Hello fellow spinys, my name is Grant. I am lying in a hospital bed in Anaheim memorial hospital. It is day 4 after my l5-s1 revision from a bi-lateral pars fracture repair attempt. Story will bounce around a bit but hopefully some questions will guide me to the things people need to know first. For those that don't know like I didn't look, up the pars fractures then look up pars fracture repair you can tell what my previous problems where.
I will be updating this as I go for others to benefit from this one cause I sure did benefit from this site tremendously. Without this site I would have really made some of the most regrettable decisions of my life. Without this site I would not have found Mark Mintzer who for me is one the most important persons in my entire life. I will try and cover my whole story and hopefully people will ask questions and I can fill it in as I go.
I am 4 days post op from a l5-s1 PILF by Dr.Frank Coufal. Who I absolutely love and trust, he is and absolutely great doc to deal with.Takes all the time you need to answer all your questions, and my Moms and Girlfriend. They really like the guy too. He is sincere and genuinely cares to take his time. I am now off the IV meds and just receive injections and a boat load of narcotic pills with some antibiotics for a fever that they still have no real definite answer for. They say that people coming out of major surgery like this often have fevers for various reasons.
The pain that I had in my right leg felt like heavy pressure that started form my upper butt ran down the back of my thigh then out the side of my calf around to my big toe . My left leg had random pain in the same areas as well. Rarely did I have burning or tingling or numbness. I did have some hellish lower back pain. I was aggravated by sitting and not as much by moving but both could both get just as bad.
Well after this surgery I have found out that my l5 neural canals were absolutely crushed and that I had a ton of scar tissue build up from the hardware that was supposed to hold l5 together while it was supposed to grow back together but did not. It took Dr. Coufal 7.5 hours to due the total surgery, I tell you what it sure felt like he did seven hours of connoisseur bone carpentry on me the days following. It was hardware removal and fusion. The good thing is that Doc said that he thinks that he found and eliminated all of my pain generators which was the instability of the l5 vertebral body and the scar tissue/bone growth from the failed pars repair. OH YA BABY! The first surgery had a scar of about 6-7 inches top to bottom, I think this one is two inches. I have not seen this one but i can tell you the surgeon can make a big difference on how you muscle tissue feels following the surgery. It is only day four and I can tell you my muscles didn't feel this good till like 6 weeks after the last one.
My pain levels coming out the first day were controlled okay I was anywhere from 6-10. Day two was crazy good cause it was the day when I knew I made the right move cause my pain was 7 highest all day. Then that night till all the way to day 4 I was hitting 9-10 a lot. The nurses let my meds lapse and run out at least 3 times for more than an hour plus, which let the pain skyrocket and then the muscles tighten, well yall know the drill.(dilaudid pc pump). I was also on 60 mg of avinza and 3-4 norcos a day for about a year before hand so pain was hard to tackle. I also too was on lyrica which was a god send cause that help with the nerve pain in my legs better than anything else i was taking or had tried.
Getting tired and loopy so I will ramble more and answer more tomorrow
I REALLY DO HAVE LOVE AND COMPASSION FOR ALL OF THE SPINYS I MEET SO IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS PLEASE ASK IM IF YOU NEED TO!!!!!
till next entry..
and please if you have advice I would live to hear it!!! I am really scared and hopeful as well!!!