Is anyone disappointed with their cosmetic outcome?

[naptown78]

Happy with my look

I am happy with the cosmetic outcome of my revision surgery. My torso is longer with an actual waistline, flatter tummy, and my shoulders are pulled back. I have always been short-waisted with this made worse after my first surgery and all the complications I went through. So I am so happy now not to be all scrunched up. The only thing I am not too happy with is that I have no butt and that was not made better. But I am not complaining...such a minor thing after what I went through.

[Doodles]

Elizabeth1st--I got your PM and tried to reply. It says your PM's are set not to receive replies. I'm not sure how you fix that but wanted you to know I tried! Janet

[theizzard]

I did not get any cosmetic results. I was 5'21/2" and gained an inch from my first fusion and lost it and went into this fusion at 5' and did not gain any height. About 6 months after my surgery I noticed that I have no waistline on my right side. I am straight up and down but the left side does have an indentation for a waist. In other words, laterally, I am more crooked after surgery than before surgery. My kyphosis was fixed so for the time being I stand much straighter. My scoliosis curve was not straightened, which accounts for me being so lob-sided. Before surgery, i couldn't stand up straight enough to see how crooked I was and now I can. Oh joy!! On the bright side, I have no pain in the lumbar or sacral area and that is a blessing. My pain is thoracic in nature and does finally seem to be lessening. I have 2 artificial hips and one of them is talking to me and my right knee is not a happy camper at all. Knee surgery is in my future but it will have to wait until I am finally through with school.
Thanks for the topic.
Avis

[Susie*Bee]

Chris-- I've pondered this one for awhile now... should I say anything? Do I actually have anything to say? Then-- oh what the heck! It's so hard to know when you have some pudge, you know. Waistline? Ha ha! That would be nice. But it's not because of my scoli or my surgery. My weight fluctuates, and this year has been a bad one for me, so I'd say I've got around 35 extra pounds right now. I appear symmetrical-- I looked in the mirror this morning to double check, so I think I would be that way sans the blips and bloops. If you look at my x-rays I look pretty darn straight. I also don't think I have any hump to speak of at all. But I'm wondering how in the heck can you guys look in the mirror to check on that???? I'm quite satisfied with the cosmesis part. I'm working on the weight part again. (I've managed to get it all off in the past-- it's just really hard to do and then creeps its way back on slowly and quietly, so that you don't notice it happening...) So far this summer I've lost 6 lbs. so that is a start. I have great intentions of walking a lot but my sciatica is really giving me grief. Does anyone know-- does walking make it worse, or do you walk through it and tough it out?

I remember in another thread someone talking about being in denial about their "deformity" -- and that brings me back to the being a pudge factor again. If you are just a little pudgy, like I have mostly always been, you can go through life in denial because you just think you have a fat back. That's what I thought. Even the times I got down to the most excellent weight of 120 - 125, etc., there were little rolls/folds back there but I just thought my back was the last place for the "fat" to leave... And it wasn't till just before my surgery that I actually bent over in front of the mirror and saw my hump. I was totally Horrified (YES, with a capital H!) because I never realized I was DEFORMED. So anyway, I guess I could do that (bend over and look in the mirror) then. I can't now, so maybe it has something to do with being fused to T2 and not being able to lift my head high enough now.

Hope I didn't go on too long...

[jrnyc]

hi Susie Bee
i havent had surgery...yet..but wanted to tell you that i had an epidural for left leg...the sciatica was getting worse..spreading up and down leg...i was amazed that it worked! i got complete relief...so far...dont know how long it will last...but grateful for now!

don't know if you are up for injections since you had the surgery...

hope you feel better...i've never known walking to help sciatica any...

jess

[naptown78]

"I never realized I was DEFORMED. "


Interesting comment Susie Bee! I never thought of myself as DEFORMED until my first surgeon said I was in his assessment of my scoliosis. He always talked about my "deformity" as being severe, and I remember the first time I heard him say this, I was a little shocked.

[Susie*Bee]

"I never realized I was DEFORMED. "


Interesting comment Susie Bee! I never thought of myself as DEFORMED until my first surgeon said I was in his assessment of my scoliosis. He always talked about my "deformity" as being severe, and I remember the first time I heard him say this, I was a little shocked.

Yes, it's a shocker when it seems to come out of the blue! It was like being hit by a Mack Truck!!! I just couldn't believe it. Oh well. Like anything else, it takes a few days to take it all in, then you tackle it. Life goes on. I've known I have scoli for over 30 years, but have never seen a doctor about it. One just mentioned it to me-- BTW, do you know you have scoliosis? So I knew I "had" it, but didn't know anything about progression or anything at all. I had other problems to deal with in life, like melanoma, then later my family kept me busy. I was fine. But that arthritis in my back got really bad in my mid 50s! That's when I found out what was really wrong... THE DEFORMITY.

Thanks, Jess. I'm seeing my scoli doc in early August. If I'd had my brain on right, I would have mentioned it to the neurologist I've been seeing about my migraines. I've just been thinking of this problem as a hip/lower back pain that goes down into my leg. I just recently (as in real recently) realized that is what sciatica is... duh.

[Susie*Bee]

Also, as far as cosmesis goes, I was just starting to develop a little bit of a dowager's hump/kyphosis-- although I wasn't aware of it. Dr. H pointed it out to me. I guess kind of like you, in that sense, nap. You can see it in my digital x-rays. So that was a plus with my surgery. That is gone.

[Back-out]

Re:
"I never realized I was DEFORMED. "

I try to regard this as medical terminology and not the usual sense of the word - as with so many others.

I still remember the shock I felt at finding "elderly primigravida" written on my hospital chart (and bed!) when I was giving birth to my first son. Fer Pete's sake, I was only thirty-three years old!

Evidently, for that time and place, though, that was considered unusually old for a first child (and with a certain degree more risk than average).

"Elderly" is just medical terminology, in that context - but, ouch! It wasn't pleasant to behold. Somehow I doubt that would fly in today's Hollywood! I was in Haifa, Israel a few decades ago, though, and besides, English didn't have the same KAPOWEY for the other patients as it did for me!

Anyhow, likewise for "deformed"

[CHRIS WBS]

Chris,
This is a great thread. I must say that I am disappointed with the cosmetics. I am very glad I had my surgery as I am able to do so many more things than I could before my surgery. You wouldn't think that a lumbar scoliosis could affect the body shape so much, but it does by shrinking and twisting the torso. I lost 3 inches in height before my surgery and gained maybe 1/2 inch after the surgery. I asked my surgeon why he couldn't get much of a correction and he said he was afraid with my osteopenia the screws might pull out of the bone if he put much force on them. Because of the space the screws take up, my waist is bigger than it was and my clothes don't fit as well. My belly and the extra rolls didn't go away. Oh well, at my age, who am I trying to impress anyway. I thank God every day that I am not in a wheelchair.
Sally

I don’t know, Sally. You looked awfully cute to me in your little skating outfit.

Avis, I sure admire you for continuing your education in-between all your orthopedic adventures. No small feat on your part, that’s for sure. Good for you.

Susie, as a grandmother you’ve earned every right to have pudge. I do see the development of a dowager’s hump on your x-ray. Good thing the surgery took care of that.

Amanda, elderly at 33…good grief.

[JanL]

I still have a rib hump - I can tell it is smaller because before surgery it had gotten to the point where I couldn't lay on my back comfortably. It would be nice to be perfect - totally derotated - but, the big bonus for me is that I am able to stand and walk as long as I like. I used to feel like I was collapsing. Now I feel strong. The biggest surprise to me is that my scar curves in the thoracic area. Everyone else's looks straight in the pictures I see. I thought there would be a straight incision and everything pulled as close to center as possible? I was told going in I would get about a 50% reduction. I never ask my Dr about the cosmetic result because I don't want to seem shallow. My main motivator for having the surgery was to stay upright in my later years.

[LisaB]

I'm starting to get a little nervous now about the cosmetic outcome of surgery after reading these posts. I'm scheduled with Dr Bridwell Aug 31. At my first appointment with all of the xrays he said that my spine was still flexible(even though I just turned 56). I haven't yet asked him how much correction he expects to get but I will at my next appointment which is July 19.

[Confusedmom]

I still have a rib hump - I can tell it is smaller because before surgery it had gotten to the point where I couldn't lay on my back comfortably. It would be nice to be perfect - totally derotated - but, the big bonus for me is that I am able to stand and walk as long as I like. I used to feel like I was collapsing. Now I feel strong. The biggest surprise to me is that my scar curves in the thoracic area. Everyone else's looks straight in the pictures I see. I thought there would be a straight incision and everything pulled as close to center as possible? I was told going in I would get about a 50% reduction. I never ask my Dr about the cosmetic result because I don't want to seem shallow. My main motivator for having the surgery was to stay upright in my later years.

Jan,

I am probably going to have surgery with Dr. Bridwell. Would you mind telling me what correction you got (degrees) and whether you still have any pain?

Thanks!
Evelyn

[CHRIS WBS]

I never ask my Dr about the cosmetic result because I don't want to seem shallow.

I don’t think it’s shallow at all, Jan. In fact, in his book Dr. Neuwirth encourages patients to discuss with their surgeons how important cosmesis is to them. This could make all the difference in surgical approaches.

[JanL]

To Evelyn/Confused Mom

All my pre op xrays have numbers and lines drawn in all over, but my post op xrays do not. Dr Bridwell says he got about a 50% reduction so I guess it's about 33 Thoracic and 25 Lumbar. My lumbar area looks better than the thoracic area. I've tried to attach my xrays but no luck. I am technically challenged.