Hard Wear Removal Surgery

[jsewell]

My leg pain did continue to get worse so i saw my spine surgeon. He ordered an MRI of lumbar spine and gave me a medrol dose pak. The dose pak sure cleared up the leg pain. Although he could not see any cord compression on my MRi he was going to go over it with a neuro-radiologist. He had also ordered steroid injections . Things got better so i cancelled the epidurals.
Then i had some episodes of fecal incontinence. Brought me back to my surgeon's office . He tested all my reflexes and they were all hyper. So that i think indicates a neuro problem so then i went for MRi of my thoracic and cervical areas. ON those the tech got me so comfortable, i didn't believe it could happen. My first MRIs had been postponed as the first tech did not have the experience to deal with all my metal in my spine. I was lucky to get the tech i did who they said had the most experience.
Well now my leg pain is coming back once again. My surgeon is going to go over all my MRI's and i am set up once again for steroid injections in a few weeks.
This body gets way too challenging for me. Another symptom i have which certainly may be unrelated, but i am exhausted and falling asleep all the time. A nap after waking up and again early afternoon is quite normal , even though i try not too. then by 6 i am ready for bed again. I had polymyalgia rheumatica once before and i sure hope i do not have a relapse. It is possible and a bad disease. Inflammation in muscles and causes extreme tiredmess.
so a trip to my primary to discuss this tomorrow.
Hope everyone is well or getting better
judy

[Maria]

Judy,
sorry to read that you're having so much trouble again w/pain and some other probs. When do you have the neuro appt?

I just realized I need to make an appt. w/my PTP in Long Beach since I have been having some pain tho it's higher up. It's not there all the time tho often enough and usually instead of where it used to be. I wonder about the status of my facets.

No radiation of pain or neuropathies, ridiculopathies or anything.

I do need to get my regular labwork done for this year which I've just been really lax about.

Ok gotta get off this computer chair. Can't stand to sit hardly at all first thing in the morning.

Hope you like your new place. Hope your PCP can figure out what's causing the tiredness. take care~
Maria

[mmglobal]

Judy, I understand if you don't have the energy to post, but I hope for an update... Call me if you want and I'll post for you.

mark

[jsewell]

Hi Mark and others,
As far as my update from my last post. Still occasions of fecal incontinence. I have not heard back from my surgeon regarding his conversation with the neuro radiologist. It may be a situation where he won't call me , will possibly remind him at my next viist for my post op from the injections. I might , depending on how frazzled he seems ask him if he got a chance to talk with any radiologist .
I have tingling in my left leg, weakness, pain and it all gets worse the longer i am on it. Can be like 2 minutes too, not a long time.

I never made it to my primary as i called and they told me i was not on the schedule until Dec. So someone made a mistake. I can't decide if he could help me or not so i haven[t rescheduled for a sooner apt.

I saw my gastr doc to tell of my new embarrassing problem. He said something like oh no. Then what he did do was ask me to find some hard to find fiber supplement, have me stay off dairy products, spicy food and caffeine for 2 weeks and keep a food diary for him and return to see him in one month.

I'm really not sure what to do now. My spine surgeon did say because i have hyperreflexia i do have some type of neuro thing, so maybe i should be going back to my nuerologist that i have seen a few times.

As far as recovery from the last 2 surgeries, i am not really progressing very well. My back muscles are weak so it is difficult to stand up straight without hanging on to something. I don't know if it is beneficial to use a cane or leave it home so i will get stronger. I am kind of unsteady on my feet. I just try not to turn fast. I still have hip area pain, mostly on the left side now. Also black spots in front of my left eye. I did read up on autonamic hyperreflexia and that is one symptom.

I am open for any advice .
thanks
judy

[Maria]

Judy,
I'd recommend to contact your surgeon again and if he doesn't respond your neurologist. I 'd also recommend using a cane with the 4 prongs because the potential for a fall or actual fall in no way could help you and may make something else worse. As you build up a bit with a cane or even a walker you may increase your strength and balance.

I have had a horrific flare up that lasted about a week so far and most of it spent in bed. I was hugging the walls to get up and getting off and on the toilet was nearly intolerable due to the amount of low to mid back pain. I swear I've not had a flare up like this in AGES!

Meanwhile in order to walk my dog which was a challenge as she pulls quite a bit I had to use a golf stick (also because of coyotes) and I used the head for the handle like a cane and the actual handle has a rubberized material on it and makes for a very steady walking type stick. I leaned on it heavily and used it for support when I had to pick up Lola's excrement as I couldn't bend from the waist without horrible spasms or even squat down for fear of not being able to get up because of the pain.

So case in point it helped me to use the golf club (putter) like a walking stick/cane.

With your symptoms I'd want to try and see as many practitioners as I could until someone could figure out what's going on sooner than later other than supposed weakness due to all the surgeries and some neurodeficit or neurogenic type of situations (hence neurology visit).

Good luck and take care~ Maria

[jsewell]

Maria
I'm sorry you have had such a hard time with your back. After such a long time of being fine too.
Next week i am having lumbar spinal injections to calm down the area. So i will see my surgeon shortly before , but not really for talking much as he just goes from one of us to the other. Then i will see him on my follow up apt. He won't let me down. I just keep debating if i should get my primary involved .Yesterday I did one of my 15 hour in a row sleep sessions and then 4 hours later was ready for bed. With everything aching and being so tired, i am really , really worried it is a return of polymyalgia rheumatica which will really upset me. If all my muscles are inflammed again, it would explain why i still cannot stand up straight for more than a minute or 2.
I was using a cane . then i thought i am 2 months out of my last surgery, i should be doing better than this (my surgeon agreed on that one) so i thought i would push myself and try to build up my back muscles by forcing them to work. So far that has not worked. Maybe i will go back to the cane. I'll see how much it helps i guess.

Thanks for the advice and i sure hope you are feeling much, much better. Have you figured out what may have triggered it?
Any acrobatics, horse back riding? Only kidding of course
judy

[Maria]

In my dreams of course!
Well what might have triggered this... hmmmmmm... I did try to move a piece of furniture tho that alone would not have caused it as it was a push with my legs more and not that heavy.. then because I hadn't been walking much or exercising I pulled out my step thing to try to do step type exericise and that lasted less than 5 minutes I think. So I just feel the low back was just tired and ready to pop so to speak because of the inherent nature of my low back and problems it's had for a long long time.

The next day after that I was soooooo in horrific pain. I couldn't get up off the floor (futon on the floor to sleep on) without hugging the wall for support. Then on to the toilet and lowering self and getting up was really horriic pain wise.

Didn't even try to scoop cat litter and no way could I attempt to pour more litter into the litter box tho the cat thought I should be able to!

Walking Lola.. whatta challenge! This 20lb mini schnauzer has no clue with regard to owner ready to fall over due to back pain.. she wanted to walk way more than usual. I was just the biggest bummer as a dog owner/walker the last week!

I'd been experiencing some thoracic level twinges/pain for a while now but the lumber stuff sort of crept up at the end of the higher level lumbar stuff.. it was soooo really weird as a pattern of pain and probs!

As to what caused it.. hmmm anybody's guess. You know how we've been with moving and such these last few months~ guess we are just putting our spines thru it and hoping for the best~ I so wish I could still get injections but WC just won't authorize them for me since they do work tho cost them too much $$. WC just wants to settle me out completely or drop off the face of the earth ~

good luck w/your stuff and please keep us posted. I'll do the same here!