Back surgery Spinal Fusion S-1 L-2 L-5

[GB in WY]

I am about 14 years into my L4 - L5 overhaul. My outcome was as good as it gets. My therapy was to walk at least a mile a day. Wish I had it done 5 years sooner. I am now starting to have issues with the joints above L4 but I am not sure, at my current age, it would be cost effective to have more work done. Good luck and do what your Doc tells you to do!

[jon_norstog]

Good luck there, Griff!

jn

[RED]

I had L-4 and L-5 fused in June 2007 and before I was even out of the "brace," I had a accident and had a L-2 burst fracture that damaged my spinal cord. I lost 90% of the feeling in my lower legs and have suffered severe pain for years. In 2014 I had a series of electronic ablations that killed a series nerves that were responsible for a lot of the pain. Now my problem is walking. It took several months of rehab but now I can walk but I need a cane and even then I fall 2 or 3 times a month. If I step on something I didn't see (especially a marble sized rock), and I can't feel it, so I fall hard. I have broken my nose 3 times and my left wrist once.

The bottom line, always remember that in an accident the vertebrae above and/or below the fusion will take all the force that would otherwise be distributed to the ones fused.

Good luck and be assured they have come a long way in the past 10 years.

[Griff Murphey]

Thanks, Red, and everyone else. I start pt this Thursday. So far the pre op pain has returned in my legs and no Increase in strength. So far not s lot of progress. Damn pain likes to hit about 2-4 am in the night.

[macPA]

Had procedure done in 2015. I did wait too long. When I finally saw the surgeon my left leg felt numb from knee down and no pain to speak of.
He told me that if I had pain it would be gone but the numb feeling may never go away. So far he has been spot on Sometimes my left leg does
funky things but other than that I do ok

[Griff Murphey]

Had procedure done in 2015. I did wait too long. When I finally saw the surgeon my left leg felt numb from knee down and no pain to speak of.
He told me that if I had pain it would be gone but the numb feeling may never go away. So far he has been spot on Sometimes my left leg does
funky things but other than that I do ok

Were your legs weak, and if so did you recover some strength?

[macPA]

for most part my strength in my legs is fine. It does tend to feel like an
anchor now and then. it still is numb but I don't require any assistance to get around
I don't have a lot of trouble shooting- cowboy action,steel challenge, ispca and idpa