A nurse I work with, recently opted to have both knees replaced at the same time. She's a bit of an overbearing b!tch, so we all felt bad more for her husband than we did her lol
Spinal fusion
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A nurse I work with, recently opted to have both knees replaced at the same time. She's a bit of an overbearing b!tch, so we all felt bad more for her husband than we did her lol
She's actually already been back, on light duty, for a few weeks now.
She's actually a really good nurse and good to her patients. ......but she, a lot of times, just drives us batty
Wow how is she recovering ?
i already have the nerve pain. Butning down the legs. A co worker had the same problem and hes worse than before the surgery. The back surgeon is a good guy doesnt B.S he did the first surgery (laminotomy and farminnotomy) and felt that i would eventually need the fusion. He was spot on but even he cant say for sure what would happen after the fusion. Said that a good number of times it helps but also there are cases where it wither does nothing or makes the nerve pain worse
I see this on a daily basis. Yes, there are patients where the surgery did nothing, and those where the surgeries made things worse........but, my experience has been that the majority of the surgeries are positive. One of my wife's aunt, who lived with the pain for a couple of years, finally came to a point where she felt she had no quality of life any longer, just had a lumbar fusion. She's progressing great and ruing she'd put it off so long due to the fear of going under the knife. This is a woman whose nearing 70 and fairly obese.
I think we hear the horror stories more than the successes so it sticks in our minds. My uncle had lumbar fusion probably 40 years ago and went back to work as a plumber then parks and rec maintenance. If it bothered him he never showed it in words or actions. Good luck with whichever decision you make.
Good food for thought guys. The dr put in the request for a ct scan and approval for the surgery,,,, which was denied the city's insurance not surprising. The lawyer said they always do this and approve it on the second attempt. So we'll see
If you have nerve pain now, it is because a nerve is already being impinged. while surgery will relieve the actual pinching of a nerve, longterm pressure on nerves is what causes irreversible damage, which means that the same pain & any other issues would remain even if the procedure is effective. You don't want that, take my word.
It took years for me to arrive at the max level of nerve healing. The only reason for that was due to the years I delayed before surgery. If I had done it sooner, the max level would have been 100%.
The issue is not what the effect of your impairment is on your wife and kids now. it is the effect on YOU. For one thing, any effect on them will not be decreased *after surgery if your own impairment remains for years or for the rest of your life.
Think about it.
Pain messes with our reasoning in big ways.
Thx petspoiler. This is tough and kind of exactly how the convo went with the back dr. Usually goes lol He felt i should have had the fusion 3 yrs ago when i first got hurt but my job would never have let me come back full duty and eventually have medically seperated me. At the time my son was 3 and daughter was just born, i felt like i was on top of the world back then, kickin ass and takin names later lol
I begged the dr to atleadt try the less evasive surgery because at least my job would allow me to return. Recovery was hell but got better and the dr was pretty sure i would be where i am today more sooner than later due to the nature of my job.. i just didnt want want to believe him.
Aaah so now the big question is 3 years with nerve impingment past the point of a positive outcome if i opt for the fusion ?
Geez who am i to complain though could be allot worse
There is no way to know what length of time is the point of no return. it depends on how much the nerve is being pinched and what damage that is doing to it.
I can tell you the what my neurosurgeon told me before surgery, when I asked about my prognosis. "How ever long your nerve has been being adversely affected, after surgery that length of time will be when your nerve has recovered to about the best outcome...whether 6 months or 3 years or 8 years" but the longer you let it be smashed, the worse your outcome chances are.
so, if you've had nerve symptoms for 3 years, 3 years after surgery you will know. whatever remains after that is probably permanent or will improve so slowly that you may not realize much.
However, you may have a large amount of improvement right away. the remainder is slower improvement. the first years improvements are more rapid than later years. That is how it went with me. So question is, how long do you want to wait for getting to your best and finding out? wanna add on a couple more years and some permanent pain or other limitations, such as numbness or reduced movement? Or do you want to get your butt in gear ASAP and hope for no permanent damage- or at least a lot less of it? Time is your enemy before surgery.
I was much like you, in my pre-surgical thoughts.
My surgeon did not even tell me he was going to do the max amount of repair (or ask my opinion of choices beforehand!) about possible bone graft, fusion, rods & screws etc. because he knew I was a dumbass. He used his own experience & best judgement. I do not know whether he consulted my husband while I was under anesthesia. I would have not wanted the recovery pain of taking the hip bone graft.
I believe that most of my damage occurred from the time when I started being in constant, unrelenting pain. for years it would come and go. I believe if I had gotten fixed immediately at the point of being total hell, I would have been at 100%.
Dont be a dumbass like me.
I think you need to stop over-thinking it. You can not know how every detail will turn out. but you can improve your odds by moving faster on this. You will definitely worsen the outcome by procrastinating. if you don't trust your surgeon find another one.
