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I had my surgery nearly 15 or so years ago for kyphosis. I'm not all that sure what the names for the various instrumentation was, but it's two rods about 1 foot long each on either side of my spine, connected together in two places with a perpendicular joint, and each of the two rods has 4 hooks which attach to my ribs close to my spine. In addition I had 10 vertebrae fused together with bone from my hip. I couldn't tell you exactly which ones they were, but I know they weren't much in the lower lumbar as I can still touch my toes etc.
The problem is, while I had a considerable amount of pain post surgery which I fully expected, I continued to have moderate to worse pain periodically. I was expecting 100% recovery within 12 months, but I found that any sort of activity up to as little as jogging ended up causing a great deal of discomfort and progressively got worse if I continued. And I'm talking about 2-5 minutes worth of jogging here or 10 minutes of just walking. After a little bit of light activities, or light lifting of objects under 50lb as my doctor has recommended I find myself in a great deal of discomfort which progressively leads to greater pain.
I've tried muscle relaxants, massage therapy, and some pain medication. While it all provides some relief, it's something I don't want to have to have on a daily basis. There are some days where I lay down and the pent up muscle strain surprises me as my back begins to relax. And some times, though usually only when I exert myself, the pain is so bad that I almost gasp for breath.
I can't sit in chairs with hard backs, wood, metal, or hard plastic, as the rods or the clips on them can be very uncomfortable, and sitting in any chair for more than an hour or so (movies!) begins to get uncomfortable.
I've had several appointments with the doctor that did my fusion and implants, and he has suggested the possibility of removing the hardware. I've resisted so far just dealing with the pain because the idea of going through another surgery isn't one I'm looking forward to. While of course it's not the same thing, the pain after my first one was no fun at all. I was on a morphine drop for a few days, and that stuff is horrible, nauseating and questionably effective. It seemed like it was more like it prevented you from concentrating fully on the pain rather than actually decreasing it.
So anyway, what have any of you done to manage the pain? And how's the success on hardware removal? I've looked through the forums and there's only a few posts on it. Thanks for your time!
The problem is, while I had a considerable amount of pain post surgery which I fully expected, I continued to have moderate to worse pain periodically. I was expecting 100% recovery within 12 months, but I found that any sort of activity up to as little as jogging ended up causing a great deal of discomfort and progressively got worse if I continued. And I'm talking about 2-5 minutes worth of jogging here or 10 minutes of just walking. After a little bit of light activities, or light lifting of objects under 50lb as my doctor has recommended I find myself in a great deal of discomfort which progressively leads to greater pain.
I've tried muscle relaxants, massage therapy, and some pain medication. While it all provides some relief, it's something I don't want to have to have on a daily basis. There are some days where I lay down and the pent up muscle strain surprises me as my back begins to relax. And some times, though usually only when I exert myself, the pain is so bad that I almost gasp for breath.
I can't sit in chairs with hard backs, wood, metal, or hard plastic, as the rods or the clips on them can be very uncomfortable, and sitting in any chair for more than an hour or so (movies!) begins to get uncomfortable.
I've had several appointments with the doctor that did my fusion and implants, and he has suggested the possibility of removing the hardware. I've resisted so far just dealing with the pain because the idea of going through another surgery isn't one I'm looking forward to. While of course it's not the same thing, the pain after my first one was no fun at all. I was on a morphine drop for a few days, and that stuff is horrible, nauseating and questionably effective. It seemed like it was more like it prevented you from concentrating fully on the pain rather than actually decreasing it.
So anyway, what have any of you done to manage the pain? And how's the success on hardware removal? I've looked through the forums and there's only a few posts on it. Thanks for your time!
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