First time to this forum - reassurance??

[BETall]

Hi LB and others,

I am 31 years old, so I am hoping that I may be in a similar situation. You said you were 2 months post-op - how are you feeling? I am not really in any pain right now (just minor discomfort at times, but nothing that prevents me from doing anything athletic right now) which is making this decision very difficult. The doctor says that in 15-20 years, surgery will be inevitable since I appear to be progressing half a degree or so per year. The decision is, if I am flexible enough, do I do it now in hopes that I only have to have thoracic fusion and that the lower curve will correct itself, or wait until it gets to a point where I am 40-50 years old and have a 60+ curve and need complete spinal fusion...

For all of you - were you in a lot of pain before surgery, or have some of you opted for surgery more as a preventative measure like I may be doing?

Hi :
Please go for more information to : SOSORT,org and info@schroth-skoliosebehandlung.de for more options
BETall


btorres3380@sbcglobal.net

[BrianB]

Amazing support system here. I can't thank you all enough.

How long were you in the hospital for? I'm trying to get a frame of reference for how bad my surgery would be. Right now, my doctor is saying that I would probably be in the hospital for 4-5 days and most likely able to start driving again around 6 weeks. Similar with you all, or did your surgery require longer stays and recovery?

[Cakedec]

Dear Brian B,

Hi--glad that you found the forum. I was where you were at your age as far as curvatures. No one offered me surgery; I coped with the pain through chiropractor, massages, physical therapy, etc., but it steadily got worse as I got into my 40's. The progression continued until, at 47, my curves were both in the 70's and I could barely walk from the pain; had to stop working because of severe sciatica down my leg because the scoliosis twists and pinches the nerves in your back.

Finally found this wonderful forum a couple years ago and learned about the surgery and followed many who went through it. They were almost all pleased with their results and said they would do it again. So finally I found a surgeon who said "yes, you are a candidate for surgery, can't believe no one told you this before" and I had posterior surgery done the end of July. It went very well and I am now 9 weeks post-op.

I think that the time frame that your dr. gave you sounds pretty accurate. I am about 16 years older than you, so I was in for 8 days (the dr. said 7 days but they had to find the right oral pain meds for me first before I was up to leaving). I started driving again at 7 weeks.

If I had it to do over again, I would have had the surgery at your age. Then I wouldn't have gotten to the difficult point of having to give up a job I enjoyed because of pain and disability. Plus the correction would have been better than what I got because the progression wouldn't have been so much.

However, if you are not in pain or disabled from your normal activities, you probably could get along a few more years using physical therapy or "Schroth method" and other things that relieve the spasms and occasional pain. Just keep tabs of how your curves are progressing every year or two so you know if the progession starts speeding up (mine really did after 40.) I would recommend that you get the surgery done before you are 40 unless the curves seem totally stable and doesn't bother you. The nice thing about this being an elective surgery is that you can plan it out when you have help, remembering that your bending, twisting, lifting will be limited for 3-6 months.

Let us know how things go for you.

Deb
posterior surgery 7/24/06
for S curve T70,L76
30 degrees correction
DON'T WAIT!!

[sweetness514]

Amazing support system here. I can't thank you all enough.

How long were you in the hospital for? I'm trying to get a frame of reference for how bad my surgery would be. Right now, my doctor is saying that I would probably be in the hospital for 4-5 days and most likely able to start driving again around 6 weeks. Similar with you all, or did your surgery require longer stays and recovery?

I was in the hospital for seven days, some are there longer but again it depends on what surgery one has, age, if they go to rehab, etc.

As for driving, usually they recommend it when you're feeling ready in every way, and off heavy narcotics. I had a very long recovery but again I didn't get any pain meds past the three week mark(difference of mentality concerning pain meds here in Canada, but it has changed lately), and all the doctors I have seen here don't recommend driving for at least 3 months, some even longer. That's just a different mentality b/c they like to be extra careful but if your doctor tells you it's all right earlier, and you feel up to it, you can. I had such a difficult recovery-I also needed another surgery to remove a hook that was really hurting and making my pain debilitating- that I didn't care about driving, but that's just me. It's like the no bending/twisting/lifting rule, some keep it for three to six months, some a year.

Good luck.

[Suzy]

Brian, My Dr. said 5 hrs. surgery it was 8. He also said 5 day hosp. stay it was also 8. I drove at 5 weeks post-op. Checking blind spots is tough though.

[Shari]

Hi Brian,

As usual, you have already gotten great advice from quite a few people on this forum. I wish nothing but the best for you!!!

BETall,

What is the purpose of your link??? Just curious.

Shari