confused/scared

[sanah]

Hi everyone, I am now on the post Op side, and will post a day by day thread shortly, but I have a major question:

When you get out of surgery is your back supposed to be straight or curved in the opposite direction of your initial curve? My ribs are pretty even now, but I took off my shirt to take a look and I looked exactly or pretty close to how I did before, just in the opposite direction. My parents mentioned a 'lean' to my doctor and he said that it would go away with time, so will I straighten out with time too?

My skeleton is straight, so I guess my muscles just aren't used to the change and I have to do PT and walking and such to get straightened out. Just kind of shocked, because I expected to be straight from day 1 of Post Op. >___<;??

[txmarinemom]

Don't worry ...

Heya, Sanah ...

Don't stress about it ... especially so early in.

I emailed Hanson to ask him where the rest of my estimated height increase went - LOL! (It was supposed to be 1" to 1-1/2", and it was a measly - like it really matters - 1/4"). His response makes sense for your question as well (the "settling in" period).

I'd been told the compensatory curves continue to relax and improve the entire correction after surgery. Here's what he wrote me yesterday (verbatim):

"In terms of your height increase, the height is more difficult to estimate in adults with scoliosis correction as opposed to pediatric patients. Your compensatory curves should continue to improve over the next 3-6 months."

So, yes ... like many here have been worried about their original dropped shoulder being *higher* after surgery, I suspect as your body relaxes over the next several months you'll be fine.

It definitely takes a bit to get used to your new posture, and your body does tend to fight it at first. I don't know if everyone has the same issue, but I seriously couldn't walk a straight line for about 10 days (NO, it was no my meds - LOL). My balance was all goofed up since some joker moved all the body parts .

(... and I'm realllllllly glad he did!)

Regards,
Pam

[txmarinemom]

Oh, and one more thing ...

My skeleton is straight, so I guess my muscles just aren't used to the change and I have to do PT and walking and such to get straightened out. Just kind of shocked, because I expected to be straight from day 1 of Post Op. >___<;??

I don't know about, PT (there won't be any required in my case) but walking? DEFINITELY!

Make yourself (even on those days you SO do not feel like it - bleck.) get up and walk every day (or even shorter walks a few times a day). Add a little more to the overall distance every day - and pick up the pace as you feel you can ... there's no hurry. It's the best way to stay loose, gain back your strength, adjust to your new body shape and help develop your new posture and stride ...

If I hadn't committed to the 5K pre-op, I can't say for sure whether I would have walked as much as I did (I *never* walked before - but I'm a believer of the benefits now!). I know I didn't expect it to decrease my pain like it did.

Although my fusion was thoracic, I initially had a weird (almost sciatic) nerve type pain above my right iliac crest (I didn't have a bone graft). Pain meds didn't touch it, but the more I walked, I actually walked it out. A LOT of the soreness I felt in my waist/hips from being derotated in surgery went away as my gait became more natural.

After a 2 day (yeah, almost solid) nap when I got home after surgery, I started dragging myself out to walk *some* every day. I just walked around (and eventually around and around) my block at first: I didn't want to get too far away from home and have to call for someone to rescue me - LOL.

Once you start walking, you'll be surprised how quickly you start feeling better and adjust into your new body.

[Aussiemum]

Hi Sanah, so glad your surgery is over and all went well!!!!

Yes, you do kind of look funny after surgery. Elysia looked very weird, her shoulder's were all wonky, she held her arm and hand funny. When I questioned the surgeon about how funny she looked, he replied, you try having spinal surgery and see how you look! It took a couple of weeks for her to "relax" into a more normal look. She practiced by looking in a mirror and relaxing her muscles.

Same as Pam, Elysia walked like a drunk!!! One foot crossing over the other, it took about a week and a bit for this to right itself!!!

Also don't be surprised by lots of niggling pains, Elysia is still getting great days and days when she's very sore and sometimes little electric shots running up and down her spine. I'm presuming this is all her nerves saying hello to each other again!!

You'll be surprised in a very short while how great you start feeling and looking. Hang in there!!!!

Hugs
Del
xx

[txmarinemom]

Excuse ME, Del! (giggle) I did NOT cross over feet and stuff. My body just apparently was getting some encrypted, super secret message to veer 12.7° off from where my brain said the body parts were headed. The body parts were confused.

Even the direction I veered wasn't consistent ... it was pretty sad. Friends wanted to stay close to me incase I stumbled or whatever, but they never knew where was safe to stand - LMAO!

Sanah, I just remembered, the first and second weeks I kept rubbing the left side of my neck, thinking "man ... that's sore!".

Silly me, I was holding it the same way I always had (off center to compensate!).

I did what Del described Elysia doing ... I stood in front of the mirror - and even had someone watch me from behind when I walked.

Hang in there, hon ... your concerns are justified (it's a weird feeling!), but I promise you, it's normal - and it seems to pass pretty soon.

Take care,
Pam

[vndy]

Sanah -

I felt the same way - if you look back at my old posts, there's one titled "tilted!" I felt like i was leaning to the left. Think of it this way - your muscles have been compensating for your spine's curve for years. All of the sudden, your spine is straight and your muscles don't need to over compensate anymore.... but they still are! Give it time and your muscles will adapt to your knew back, and you'll be more "centered." I'm about 3.5 months post op, and feel almost perfectly straight

Just give it time and let your body heal and do it's thing...

[sldrozd]

Hi! this is my dad's acount but he said it might be helpful to answer some questions. (I had the surgery on November 19, 2007) When i first saw myself in the mirror, i was leaning towards oneside, but i found that as you recover, everything will straighten out, literally it helps to walk around and when your feeling up to it, stretch. Eventually you will have beautiful posture. I hope you have a great recovery!!

[Singer]

The same thing happened to me. For a good 2 to 3 months post-op, I was worried that my surgeon had overcorrected me because my hip and shoulder tilted the OTHER way. By 6 months post-op, I had a beautiful, symmetrical figure (if I do say so myself ) !!!!!!

[sanah]

Thanks

Thank you everyone, that makes me feel much better ^__^