I have not heard numbers as low as 50 satisfaction rate, and that may be due to the muscle damage used in the old surgury. Also I have heard from several great Thorasic docs that the ribs allow for less adjacent degenerationg after fusion. The ribs limit the movement and help with stress on adjacent levels. I warn you thorasic spine is extremely tricky and a surgeon not familiar with it can cause you more harm than good. I have done alot of reas. and Dickman, Regan, Perrin are about the only I would trust to cut on me in that area. There are some thorasic surguries that are less invasive now, VATS, dickmans surgury ( forgot name). Both regan and dickman basically wrote books on thorasic spine surgury. Spine health recently had girl have the big surgury, fused that level she is doing good. She has pics of scar, and talks about it alot. Its in the back surgury section, says thorasic surgury. I warn you it is very hard to locate many with that surgury. Mark is dealing with thorasic issues now so he is a good person to talk to.

[kajari]

I do not know if you recall but several months ago (about 6 months) I posted about the horrible experience I had with the implantation of my spinal cord stimulator. See original post above for more detailed information. In a nutshell, I was left with a partially flattened spinal cord, horrible banding pain around my chest, loss of feeling on the left side of my abdomen and groin area along with intermittent bowel and bladder issues....much more but those are the major issues. These problems still continue today. About 2 months ago the stimulator stopped working in my legs and started a horrible shocking sensation in my tailbone. The Boston Scientific reps have tried numberous times to adjust the unit without any success. To say the least, they have shut off the stimulator because it has stopped working as expected. X-Rays show normal lead placement. I am writing because I am left with a huge dilema. Since the stimulator is turned off I have had two surgeons state that I should have it removed. Has anyone else experienced failure of a spinal cord stimulator? Has anyone had it removed after 6 months being implanted. What would your opinion be, considering the horrible complications I had with the original surgery? Would there be a problem with scar tissue having it removed. I am really concerned with the complications I am still experiencing and am afraid if it is removed that further nerve damage may occur. I would love to hear what the group thinks about this situation. Additionally the surgeon who performed this surgery will not say a word about what went wrong with the original surgery that resulted in a T7 to T10 laminectomy days after the SCS implantation. No where in the medical records does it state there was swelling or hematoma etc... I have sent a letter to him requesting that he provide this information but I have not received a response. Reluctantly we have spoke with a few lawyers who have reviewed my records and each of them want to file a malpractice suit against him and some sort of negligent case as well. Also, to date the surgeon has not charged insurance for his surgical services or the cost of the stimulator or laminectomies performed. I am told that if the surgeon knows he did something wrong and then charges for his services it could be some sort of fraudulent wrongdoing on his part. Either way, I would like to get advice from some of you who have gone through a similar experience or have had to have an SCS removed for whatever reason
Thanks So Much In Advance for you responses,
Greg

[Hooch]

Hi Greg,

I don't know much about the complications of SCS removal.

Take the bastard to court I reckon..

So sorry to hear of your situation.. you are one brave and courageous guy.. my best tyou and your family.

Chris.

[kajari]

Chris, Taking the surgeon to court has always been in the back of our minds but it is something that we will do as a last resort. If the physician does not respond to the numerous questions I asked him in the letter I sent recently then suing him may be our only option. Right now all I want is answers because the surgeons here are reluctant to do any type of surgery because of the complexity of this issue and the absence of information and conflicting information in the surgical report. They are even saying that removing the SCS might be a very risky surgery since my spinal cord was partially flattened and the complications that I am still having (pain banding around my chest and all the loss of feeling as well as the bladder and bowel issues). I am pretty sure the surgeon is not going to answer my questions but it was a last ditch effort to try and find out what happened during the surgery which also caused me to have a T7 thru T10 laminectomy just days after the trial period....he even installed the permanent SCS during this procedure which I was unaware he was doing. I guess I signed the permission for these surgeries but I was on such a high does of dilaudid that I do not recall ever signing any papers. He did not even call my wife to let her know what was going on or what he planned to do. It is a very sad situation.
Take Care,
Greg

[dshobbies]

Greg,

I can't comment on the removal of the SCS. But, and I realize California is thought to have a sue mentality - you have a right to be compensated for the pain your have endured and that will be in your future. You have a right to answers though I can see if the doctor thinks he did something wrong, he doesn't want to answer and incriminate himself.

Legal action might be necessary to get him talking but you might want to consider it for your pain - and future patients that he might consider without complete patient understanding.

And I don't consider myself sue happy, just very righteous.

Good luck, Dale

[kajari]

Thank you so much for all of the encouragement. I just got off the phone with my Boston Scientific rep. They are no disagreeing with the remove of the SCS as they have done everthing possible to adjust the device without any success. I think I am at the point to where I need to put all of my fears, which were generated from the SCS surgery that caused these horrible complications, and go ahead with the removal of the device. The hard part is going to be finding a Surgeon who will take it out. Since we fired the surgeon who did this to me it will be even more difficult for any surgeon to speak with him and get the real truth about what happened or what mistakes were made.

Take Care,
Greg