Hi y'all! I'm new and getting surgery!

[danceISlife]

Hey everyone!! I'm Nicole and was diagnosed with scoliosis a few months ago. I have a single thoracolumbar curve of fifty degrees and will be getting surgery sometime soon. I have a pre-surgical consult with my doctor next week and will find out the details then. But anyway, I just wanted to hear feedback from anyone who's had spinal fusion surgery done and what the experience was like for them. I've done plenty of research but I think it'd be better to hear from the perspective of a person who's actually been through it rather than from just a professional one. To be quite honest, I'm terrified!! I have a few questions if y'all don't mind answering.
1. In your opinion, do you think that surgery is beneficial and well worth it in the long run? Any regrets?
2. Over time, do you eventually gain back flexibility? I'm a very dedicated dancer (if you didn't already guess, lol) and worried that having the surgery will seriously impact my dancing. And this may be a stupid question, but can you arch your back with the rods in it?
3. How long did it take before you could handle solid foods again? And sorry if this is personal, but did you lose a lot of weight from having the surgery?
4. Generally, how bad was the pain? I have, like, a zero-tolerance for pain and have never so much as broken a bone, so yeah...
Thank y'all so much! I'll prob. think of more questions but I really, really appreciate it!

[scoliosisteen]

Hey guys! My name is Lauren and I'm also new to the forum-- I will be having my (long-awaited!) fusion March 4.
I'm 17 and have a lot of the same questions as DANCER.
I know someone whose mom had similar surgery and she was completely emaciated afterward... literally looked like a skeleton! So... I'm wondering... how much weight should I be expecting to lose?
Also, what sorts of positions are most comfortable?
How long did it take you all to start sleeping through the night after your surgeries?
My pre-op is Feb 11 and I can't wait to know more, I feel like I haven't gotten any info-- still haven't even received a surgery packet from my hospital.
Anyone who has any info, it would be greatly appreciated!

[txmarinemom]

Girls, what levels are they planning to fuse? That has a LOT to do with flexibility afterwards ...

[vndy]

My perspective,

Hey y'all,

I'm just 2 months post op (today!) and a bit older, but I'm happy to share my experience. You can also look back at threads I started earlier in my recovery - I wrote a day-by-day of my hospital stay that may interest you.

DanceISlife, your questions...
1. I can't tell you if it's beneficial in the long run for me yet, because it's only been 2 months. I will say, though, that the primary reason I had this surgery was to improve my quality of life in the future. I expect it will reduce my pain (it already has!) and prevent my curves from increasing (which they were, even as an adult).
2. I can't arch yet, and I don't know if I will be able to in the future. I should learn more once I start PT... ask me in a few months!
3. I did lose a lot of weight after surgery - I'm not sure exactly how much, but it was noticeable. I'm now within 3-5lbs of my "normal" weight, which is perfectly healthy. For me, it looked like I lost more weight than I actually did because I also grew an inch and a half at the same time. Regarding solid food, they started me on solids before I was ready. People vary a lot in this aspect - I was still primarily eating "soft solids" (soup, yogurt, jello, fruit) for a couple weeks, just because I have an extremely sensitive stomach.
4. It's going to hurt, and you have to expect that BUT your doctors will work with you to find medications that will manage your pain. While I remember some pain, most of my hospital stay is a blur. I don't know if you're having pain now, but for me, during recovery I've been able to deal with the pain because I know that what I'm feeling is my body working on healing in a way that will reduce the likelihood of future pain.

Lauren's Questions-
Weight - My Surgeon's assistant recommended gaining weight before surgery in order to counteract some of the weight loss. If you are thin, you may want to consider trying to put on a few pounds.
positions- Immediately after surgery, I was most comfortable laying on my back and on my left side (where I didn't have the bone graft). Within a few weeks I could lay on either side. I also was/am comfortable sitting on the couch with my legs up on in front of me (at the beginning I set myself up with a pillow behind me and one under me).
Sleeping - it took a few weeks, I'm not sure exactly how long, until I was sleeping through the night. The length of time I was able to sleep did improve steadily from 20minutes at a time while I was in the hospital to 3-4hours later. At this point I am able to sleep through the night most of the time, though I definitely have nights where I take some Tylenol PM to help me out!

If you have any questions please feel free to message me. Good luck to both of you!!

[txmarinemom]

y'all ...

Vndy, A+ for effort, but let's work on getting the apostrophe in the right place (just remember it's an odd contraction of "you all" - LOL!).

Pam

[danceISlife]

lol, there's the southern part of me coming out . i have a doctor's appointment tomorrow so i'll probably find out where i'm going to be fused from. i'll update when i find out.

[rainbow2010]

My daughter had surgery almost 4 years ago and she is a dancer. She dances (company) ballet, pointe, modern, jazz, and hip hop. She does a great flatback for ballet! Arching your back depends on where and the length of your fusion. She is fused T7 -L3. Her doctor had patients that were with The Atlanta Ballet, so he only fused her to L3 so she could still dance. Finding a doctor that knows the cares and needs of a dancer is very hard. If you have good dance teachers, they will work with you so that it won't show if you can't arch your back as much or the same as others. My daughter pulled herself out of a section of her modern dance because she could not do a roll. The teacher worked around that and changed part of the dance for her. The stretching in warmups was great physical therapy to get her back back into shape.

[MATJESNIC]

Thanks Rainbow. I am so happy to hear there is dance after fusion. Why did your daughter have a second surgery? Should they have fused more the first time around?

[danceISlife]

I am thrilled as well that "there is dance after fusion." I also take ballet, pointe, jazz, and modern. Now that you point it out, I guess having a really stiff and straight back will be good for ballet (there's an upside, yay). Anyway, I found out that my surgery date is March 18th and I'm probably going to be fused from T5 to L2, possibly L3. I'm terrified! But my surgeon is really nice and I have complete trust in him. He took the time to answer every single question we had and was open and honest on the procedure. He even gave me his email address in case I had any other questions. Anyway...thank you so much for the responses. I'll probably think of more questions as the time gets closer...

[MATJESNIC]

Good luck, Nicole. My dancer's name is Nicole, too. I keep trying to convince her to take up Irish Dancing where a straight back is an advantage, but she wants to stay with her friends.

We are all here to support you.

[scoliosisteen]

I don't know where I'm going to be fused either, as I haven't had my pre-op yet. It's kind of scary because my surgery is March 4, but I still haven't had my pre-op (it's February 11), I still haven't received my surgery packet from the hospital and I still haven't talked to my school or teachers or anyone about what I'm going to do in terms of keeping up with my schoolwork while I'm out. I just wish I had more information. At my initial appointment 6 mos. ago (the last appointment I had, which was the one where I learned I needed surgery), my doctor told me that since I have a backward S-shaped curve, it's possible that I have one curve that needs to be fused and the other is purely compensatory, but it's also possible that I will need both fused, and I won't know until the pre-op.
But anyway thank you all for sharing everything, it has definitely helped.
I basically just can't wait to get the surgery over with, the waiting has really sucked, especially not knowing what's going to happen with everything.

In fact, I'm kind of excited. Is that weird?

[danceISlife]

Lauren, to be honest I'm a little excited too...I mean, don't get me wrong- I am definitely terrified. But I am just a bit excited, and the thought of having a nice straight back is awesome. I'm a little disappointed that I won't be dancing for a while, but that's only temporary and I'll be dancing (hopefully) before I know it. My surgery is a few weeks later than yours. Not sure if it's weird or not that you haven't had a pre-op appointment or anything, as I just found out my actual surgery date yesterday. Good luck, though.

[vndy]

Lauren and Nicole,

My preop was about 2 weeks prior to surgery, so it sounds like you're both in good shape. Lauren, like you my curve was a backwards S, and they only fused the top curve, T4-L1. The bottom curve straightened itself out though in the process.

[rainbow2010]

Nicole -
If you would like to ask my daughter questions about dance and surgery, you can email her at sum41gurl20@yahoo.com. Lisa is a college student and will try to answer as soon as she can!

[scoliosisteen]

Good luck to you too Nicole. And Vndy, thanks. I'm glad someone else had the same thing-- if that's what ends up happening for me it definitely will make me feel a lot better to know that someone else went through the same process and everything worked out. At any rate, my pre-op is tomorrow! I donated my first half-liter of blood friday too, which was pretty icky. I've donated blood before so I knew what to expect, but I think the woman did a bad job finding my vein cuz I felt the needle a lot and I'm still bruised and sore. I was also really groggy and had a horrible headache the next day. I have to donate again thursday, which kind of worries my since it's so soon after my initial donation. Did anyone else have donations so close together? How was it/how did you feel after the second one?