Hi Stacy,
It sounds like your body is fighting a battle between the forces of nature
slowly bending your skeleton and the strength of steel. I wish I could give
you a better answer, but that's what it sounds like. After I broke my right
femur in 1981, they put a titanium rod in the leg and wired both ends of the
break (it was a V shaped 4in break on two sides of the bone). After a year, or
more, the femur was healed great and they Surgeons decided that since I didn't
walk on the bone, they could leave the rod in and not have to do surgery on the
leg again. It sounded like the best thing to me at the time. In early 1987 I
started getting little sore on my right leg. Went to a Orthopedic who ran a
bunch of tests. The outcome was because the rod had been left in the bone it
caused Osteomyelitis to develop. Two years and three surgeries trying to clean
the bone, and they had to remove the leg to keep the infection out of the rest
of my body. The new surgeon said my spine would
start to curve because my balance was off. He said he could slow the curve
down by putting titanium rods up and down my spine.
Wow, that was when my spine started curving because I did my rehab in a power
chair, and left.
You have your doctor look for bone pain in you. With that metal your bones
will hurt , especially in the cold. Stay strong.
With Love,
CtrlAltDel aka Dave
C4/5 Complete - 31 Years Post
Texas, USA
Stacy Harim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
For those of you who dont know, I had to have my spine fused in several places
last May. Well it really began hurting last week like something was rubbing.
After the fusion was done, I had to have a screw removed b/c it was too close
to my aeorta so I worried something was shifting and went to my doctor. My
neurosurgeon is out of town so I went to my pain doc bc he used to be a
neurosurgeon at the University of MD. We had xrays done and he doesnt see
anything that would require me to have surgery, but I am in unbelievable pain
to the point I can barely move and its in more than one spot.
Has anyone else had any experience with the rods rubbing a bit or a screw? I
am hoping after taking it easy for awhile the pain will go down but it has been
getting a little bit worse every day and today it's about the same. It doesnt
hurt as much if I am laying down on my side without moving too suddenly but it
does hurt more to sit up and hurts a lot to adjust myself while laying down the
first time for the day. I've been staying in bed a lot hoping I can get the
pain down as pain meds arent helping very much.
If anyone has any ideas on how to try to get the pain withstandable, I would
apppreciate it. I have 3 cages and rods from top of tspine. One cage replaces
T 4,5,6,7 and maybe 8; another replaces T 11,12; and another replaces L 4,5,
and maybe 6. There is about 7 or 8 discs missing in all. In the lumbar
section there are a couple of sets of rods with rods next to rods. Lots of
metal!!! I tried to put a pic in but it couldnt be delivered.
Anyone else have this much metal?
Stacy
---------------------------------
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
