First day home from the hospital

[rjmacready]

So far, congrats: pain level?

Hey everyone,
I made an account over the weekend hoping to post before my surgery, but it wouldn't let me post.

Anyways, I can now, and wanted to share my story.
I'm 18 years old, male, found out I had scoliosis when I was 17, and through a series of appointments and referrals, was lucky enough to find an opening for surgery on July 11th at a local hospital.
Details:
Last July, 40° curve from initial x-ray
March, 47° curve, new x-ray from the surgeon
At the appointment in March, we talked to the surgeon about surgery and decided it would be best to do it before it got worse as the years go by, and earlier that day he had someone else cancel their surgery for July 11th, so we immediately scheduled it for then.
I got my blood work done July 8th just for type/cross.
Clear liquids Saturday, nothing Sunday, was at the hospital around 5:20am on Monday to check in, and they wheeled me to the operating room right on time at about 7:30am. I think I woke up around 12:30-1pm, my surgeon and his team did an incredible job.
I stayed in the PICU for the duration of my visit, came home yesterday in the early afternoon.
I've done a lot of walking, sitting up/down, etc since the surgery, and apparently they were impressed by my progress and pain tolerance at the hospital, and even considered letting me go home Wednesday.

Soo... Scoli details... They fused T4-L1 with 2 rods, 1 titanium and 1 cobalt-chrome, and 17 titanium screws. I don't know the new curve amount but it looks almost perfectly straight, considering it was 47° 3 months before surgery.
So, I highly recommend my surgeon Dr. Brian Shaw in Colorado, and I'll attach the xrays from before surgery (March) and after surgery on Monday on this post.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to ensure quick and safe recovery... I'm very interested, as well as anything else I might want to know for efficient pain management.

Before:
https://imgur.com/yV35CPA

After:
http://i.imgur.com/fOs3dED.jpg

I look forward to hearing from all of you!
-Golfer

Golfer- Just a few quickies. Have not had the surgery, but need it, longer job than yours ( mine will be from base of neck to posts screwed into the ilium. Huge job. Not that your's was small. 2 ?s: 1) Can you sleep on your back, i.e. do you feel the hardware? 2) How is your pain level? Manageable, or do you hurt, and if so, can you locate the area? Keep On Getting Better, RJM

[mabeckoff]

Golfer- Just a few quickies. Have not had the surgery, but need it, longer job than yours ( mine will be from base of neck to posts screwed into the ilium. Huge job. Not that your's was small. 2 ?s: 1) Can you sleep on your back, i.e. do you feel the hardware? 2) How is your pain level? Manageable, or do you hurt, and if so, can you locate the area? Keep On Getting Better, RJM

I am fused from C2x -, sacrum if you have any questions
Melissa

[1998golfer]

I'm surprised that he called it kyphosis. You were actually hypokyphotic. That is, you had too little kyphosis. It's relatively common in teens with thoracic curves. The postop sagittal films look really good.

I hope that you're successful in straightening out your cervical spine. It looks pretty uncomfortable.

--Linda

That makes sense, the paper he gave me said "kyphoscoliosis", he never said kyphosis.

And thanks, I'm not too confident it'll fix itself, it's a bit painful pushing my arm down to make my shoulders level... Would an extended fusion surgery be as hard as the first one? Hopefully he'd only need to go to T2 or T1, max, but that's just my guess

[1998golfer]

Golfer- Just a few quickies. Have not had the surgery, but need it, longer job than yours ( mine will be from base of neck to posts screwed into the ilium. Huge job. Not that your's was small. 2 ?s: 1) Can you sleep on your back, i.e. do you feel the hardware? 2) How is your pain level? Manageable, or do you hurt, and if so, can you locate the area? Keep On Getting Better, RJM

I can't feel the hardware, I just feel the stiffness of that area of my back. It'll take some getting used to.
I tried yesterday to sleep on my stomach and it was quite painful.. Sleeping on my left side or my back is the most comfortable.
My pain level is very low, depending on what I'm doing. When laying down, sitting, or walking, it's zero to uncomfortable. But the last few days I've been driving and riding my bike, I'm pretty sore but not bad enough to take any pain meds. I haven't taken anything since July 22nd, 11 days post-op.

That's a big surgery, I wish you luck. Talk to some of the others here with longer fusions, they'll have better advice. And also how old are you, I'm only 18 and I'm pretty sure my relatively young age is making the recovery quicker.
Best wishes,
-Golfer

[LindaRacine]

That makes sense, the paper he gave me said "kyphoscoliosis", he never said kyphosis.

And thanks, I'm not too confident it'll fix itself, it's a bit painful pushing my arm down to make my shoulders level... Would an extended fusion surgery be as hard as the first one? Hopefully he'd only need to go to T2 or T1, max, but that's just my guess

Kyphosis and scoliosis = kyphoscoliosis. So, scoliosis and kyphosis is saying the same thing as kyphoscoliosis. What I think you actually have is scoliosis and thoracic hypokyphosis.

It's hard to say whether an extension of your fusion would be an easier surgery than the original one. Typically it is, so your recovery could be easier. However, I think you'll find that having your cervical spine fused will be somewhat more bothersome in the long run, depending on how high they would need to go.

--Linda