Has anyone else had weeks of pain after a fall?

[LSKOCH5]

Jacob missed the chair as he was sitting & hit the base really hard - right at the base of his rods. Pain didn't even begin to fade after a week & was very bad; Dr put him on Tramadol. Days later he missed a stair on the bottom (thank God) half of our staircase & slid down the rest of the way. Both times the pain was so bad he couldn't even move to pick himself up; he missed 2 weeks of school & is still in tremendous pain. He's tripped & fallen since surgery with at most a day or two of manageable pain, but now we are three weeks out with barely a decrease in pain. Surgeon did check him out & did xrays - no further movement of the rods (one had popped out of the bottom screw prior to this fall, probably due to December's fall... yes, he apparently inherited my klutz gene). He's off Tramadol, uses Tylenol or Advil (surgeon said that was now safe for him), & gets out for little walks a couple times per day. Am fairly certain that we'll be starting PT up again this week to try to help.
What I want to know is, is this normal? In searching the site it seems as though most falls don't incur this amount or duration of pain.

[Pooka1]

Oh wow I am very sorry to hear about the pain. That's terrible.

Only the surgeon can say for sure what is what. I can offer an opinion based on what happened to my one kid.

You might remember my mention of a hug injury that happened 2.5 weeks post op at a school dance. A shorter child pulled my daughter's torso down to hug her. This caused exquisite pain right below the fusion because that's where I assume the bending was focused. My guess is that her L1-L2 disc was injured. I would say that pain lasted about 2 weeks if I recall. It was a HUGE set back given she was absolutely swimming along in her recovery. At that point, I realized the fusion mass is probably never going to be the problem... where it ends is where it will always be vulnerable to these types of injuries.

So I guess I would ask where the pain is? Is it localized in an area near either end of the fusion? Your son is a over a year out and I would be shocked if the fusion mass was compromised by those falls though dislodging hardware wouldn't shock me. But that didn't happen so it must be something else.

I hope he turns a corner soon. I would think that they can start ruling things in and out on the basis of how long the pain has been going on and whether or not it is letting up.

Good luck.

[LindaRacine]

Hi...

I think if he were an adult seeing a surgeon at UCSF (where I work), they'd send him for a CT scan to be certain there are no broken vertebrae. Is his pain diffuse or in one specific spot?

--Linda

[leahdragonfly]

Sorry to hear of Jacob's falls. I agree with Linda that after two weeks of severe pain in a teenager, this could be something more serious. Have you talked to the surgeon's office recently? I would make sure they acknowledge the amount and duration of pain, and I would ask if further testing is needed. I think they just assume this type of thing has gone away if you don't impress upon them firmly how bad it is.

Best of luck, please let us know how things are going for Jacob.

[LSKOCH5]

Thank you all for responding. With the first fall, the pain was concentrated at the base of the rods as it was a direct hit. The slip & slide down the stairs jarred his entire back, which didn't surprise us as we imagined bouncing down the stairs on his hip & side more than full-on back. We went to dr after the first, as we needed reassurance that there were no cracks nor further separation. For the stairs Jacob insisted I didn't call Dr Cronen. We never imagined he'd still be in this amount of pain this far out from the falls; I can see that the non-stop pain is doing a huge number on his psyche. He is slowly slightly getting better; he has now finished his second day of school after having missed two weeks, though he says that sitting in the chairs for class is horrible after a few minutes (he won't get up & move around til class ends). So that definitely is progress.
In light of your responses I believe we will contact Dr & let him know where we are w the pain & the 2nd fall.