Thoracic Spine Surgery..who has had it?

I am looking for experiences with surgery on lower Thoracic area. Specifically I am looking for people who had T11-12, T10-11 or T9-10 herniation repairs. I would like to know who had an approach from the back including removal of ribs.

I have a surgical consult with 1 surgeon next week and I am trying to get in to see a surgeon at Neurological Associates to see someoen through Abbott Northwestern. I was told this is a 1 in a million herniation and that most surgeons who do perform it only do it 1 to 2 times a year because it is so rare.

I am interested in specifics on surgery, recovery time, pain you had before and after surgery. What pushed them to recommend surgery?

I do not much leg weakness. I have had radiating pain for 3 years and numbness down my left leg. The radiating pain is my lower ribs upper abdomen. It feels like a vice grip has been wrapped around me and tightens slowly all day until it becomes so bad I can not tolerate it at night.

I just want to know who has had surgery so I can get input.

SyXx I have had a herniated and torn disk at T12 for going on 15 years now, and I have yet to find a surgeon that is willing to do surgery on it. I have been to numerous surgeons over the these passing years, both orthopedic surgeons and neurosurgeons and they have all told me that the surgery is very difficult and dangerous, and the risks far out weigh any of the possible benefits of doing the surgery! Nobody I have met is willing to touch the thoracic spine. They all told me that as long as I can move about and they can control the pain that is how it must be, the only way they would even consider the surgery is if I had developed paralysis from it! I lost my nursing career and was put on disability and pain management! I also have other thoracic disks that also give me problems besides T12, T9 and T3 are also bad! I have had three fusions in my cervical spine and surgery on my lumbar spine and was told my disk at L5 is really bad and will soon need a discectomy and fusion. But the Thoracic disk they just will not touch! It is no wonder it is hard to find a surgeon that is competent in preforming thoracic spine surgery, they just don not do it very often! Herniation of the thoracic disk is very rare, compared to lumbar and cervical disk. I have heard that herniated disk of the lumbar area is the most common, but surgery on the cervical disk is the most easy for the surgeon!

Anyway I know the feeling of the squeezing vice grips around the lower abdomen and waist area, and also around the lower ribs! I can empathize with you on that! If you have found a surgeon that is willing and capable of doing the surgery, just make sure he is fellowship trained surgeon in this specialty, I was told by a surgeon once that if I ever found someone that would do this surgery to make sure he/she was fellowship trained in this specialty, other wise don't get it done!

I wish you well, Good Luck to You!

White Beard

Anyone with experience with Oxycodone ER take like a smaller dose in morning and bigger in 10 to 12 hours. My doc said we would have to adjust my dosage most likely. The 10mg is fine in the morning, but in the afternoon I need more like 15mg or 20mg. When I took IR I would take 10 mg until about 1pm, then 20mg. I need to call doc on Friday, but I was just curious if that can be done or if it has to be the same dosage.

DamesSweet, hello & welcome to the forum. Please note this is an older thread & yes SyXx has had surgery quite some time ago. You can click on his name to see his recent posts.

We do ask all new members to make a separate intro post so all members will see it & be able to say hello & welcome aboard.

By posting on this older thread not many people will see your post. I will lock this thread to keep others from posting on it as we like to keep the older threads off of the main page. Thanks.