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  • Effects of increasing mobility

    Age 55, 9 months post-op, fusion T2-T12.

    I'm now at the stage of increasing mobility - yoga with a specialist teacher for the past 6 weeks and a couple of sessions of physiotherapy. I wonder if anyone else has noticed a sharp increase of pain and spasm at this stage? I think the pain is partly due to the spasms - pulling on the metalwork etc. My upper back, right ribs and round to the stomach are in permanent spasm which any movement at all seems to exacerbate. I think the spasm has always been there but masked by the brace (out of brace 3 months). Am keeping just about functional by lying down in between keeping moving. The yoga lessons seemed to help at first - less pain for a day or two after, so I feel I should persevere, even though doing it on my own seems to set off the pain. The physiotherapy exercises seem very gentle, but one I had to stop doing because it caused prolonged and intense upper back pain, and the others seem to be associated with the general increase in pain in the last couple of weeks.

    Is this the usual experience? Is it something one just has to go through? How long does it last, and how do people cope?

    Lavinia

  • #2
    I don't think we can all answer for all of us here regarding pain and pain management following the surgery. I will speak as far as myself, and what my experiences were. I couln't and still can't get physio treatments where my scar and the region of surgery is, it aggravates the pain and makes it swell. Massages do the same thing. When I do PT, I work other regions of my body(such as arms,neck and legs), and other painful regions like when I had major sciatica pain. Now onto the pulling of the curve. It really took me a year to stop feeling a lot of it, as I started feeling much better after 5 months and did more, but then the next day a lot of pulling where the curve was(and still is since I still have a curve, just not as big) would occur. I was told by an ortho that was normal, as the back is getting used to its new posture.

    For me only walking and mostly swimming helped giving me strenght post op. Later on I started doing light weights.
    35 y/old female from Montreal, Canada
    Diagnosed with scoliosis(double major) at age 12, wore Boston brace 4 years at least 23 hours a day-curve progressed
    Surgery age 26 for 60 degree curve in Oct. 1997 by Dr.Max Aebi-fused T5 to L2
    Surgery age 28 for a hook removal in Feb. 1999 by Dr.Max Aebi-pain free for 5 years
    Surgery age 34 in Dec.2005 for broken rod replacement, bigger screws and crosslinks added and pseudarthrosis(non union) by Dr. Jean Ouellet

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    • #3
      Hi Lavinia...

      Has your surgeon approved you doing yoga? I'm guessing that many scoliosis surgeons would advise against yoga until you're a year or more post-op.

      Regards,
      Linda
      Never argue with an idiot. They always drag you down to their level, and then they beat you with experience. --Twain
      ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Surgery 2/10/93 A/P fusion T4-L3
      Surgery 1/20/11 A/P fusion L2-sacrum w/pelvic fixation

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      • #4
        Thanks to both replies. Yes my surgeon approved me for swimming and yoga, partly because no physio was going to be available for some time, and then only very little. He went through the yoga for scoliosis book and told me which I could do. I had to give up swimming after 6 agonizing weeks but hope to persevere with the yoga - but maybe I should go back to just walking, but it doesn't do anything to loosen the rigidities in my back which I think are behind the acute pain.

        It was a low moment because it feels like going backwards at the moment - am considering advice about stronger pain medication, sleeping tablets etc. which I thought I was beyond. But I reckon I just have to see this time as focused on recovery rather than on getting back to normal life.

        Thanks,

        Lavinia

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        • #5
          I think personally and was also told by PT specialists that when some form of exercise hurts too much, and doesn't help, to stop doing it and try something else. As far as swimming goes, maybe some lapses around the pool, by just walking and relaxing the spine would help, that's how I started. Water is great to relax muscles, strenghten them and because of the lack of gravity, we fell less pain in the pool. But all in moderation and even if it is once or twice a week it could help. Walking is great too.
          35 y/old female from Montreal, Canada
          Diagnosed with scoliosis(double major) at age 12, wore Boston brace 4 years at least 23 hours a day-curve progressed
          Surgery age 26 for 60 degree curve in Oct. 1997 by Dr.Max Aebi-fused T5 to L2
          Surgery age 28 for a hook removal in Feb. 1999 by Dr.Max Aebi-pain free for 5 years
          Surgery age 34 in Dec.2005 for broken rod replacement, bigger screws and crosslinks added and pseudarthrosis(non union) by Dr. Jean Ouellet

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          • #6
            for Lavinia

            Spasms drove me nuts for the first 2 years! Keeping active helped as well as paracetamol/tylenol.

            Karen
            Original scoliosis surgery 1956 T-4 to L-2 ~100 degree thoracic (triple)curves at age 14. NO hardware-lost correction.
            Anterior/posterior revision T-4 to Sacrum in 2002, age 60, by Dr. Boachie-Adjei @Hospital for Special Surgery, NY = 50% correction

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            • #7
              Thanks to both. It is a comfort to hear of other people having gone through something similar. I was at a low point having just pulled out of some teaching I really wanted to do, which I thought I would be ready for by now. However, I've now got myself together to accept that I am just going to be in pain for the time being rather than thinking I'm getting better whenever the pain reduces, or that it's never going to get better when it worsens.

              I shall aim to get clear at my next hospital appointment what exactly is causing the acute pain, and what I can best do to get stronger. In the meantime my drug reactions are thankfully reducing and I find that a small amount of ibuprofen together with paracetomol (tylenol) takes the edge off it.

              Best wishes to all,

              Lavinia

              Comment


              • #8
                post surgery pain

                Lavinia: We are nearly the same age (63) and past surgery about the same time. (I am seven months on Sept 8.) I am not sure what you mean by being
                at the stage of increasing mobility. I remember that meds were a problem for
                their effect on your stomach. I truly admire your ability to live without them these last months. I have stopped beating myself up for using hydaco, If I didn't take them I would not want to move much. I am presently taking 1/2 of a .325 tablet of hydroco every four hours. (generic name for hydacodone). I was worried about the prospect of taking it for so long; the surgery nurse said not to be concerned. He felt that the fact that I did not take many meds before the operation and thr fact that I was previously taking only four hydraco per day during the first four months was a good sign. The chiropractor recommended Letchithin for liver recovery; he broke up all the scar tissue in the facia on my stomach and back at six months. At this point, I have no outstanding pain. I am achy in the morning, and become achy in my sacrum. The skin and underlying tissue on the tops of my thighs is still numb as are parts of my groin on the left side around the stomach. I am more aware of the metal holding my back and sacrum together. It feels as though it is pulling at me, but not painful. I have never had spasms, maybe because I did not have a hump. I lost a lot of weight and muscle mass. I still do the leg squats against a slick door, and series of theraband exercises for the arms and back as well as leg stretches. I do not work yet, I am already a retired teacher and now don't sit well yet - was told by the physiotherapist to sit as little as possible while healing, get up often. I also don't walk as much as I should. Having lost the numbness in most areas allows me to realize the metal parts in my back and sacrum. If I use a pitchfork in the garden, I will be sore in the sacrum from steping, shoving and pulling. However, pulling weeds and forking mulch stretches and pulls the muscles and keeps me moving. I think I am about where I should be at almost 7 months. I use a laser halo for the first 9 months, four hours a day. Have given up on fosomax or evista, they made me feel awful all over. I use osteo-mins from my chiropracter inst ead. For those of you nearing my age, 63, I am not where I prefer to be- but I have no outstanding problems yet. Glad to hear you are moving on Lavinia. Keep in contact. kathleen in Dallas

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                • #9
                  Kathleen - nice to hear from you and I'm really glad you are doing so well. My problems are that I still have a very strong pull/spasm around the top of my fusion, pulling down from my neck and round each side, especially around the right lung so it feels like breathing into a steel cage. The pull itself isn't painful but it seems to be associated with a particular clenching around the top connector which certainly is. I have been trying to get stronger these last 4 months, but it seems that extra movement exacerbates both the general pull and the spasm round the connector, so the upshot is I now have constant pain instead of a few hours free in the morning. I am trying to combine tylenol and ibuprofen, which helps a bit, but only for a couple of hours and even with additional med. my stomach gets upset. I have cranial osteopathy which helps a bit, and I'm hoping to continue with yoga if the specialist teacher agrees. I'm also having physio, but the only physio exercises I can do are trying to expand the right lung. But I'm keeping walking and trying to keep up some yoga practice which I think helps - includes the exercises you told me about, which are good but not for the upper back.

                  I got to a very low point this holidays but have come through it, and feel much more accepting that I am going to be in pain for the time being and to live around it - and hope to get more pointers at my next check-up.

                  V best wishes,

                  Lavinia

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                  • #10
                    Kathleen - a further thought with regard to sitting: I have found the following pain support site very helpful in recent weeks. It includes a lot on managing and living with pain, and has a 'comfortable sitting programme' tape designed to get people sitting in the best way and incrementally increasing the time they are able to sit. Might be worth a look:

                    www.painsupport.co.uk


                    Lavinia

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