At least I am not alone

[majose]

In 1975 I had scoliosos surgery (fusion and Harrington Rod) at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital by Dr. Hugo Keim - for years I was fine. Then it all started - I would "throw my back out" and be in pain for severral days, but it was never too excrutiating. When I was in my mid twenties though I had an episode where I found I could barely walk, so Iwent to an orthopaedic surgeon who informed me that due to my fusions I was like a car without shock absorbers, and the only thing he could do for me was to fuse the two vertebrae at the base of my spine (the only ones which are not fused) - I told him that If I was a car without shock absorbers how could he recommend taking away my tires. Because the pain in my lower back was not that frequent, I decided to grin and bear it.

After Physical therapy, chiropractic care, three pregnancies and years later i now find myself suffering from lower back pain more often than not. The latest incident this past Sunday when I found myself at the ER with totally unbearable pain and pretty much total imobility. I saw a spine and disc specialist yesterday who needs to do diagnostic testing to see "what is wrong with me" - it could be, as he explained, a myriad of things - Oh Joy!

I stumbled across this forum in my quest to see if I could find the manufacturer of my rods and determine whether the rod is stainless steel or titanium or any other metal which will help in deteminig what diagnostic testing can be done - and was surprised to see that there are so many other scoliosis surgery patients suffering the same as I - not that it will help with my pain, but at least it is "nice to know that I am not alone".....

[dawney]

I saw neuros and chiros and orthos. None could help. I would try an adult scoliosis specialist first. It would probably help if your primary care physician sends you for mris and xrays so you have all that before your appt.

[LindaRacine]

Hi Majose...

Your rods are stainless steel. You can still have an MRI, if necessary, to look at the areas above and below your original fusion.

You need to find a scoliosis specialist with a lot of experience treating patients with prior scoliosis fusions. You might start here:

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/Flatback_Revised/

You'll find a group of people there, just like yourself.

Regards,
Linda

[bbest]

No, you are not alone. I hope you will stick around. The help and support I found here was enormous. Good luck to you.

[majose]

thank you linda

Thank you Linda for the info on the link and the rods -

After seeing posts on the site I have decided that dependent on the Xray results I will seek out someone who has experience in this field.

The doc I saw Friday told me stainless steel makes for blurry images on the MRI -

Actually - amazingly today I was glad for my lower back pain as I went out on a "date" for the first time since my divorce a little over a year ago - not comfortable with the situation that was presenting itself I used my back pain as an excuse to leave... there is always a positive side to things!

[LindaRacine]

Hi...

Stainless steel does, indeed, cause MRI images to be unreadable. However, they're often used to look at the areas above and below the fusion mass.

Regards,
Linda