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**Theresa** · 07-05-2005, 01:25 AM

Hey Connie,
Glad to hear that you are doing better! It won't take long before you are strong again. I'm doing pretty good. They took a little over an inch out of the spine which pulled me back up 30 degrees. (For every centimeter they take out, it pulls you back 10 degrees, I actually had 3 cm which is almost an inch and a quarter.) I still lean a little bit forward but hopefully these poor old muscles will get used to the new position and starting working properly. After being crooked for about 40 years they have alot of work getting use to being straighter.

**Lavinia** · 07-05-2005, 03:55 AM

Thanks for the feedback, really encouraging to me at 7 months post-op, age 55, fused T2-T12. I also had nightmarish withdrawals from two different opiates, and I also have a lot of numbness and rigidity, as well as VERy slowly decreasing pain. And amazed at how slowly the mobilisation goes! So good to be reminded that the improvement will continue, since it can be hard to remember,

Lavinia

**kathleensrose** · 07-06-2005, 06:20 PM

opoides

Could you tell me about your opoide addiction ? I am taking 325grams of
hydroco every four hours at five months out. What were you taking and at
what strength and what were your symptoms when withdrawing? Kathleen

**Karen Ocker** · 07-07-2005, 11:29 AM

opiods/pain management

I had withdrawal too!

I do not believe you can go through this type of surgery without some opiods because there is nothing out there that can mitigate that type of pain-excruciating - is the word. Scientific studies on pain suggest poor pain relief is a stress on the body and impairs healing. Without proper pain relief a post -op patient will not move aroung enough and that causes other complications such as blood clots and pneumonia. My pain specialist said we aim for a pain level of 5- in other words bearable.

I stongly suggest, from my own experience, to use a pain management specialist. Mine helped me taper off narcs at 3 months and monitored me for withdrawal syndrome. This is the body's natural response to stopping opiods after any length of time. Even though I havent touched a drink in over 15 years at the time I needed Duragesic patches, dilaudid at night, Neurontin, Lidoderm patches and Tylenol Arthritis- all at the same time. We also started TENS. I do NOT believe a personal physician has the interest or expertise to do this because pain management is a sub-specialty in anesthesia.
The first 4 months after surgery non-steroidal pain pills like Aleve, ibuprofen(Advil) etc interfere with fusion so those are out.

With the previous pain management regimen I was: able to sleep the whole night, walk a mile 6 weeks after surgery and do PT. My husband and I kept a log of the times and amounts of medication. With my doctor's guidance the night time dilaudid was stopped first and then went the Duragesic patches after first reducing the strength. I still had withdrawal and my pain doctor used Paxil which did help. TENS machine on the earlobes actually helped the depression that goes with withdrawal. By 3 months I was off all opiods but needed other methods. MY pain doctor also recommended SAM-E to help my liver recover from the meds.

Now I do not need anything.
Karen

**spincon58** · 07-08-2005, 12:33 AM

Kathleenrose,
I sent you a private message.....Karen..I do agree with you about pain being unbareable after scoliosis surgery...most surgeons will not give pain meds after 4-6 weeks...they do refer you to a pain specialist or primary doctor...if needed......the problem with some pain specialist is that they write scrips to freely for repeated business....In my case I was given oxicontins for pain control, and when i refused to take more ; was when i started to suffer greatly from withdrawel...if the pain doctor i went to ; would have reconizned the withdrawel pain i was suffering from , i think I would have been spared the pain and suffering I endured....pain medication is definitely an important part in the healing process.after scoli surgery...but if you had a choice I would not use opiods...

**Lavinia** · 07-08-2005, 03:04 AM

Terrible day here in London yesterday with the blasts. Thankfully all family and friends safe, though my daughter, son and son's partner were all travelling to or from central London at the time, so we are extremely lucky. All spare time spent on phone and following news.

Kathleen, you might want to discuss when and how to come off them with your doctor, and what to follow them up with. I agree with Karen that opiates are essential in the first months after surgery. I also highly endorse her suggestion of a pain specialist. A specialist would have been both a support and practical help (Karen is next best thing!)

I had to come off opiates suddenly after 3 months when I became allergic to them, then also to a weaker replacement kind. So my withdrawals were typical cold turkey sweating, shakes, nausea, diarrhea, fainting and extreme agitataion and sleeplessness. However they did not last longer than 10 days either time, and probably less. If I had had the choice I would have worked with my GP to come off them around that time but gradually, hopefully with some suggestion other than just more opiates...

It does feel a big step forward coming off opiates, and one's body and mind feel more normal once the withdrawal is through.

Kathleen - hope things are continuing to improve as you come up to the 6 months mark and possible work.

Lavinia

**momoflacrosse** · 07-09-2005, 05:01 AM

my story with withdrawal

Hi All:

I went through an extreme withdrawal 2 years ago when I changed pain meds because I could no longer afford those I was on. Unfortunately my GP just kept giving me more and more as I upped my tolerance. Anyhow it was probably to worst 2 weeks in my life as I had gone from taking close to 300 mg of oxycontin per day and also had breakthru percocets to oral dermerol. Well let me tell you they are not created equal and of course when all this happened my Dr was on vacation. Well we all know there isn't a walk in, urgent care or an emerg dept on earth that will do a repeat script. So anyway my 1st visit to emerg they gave me ativan and I was able to get a few hours sleep and on the 2nd , 3rd and 4th visits they gave me a shot of morphine that only helped the 1st time. My sister is a nurse in a small hospital near here and she was able to get me in to see their pain specialist and he put me on Duragesic patches which of course took a few days to help but help they did and in the following few months I was able to bring my duragesic dose down to 1/4 of where I started but even though they helped with the opiate issue they never really did much for my scoliosis pain so I was eventually forced to add some of the others back into my regiman. I am now using duragesic 25's and oxycontin to manage my daily pain and even though I know there is an addiction factor I am at a point where having some sort of a life is more important to me and as I still haven't found a surgeon who is interested in correcting my curves I guess this is what I am going to be stuck with. I am now seeing a new back Dr who is a physical rehab specialist and is the 1st Dr who hasn't belittled me for taking pain meds and is now working with me to try to add exercise into my routine. He has told me that using two different pain meds will probably work better as they have different receptors but I haven't convinced my GP of that yet - sigh you would think that maybe after 10 years of this I have some idea of what seems to work best for me, but no he is now treading lightly after having gotten me to that bad spot before. My last set of xrays has shown that my curve that was 37 degrees in 1995 is now 60 degrees. I asked this new guy how far it was going to go and he told me it would stop when my ribs are resting on my hips - oh joy now isn't that something to look forward to.
Anyway I apologize for rambling on but The main thing I was trying to get across was how good the duragesic patches are for weaning off narcotics/

Connie - it is so good to hear that things are progressing - my main reason for signing into the site tonight was to send you a note and ask how things were after a year
Way to go girl

Nancy

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