Spinal Fusion

[freetoanyhome]

How awful is it? Right now I'm in a lot of pain with spondy-something. L4 and 5 are fractured, the disc has ruptured for the 3rd time. Numbness and pain down both legs. The ortho consultant said there's fractures in the support arches and pars and a spinal fusion is needed but I'm petrified of GA's. Really petrified. And scared of even the thought of my spine being operated on.

I have crumbling and damage in the spine between my shoulder blades too.

I had a spinal fusion 6 months ago L5 S1 by the sounds of it with way less problems/reasons for it than you. I was petrified and did everything I could to try and prove I didn't need this when it was obvious it was the best course of action. It has been hard work through the recovery but so glad I had it done. Straight away all the horrible leg pain disappeared. I still have fluctuating levels of numbness in 1 foot and leg but I always knew this may not go away and/or take a long time.

I had complete trust in my surgeon, quizzed him to the nth degree, emailed him with questions etc. - he always responded and felt comfortable that he was the right person to do this for me. This made it a lot easier to let go of some of the fear I had and concentrate on getting ready for the surgery and be focused on the recovery after.

Best of luck with it. It isn't an easy recovery, but I know for me life would have been much much harder and the pain almost unbearable without the surgery. So that short period of strong drugs and a reliance on others was worth going through for how things were going to be (and now are) once out the other side.

My mum has had one bit of fusion done about 7 years ago, and will have another done in the next few weeks. The first was very successfull in removing the pain she was in then, and hopefully this will help again as she has been on constant morphine for 3 years.

She wasn't in very much pain from the surgery last time - and the relief from the back pain was instant, so it was bearable. The restrictions on standing/sitting were a pain, but not a huge issue.

its mainly the GA I am scared of. Its stupid as Ive had them before but have got myself in a right old pickle.