Pain years after scoliosis surgery

Haven’t had the surgery and was pondering about getting it. Pain everyday and now starting to bend forward slightly. What do you take for pain that helps?

@rae1112
What symptoms did you have at the time you had the surgery? Did you improve any within the first year after surgery? What were you told to expect after surgery? Where is your pain today?

Have you gone for updated MRIs recently (thoracic and lumbar spine) and updated EMG and nerve conduction study of lower limbs? Are you working with an orthopedic spine specialist and neurologist currently and pain management center to help manage pain? Have you had steroid injections and are you taking any medications for pain?

I had cervical (2022) and lumbar (2024) spine fusions. I have returning pain in my neck and mri shows new disc herniation at the level below fusion and still have pain following lumbar spine surgery in August 2024. The pain is mostly in my hips and hip flexors and my doctor recently put me on Lyrica to help with the significant nerve pain. It helps a little (started on low dose 25 mg recently) but it makes me dizzy and tired. The chronic pain has been since 2017 and it can make you depressed. I have been dealing with major depression as a result and doctors are still trying to find the right medications and doses.

Are you dealing with depression as a result of your chronic pain? Do you think you have any new disc or vertebrae issues above and below the levels of fusion?

As of now unfortunately I’m on Vicodin but unable to take it at work so by the time I get home I’m in so much pain. I did just get stress test results that shows the heart is normal but I have possibly low electrolyte imbalance and I wasn’t aware it can cause extreme muscle pain so I’m getting bloodwork tomorrow.

Hi!
So 7 years ago when I had spinal fusion I had gone from 36 degrees to 57 degrees curve very quickly and developed terrible pain that brought me to tears. My curve was a left side curve and was twisting into my lungs and heart.
A year later still in pain I also developed hip bursitis. My dr then tells me well you’ll probably always have pain and be happy your spine isn’t curved anymore.
Then the worst thing that’s ever happened to me happened. My dr says I can fix the hip bursitis easy no problem just get an injection of steroids. Ok seems simple enough.
Immediately I started having symptoms in the days after that worsened and it would take months and lots of tests to figure out I had developed steroid induced dementia, depression, and anxiety. It was absolutely horrible. So I saw a psychiatrist and got on meds and after a bit it finally mostly managed my symptoms.
The antidepressant made me gain 70 pounds! I am still on anxiety and sleep meds to this day! I finally got off the anti depressant 7 weeks ago!!!!

I’ve had mris summer before last when my pain became even worse and I have a bulging disc at L4. They however didn’t think that was causing pain and had me get a procedure to do ablation on the lumbar nerves. It didn’t help much.
I’m currently seeing a pain and spine dr.
I’ve never had an EMG or conduction study.
My dr had told me I’d have no restrictions after surgery. Made it seem like besides the limitations of range of motion everything would be great.
Pain today is really bad. I’m currently on Vicodin but it’s only short term. After that who knows. I’m in so much pain I can hardly sleep.
It is disheartening and I do struggle with sadness, especially at the sudden passing of my mom this past April. My dr even had me take a stress test yesterday because I was having shortness of breath and chest pain. All it showed is I may have an electrolyte imbalance. Which can cause severe muscle aches. I hope that once that is taken care of maybe It'll help some!

I had surgery when I was 13 yrs old I’m now 47… my back pain has been getting worse if it’s not one side it’s the other sometimes pain radiates from the back to the front which makes me wonder if it’s the appendix, gallbladder etc…I get muscle spasms as well very painful … don’t know what to do anymore. I just manage the pain with Tylenol ibuprofen or a heating pad … any suggestions?

@pguerra Welcome to Connect. I'm sorry you are having pain. Have you discussed this with your doctor? Sometimes the cause of pain can be overly tight tissues, and you mentioned muscle spasms. An evaluation with a physical therapist may help narrow down some possible causes. My physical therapist does some manual stretching called myofascial release. This is a way to stretch tight tissue and surgical scar tissue that always gets tight.

Here is a discussion where you can learn about it. There is also a provider search at http://mfrtherapists.com/

Neuropathy - "Myofascial Release Therapy (MFR) for treating compression and pain"
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/