Nairek L5-S1 ALIF Fusion January 2009

[Terry Allen Blackburn]

WOW Karin. A lot on your plate right now. I hope that the symptoms disappear after awhile more of healing. Did they recommend Lyrica for the nerve pain? That sure was helpful too me in my first year of recovery. I hope things start looking up for you. It may be a good idea to discuss upping the dosage of the anti-depressant for awhile. make sure you discuss this with your Primary Care Physician so it does not cross react to other medications you may be on.

Hang in there.

Terry Newton

[phylly]

Karin,
I wholeheartedly agree with Cindylou and Terry. Cocktails of drugs are very helpful during the recovery especially with the symptoms you are having. Being in less pain can help you heal faster and different drugs can effect the different symptoms you are having. Feeling like you are going to have a nervous breakdown is not good. We know that you are venting but you must be stressed by all you are going through and 6 weeks is not that long after having surgery. BTW I think that your doctor should show you your x-rays. That was the first thing my doctor did at the 2 week visit. He wanted me to see the bone, the pins, and screws etc and how they were placed. While your nerves are healing lyrica or nuerontin can help. An antidepressant may help with the stress and your pain meds should help with the pain. I am not sure what you are on right now? Maybe you can call your Drs. instead of a long train ride into the city. Sitting still for long periods of time is not that great, walking would be more helpful but if you are having pain from walking too then maybe shorter walks will do. I was prescribed a muscle relaxer before surgery to help with muscle spasms and I have used it after the surgery when i feel tightness in my muscles. I also think when you feel really stressed you should try to relax and maybe visualize something peaceful and relaxing. Take deep breaths and try to think of things you love to do that are fun. Try to stay in that peaceful pain free place. I know this is harder said than done but it may help. I know when I am stressed all my muscles tighten up and make everything worse than it really is. Is there someone you can talk to? Any family member who can be your confidant. I know that your husband must also be stressed thinking his job is going overseas. What a bummer. We are all here for you too so vent away. I am sending good thoughts your way.
Phylly

[Nairek]

Originally Posted by Terry Allen Blackburn

WOW Karin. A lot on your plate right now. I hope that the symptoms disappear after awhile more of healing. Did they recommend Lyrica for the nerve pain? That sure was helpful too me in my first year of recovery. I hope things start looking up for you. It may be a good idea to discuss upping the dosage of the anti-depressant for awhile. make sure you discuss this with your Primary Care Physician so it does not cross react to other medications you may be on.

Hang in there.

Terry Newton

Terry,

Indeed, I have a lot going on. Of course my life is always full of some kind of drama. Kinda sad that it almost seems normal to me.

I have to go for an SI Joint injection on Wednesday. Hopefully it helps with some of the issues I'm having. When I go back for an office visit with my PM doc, I'll ask him about the Lyrica. I was taking 25mg once per day before bed up until 2 weeks before the surgery. I wasn't able to function on it if I took it during the day hence why I'm a tad hesitant to go back on it again.

We'll see what happens. I'm just taking it 1 day at a time for now.

Karin

[treefrog]

If Lyrica didn't work for you, have you tried neurontin? They are similar drugs. I take neurontin and I don't have any side effects, but I know some people do have weird side effects from different drugs. You might give that a try.

Six weeks is very early, but I can understand wanting to start feeling better now. I hope that things get better for you very soon. Take it slow, and try to focus all your energy on healing.

That sure is a lot of stress you've got going on. If your husbands job moves, but you are not thinking of moving with the job, does that mean there is a job in Florida for him? What about for you? You also must be worried about the follow-up care that you might need, though hopefully that won't be an issue. I hope everything works out, in the most stress-free way possible.

[dshobbies]

Karin,

Tried posting this yesterday but ((&%^#$*. When you have so much to deal with you simply can't think straight. Your pain is controlling your thoughts and though you don't like the way they make you feel, perhaps an anti-depressant will get you to a better place. No one likes taking drugs, and more drugs and yet more still but sometimes we just have to bite the bullet and give in, undoubtedly feeling better and chastising ourselves for waiting so long.

Pain attacks our existence and we have to fight back anyway we can. I wish you better days,

Dale

[Terry Allen Blackburn]

I didn't tolerate the Lyrica very well the first time I was on it. I hated it and barely lasted a week on it. The second time around I think my body was already used to it. I stayed on it for well over a year and got up to 400Mg per day. It worked fabulously for the nerve pain and targeted the nerves that were damaged rather than acting globally like Neurontin does. It doesn't help, with me being a drug expert, and also very sensitive to side effects. So I am one who always experiences side effects and have to work through them. It always gets down to whether the benefits of taking the drug outweigh the side effects.

Hang in there Karin. We're all rooting for you.

Terry Newton

[Nairek]

Hi everyone. Just stopping by to let you know I'm still hanging in there. Things have been super busy lately & when they aren't, I'm just plain anti-social.

I'm still dealing with the "new" pain on the left side of my lower back which appeared after surgery. My PM doc was convinced that it was my SI Joint so he suggested that I have another SI Joint injection. I made the mistake of telling the anesthesiologist that I have undiagnosed sleep apnea & she decided that she wasn't going to give me much sedation. I have to tell you, I don't think this chic gave me ANY sedation cuz I was awake & almost screaming thru the whole thing. And the outcome: it took the edge off for 1 1/2 days & then it was back to the same old pain.

We flew down to Florida 5 days later & I have to say that I didn't feel too horrible while we were down there. We went down to look at houses & were in & out of the car quite a bit for the few days that we were down there. I took less pain meds down there than I did at home. The worst pain that I had was the occasional throbbing/stabbing sensation but it was different than the pain I usually feel. Surprisingly enough, I was able to get out of bed & walk the next day & not be in an incredible amount of pain.

I went back to work last week. I work 2 P/T jobs. I started with working 1 for the 1st 3 days & then the 2nd one on Thurs & Fri. I'm not in horrible pain. I just feel very sore. On Friday evening, after working for 8 hours, my right leg did hurt when I was walking so I took some pain meds. I fell asleep on the couch on my left side & woke up on Saturday morning with the pain now in the left leg. It hurt enough that I had trouble walking. So again I took some pain meds, went back to sleep (in bed) & woke up a few hours later in no pain so I went to work for 3 1/2 hours. Talk about weird!

Also, my PM doc seems to think that I may have Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy/Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. I have had issues since the surgery where 1 foot feels much warmer than the other & it gets worse the more I walk/sit. The warm foot isn't painful, it just feels like I've been standing on my feet all day when I haven't. I have noticed that I feel a little tingly in that foot. Hopefully it goes away.

I am still dealing with discomfort near my abdominal incision. I can't bump against anything without wincing. Sometimes even jeans are bothersome. It's just sore when you touch around it. Pretty annoying.

Anyway, it's really late. I'll try to stop by more often. I promise! I have my 12 week post-op visit this week. Hopefully I can get some answers.

[Cindylou]

Good morning Nairek,

When you had the SI joint injection you mentioned it "took the edge off" for 1 1/2 days. The most important part of that is diagnostic. If it only took the edge off you should consider another one. I know they are painful, but it is so critical to get the right diagnostic pain generator. I didn't have any sedation with mine at all, because I had driven myself there. Perhaps the doc didn't get it just right in that perfect location. That happens. When I had my injection I got almost 100% relief, but it only lasted about 5-6 hours. No matter. The critical component there is that I got so much relief. I will have my 5 week post-op appt. with the surgeon who performed my right SI Joint Fusion this week. I am doing extremely well. I had no idea the SI Joints could be such incredible pain generators. My doctor says the same thing. That is all he does ....performing SI joint fusions. Very specialized. I just hope you get the answers and relief you so richly deserve. Having said all that, I would be remiss if I also did not point out that you are still in such early days since your L5-S1 fusion. I had that surgery as well, also performed anteriorly and posteriorly, and it is a very invasive surgery. I hope you continue to heal well from that and your pain diminishes in the process.

My best to you,

Cindylou

[Kathy]

Karin, Sounds like things are improving for you. Sucks you are having SI joint issues. Just wondering, where the heck are the SI joints? I have read alot about them; but no idea where they are.

Where in Florida are you looking to move to? I had my surgery in Aventura, right next to North Miami Beach. It is beautiful there. People honk too much though, light barely turns green and 3 horns go off. They honk just driving down the road, you do that in Dallas and you will end up shot They were also very rude, not near as friendly as people in Texas (aside from the crazy people that will shoot you for honking at them )