lumbar fusion

My daughter who is 29 had lumbar fusion on 2/17/10-  she has been doing well but her back muscles are so tight and she can not get them loose.  Her PT said she must have overdone it this week but she hasn;t done anything different and she is very uncomfortable.  Is this something that she should expect or should she be concerned that something is wrong?

Hi, Vitalspring,
Welcome to the chronic pain forum of Healing Well. Chutz is right, I had a double lumbar fusion (L4-S1) about 2 1/2 years ago. My fusion was successful, but unfortunately it did not help my leg and foot pain. Definitions of "success" vary between patients and doctors with fusions, I think, in that if you successfully fuse - which can take up to a year to complete - the doctors consider it a success, but it may not have helped your symptoms.

As far as the back muscles, I'm not sure what kind of activity your daughter is doing, if she's using a brace, etc., but I know the muscles around my incision in my lower back are still somewhat tight. My PT worked for many weeks on the muscles around my incision, and like I said they still tighten up, especially the small muscles my PT called "paraspinal". But I wasn't permitted to start PT until 3 months after the surgery, so I wonder if your daughter might be doing too much at this stage? Now I'm not a doctor, and we don't give medical advice here, it's just something I'm sharing because of how long it took me to heal those muscles. And I had a minimally invasive procedure, so the least amount of muscle was cut.

What were your daughter's instructions from her doctor about activity, PT, etc.?

Like Chutz said, she's more than welcome to come on and post herself. You can both post!

Again, welcome, and I hope this helps a bit.

PaLady

Welcome Vitalspring....so sorry to hear that your daughter had fusion surgery....I had it done about 5 years ago and my back muscles are always tense and "firing"....can't do much about it.  They don't know why, but it makes my day so much harder.....  Why did she have the fusion?  I had and still have spinal stenosis....along with DDD, DJD, Post Lamenectomy Syndrome, and a host of other problems.....

 

You are at the right place....we all have our own issues and we aren't Doctors...but we know a great deal.

 

Me.

Good morning Vitalspring! I'm so sorry for the late reply here, but I was off on vacation with the wifey for a few days. Like Chutz said, I will be reporting back to work here in about a week.

I guess I have some questions for you first here. What part of the spine did the fusion take place? Is it the L5-S1 area or higher? Did they have to cut through the muscle, or did they separate it?
How much sitting is she doing? Is she walking and if so how much? Is she using a back brace and only for long walks? How long is the scar? Is she using any kind of lotion on it as well. And is she still on any of the pain meds?
Is she sleeping on her side on on her back?

Sorry for all the questions, but it may help us suggest options for her, and it would really help us to know more about her.

My sister is getting ready to have L3-L4,L4-L5 fused, one higher than my own. My surgery was done on the 5th of March, and I too, am having issues with the incision area being hard as a rock in some areas and numbness in a large are as well.
The surgeon that is doing my sisters surgery said, that he will not cut through any muscle, and will be going in through the back, and that they will separate it. Mine was done Anterior, meaning done through the front. My surgeon also said he did not have to cut through any muscle.
I have the tugging feeling with mine as I stand up, and for that fact, my belly is off center now by 1/2 inch. Kinda weird to see in the mirror! :(

My concern is that my surgeon cut a nerve and I will have some permanent damage now, but I'm just not sure at this point. The surgeon did say that the scaring will take some time to soften up, and I kinda agree with some of the other members,
that it may always be a little stiff. Maybe it is a trade off from the pain that she had before the surgery. PaLady makes a good point about the PT, and maybe this is what is needed for her.

When is her next check-up with her surgeon? Ask him at that time about PT. Also if her surgery was at the bottom of the spine, L4-L5 area, and she is sitting a lot, it may be pulling on the incision too much. I tend to either lay or stand, and avoid sitting for any length of time right now.

I would think that a lotion would not hurt anything at this point as well. Of course, it would be best to clear anything you do with your surgeon first. As mentioned earlier, we are not Dr here, and all we can do is suggest and give you food for thought as to the direction you may want to go.

I also wanted to welcome you here, and tell your daughter that she is very welcome to post herself as well. We have wonderful supporting members here. Your daughter needs to know that she is not alone in the recovery process as many of us have similar situations as well.

Thursday night is our Chronic Pain Chat night, and I'm sure you and your daughter would enjoy it.

Please do keep checking your post, and do reply as much as you want here. Just a tip here!....more than likely your post will fall off onto page two of the forum, so keep in mind that if she keeps posting it will re-rack it back to the top of the forum, where it will receive more notice by the members here. I have a very bad habit of checking only page #1 here, so my point is, "out of site out of mind!" We encourage new members or any member for that fact to stay active, by either posting or replying to other members post.

Good luck to your daughter, and we wish her the best, and please do let us know how she is doing. We ALL can learn from these types of experiences.

SE :)

Retired mom, your information is right on! When you brought up the numbness and then the areas sensitive to touch and such, it almost hurt me to think about it. I suffer from that as well! Very weird feeling isn't it! Numb and then at the edge of the numbness it goes to the other extreme. My surgeon said this was normal, but I take things with a grain of salt at times, especially after the surgery. I mean what is he going to say..."so sorry. but I really messed you up!"

I had to laugh at the comment he made to my wife, when she asked how my surgery went ..."He said it went textbook Perfect" I didn't expect anything less from him.

I'm glad you posted this reply, as it has taken some of the worry off of me. I have said this before, but you should see my scar!...it is at least 8" long.

Didn't mean to rob the post here vitalspring, but I wanted to comment on retiredmom's reply. Good stuff!


This is all so new to us first timers having fusion surgery's, so anyone who has something to add here...please do so. I know there are posts that have been archived on this topic, but it may be faster to just ask the question here, and receive a quick answer, especially if the question is a very specific question instead of a general one about fusions. I know when I brought up a fusion topic before, it brought over 400 views, so I know it is a much researched Hot Topic. OK, well maybe 350 of the views were mine! :) JK! :)
And of course, do please do a search on the fusion topic as well, as you can never learn too much.

SE :)

Hi all, I am 33yr old female who also had lumbar fusion at l3-l5.I am almost 5 mos post op and am still in alot of pain.My muscles are so tight that its difficult to take deep relaxing breaths and the soreness is still bad.I am so upset I cry almost everyday thinking i will have to live like this.Am seeing the dr on Monday hoping to get some answers on why i am so uncomfortable.Is there anyone that can give me some hope or maybe tell me if youve been through this.I welcome any advice.Thanks so much.