MRI Results and Major Issue in Lumbar Spine - What now?

Thanks for the update. Praying for a quick and speedy recovery. Please keep us posted as you can.

Nancy, you had quite a bit of work done. Just remember to listen to your body & take care of yourself. I know your perseverance of having a good recovery is your main goal.

Check in when you feel like it. Sending healing thoughts & prayers your way!

Hi Susie: I continue to do well, almost 1 month post-surgery. No more pain meds except for Tylenol. Still on Gabapentin. I have 2 more visits from the home health PT which have been so helpful with chair exercises and advice on healing. I’ve been walking, and invested in a rollator by Medline that enables me to be stable while walking and with a seat and backrest for when I need a rest break. I still wear the back brace though when at home I don’t use it as much as when I take my walks outside or go out to dinner or when Dan takes me for a drive along the coast. So far so good!

I’m sleeping well, and still take an afternoon nap most days. Still no BLT (bending lifting twisting) but I’ve learned to avoid it for the most part. I can shower by myself and still use the grab bar and shower chair and am of course very careful getting in and out if the bathtub. Our plan for sometime next year is to remodel the bathroom and put in a walk in shower.

My next visit with my neurosurgeon’s PA is 11/1. At the 2-week post-op she was very pleased with my progress so far. The X-ray looked good and showed the 6 screws and 2 rods from L4-5 and L5-S1.

Much of the feeling has returned to my right leg and foot and she said it will take some time to recover completely.

Well, that’s about all the news for now. I’ll be back in touch soon!

Nancy

Nancy:
Good to hear from you and doubly good to hear that the surgery went well with return of neurological function in your leg/foot.

Take time for rest and recovery. Be gentle to yourself.

Continued best wishes in the days to come,
Karen

Well, its been awhile since I’ve been around these boards. My 2018 surgery was very successful and I recovered quickly. However. Last year I began having similar symptoms and an MRI confirmed the two discs above where Dr. Brara operated in 2018 were more compromised. Now I have similar symptoms but more significant as the numbness in my lower right leg, ankle, and foot have made walking more difficult and unfortunately driving impossible due to lack of feeing. So I’m going in for surgery on March 9th to fuse L1-2 and L2-3. But due to circumstances beyond my control I can no longer see Dr. Brara - he’s moved up to overseeing all Kaiser Southern California Neurosurgery Centers and as a result does not perform surgeries anymore. Also, I will now be going to Kaiser Downey (another Kaiser hospital in a different area) and have an orthopedic surgeon who will perform my surgery.

I met with this surgeon about a month ago to discuss what he plans to do and this is what I was told. He said he would remove all the hardware installed by Dr. Brara and put in a whole new set. I had somehow thought he’d simply add onto the existing hardware. I then mentioned that since my bones were extremely dense Dr. Brara, after breaking several drills, had to switch to a tool called a pedicle to make holes for the screws. The new surgeon told me not to worry, as he had “never met a bone I couldn’t drill into.” So. I’m a bit nervous both about the hardware removal and the drill issue. I have my pre-op meeting with the surgeon’s PA and also the anesthesiologist on March 1st so will definitely discuss these issues with him. I’m probably being overly cautious but who knows.

Good news is I’m going in for my second injection of the Moderna vaccine on the 27th and I'm very confident about the cleanliness and precautions of all the Kaiser facilities I’ve been to over the last year or so.

Bottom line, and my main question to this group is: has anyone else had hardware removed and new hardware installed to extend what was installed in a previous operation? What about bone that has fused into and over that hardware? Do they have to break it and chip it away? Yikes... Anyway, thanks for you replies. I appreciate it.

Nancy

I agree with Susie about the second opinion.