Susan's nerve pain

[karena]

Hi Ed - wow, I had the same soreness after doing a full day at Mt View Hospital orientation. Ouch!! On the sore hip/knee thing, could it be your hip(s)? I know my left hip is bone on bone due to the scoliosis and affects so many parts of my body. Bad hips can create pain all the way down to the feet I understand. I just figure if we had scoliosis surgery, and our bodies are freaking out trying to figure out what to do now, that there must be several time-consuming adjustments the body undergoes.

Karen

[SusanS]

Hi all,

Thanks so much for the feedback on the nerve pain. It is always good to know what others are experiencing and get some idea of how long this might go on. Ed, sorry to hear you are having some hip/knee problems. All this reminds me of the old song 'the knee bone's connected to the thigh bone..." it seems like a chain reaction).

I am now two months out from my third and final surgery (revision after A/P fusion T4 to pelvis) and the nerve pain hasn't slowed down much. The revision surgery was to remove a screw that had penetrated a nerve root at L5. The hope is there won't be permanent damage as a result, Dr. Hart doesn't think there will be. My whole right leg is still basically numb with lots of nerve pain, but my biggest complaint remains pain and swelling (lots of joint fluid) coming off my right hip, causing severe pain in my low back/hip, groin, and along the iliac crest. My knee is now affected with fluid coming off of it as well. The pain is worse with exercise. At one point I thought it might be some sort of abcess because I can't put any pressure on it and it feels like there is a knot in there. There isn't one, but that's what it feels like (well, what I would imagine one felt like, I've never had one but I've had horses get them in their hooves and they go dead lame until you get them out). Anyway it has begun limiting my walking. I used to walk quite a bit and now I can't go as far before that leg gives out. I am thinking of using crutches instead of trekking poles. It feels like it may be spreading over to my left hip as well.

They think my hip pain is bursitis, I am going to get hip injections as soon as my pain levels settle down enough to do the injection. Yikes! Not looking forward to that. But, heck, I've made it this far and improvement may be slow but it is steady.

I am so thankful to have surgery behind me, can't wait til I can resume my 'normal' daily life. I definitely plan to ride again. Oh, and I grew an inch! I only got 20% correction because there was so much arthritic fusion already, so I was pretty impressed that Dr. Hart was able to get me standing up straight and an inch taller. I used to pitch forward quite a bit before surgery.

Thanks again to everyone for responding and sharing their experiences, particularly Ed who has been sort of a mentor to me through this whole thing. You all rock!

[titaniumed]

Karen

Many of my full scoli x-rays include my hips. I’m sure my surgeon has glanced down there, after all, its part of the skeletal package....chuckle,chuckle, I’m assuming my hips are ok.....

I’m so glad that these last winter storms have passed. I’m sure that everyone will be feeling a little better now that spring is finally here. In the past, I might have weather related pain and many will post complaining of pains here on the forum.

Chatted with Susan the other day and she is getting better slowly....If you have an A/P at age 50 with big curves, you are not going back to work in 90 days....that’s a guarantee. Healing takes time...

If you have a hip problem, we have a hip genius up here....Dr Jeff Mast. He is a hip pioneer. I have friends working with him on various devices.....really really neat stuff.
Ed