My journey with a T11 to L4 spinal fusion - 40 degree scoliosis curve

Hi Sherry -
I just saw your kind reaction to my recent comment regarding my cervical fusion experience. I see you recently underwent an extensive fusion and wanted to send you healing thoughts and prayers. Hope all is going well for you 🙏

Continue to think of you and sending strength and healing vibes your way! Tamra

My new surgery date is February 4th!

Hi Sherry,

I am interested to know how your rehabilitation is? How are you feeling?

I am interested in any comments about Spinal Fusion and Recovery Time Lines. At 74 i want to make sure i can recover quickly! Any comments from people who have gone through this is very appreciated! Joe

Hey @sassytwo @vikkitennis and everyone! I’ve been putting together a list of notes to share with all of you. I just haven’t finished it up yet….. My goal is to do it by the end of this weekend! I am going to my daughter‘s basketball game today, with a friend driving us because I still need to take some pain medication. This past Wednesday I was 5 weeks post surgery and I’m taking half the dose for pain meds. Yesterday I went six hours without anything to see what would happen and it didn’t go well for me.
On a positive note, the pain that I feel is from the actual surgery. I don’t feel any pain in the area of my back, that I’ve experienced my whole life!
I have much more to share and again, I hope to do it this weekend. Take care! Sherry 😊

Hi Sherry,

We thank you for your posts regarding the recovery. It appears you are very positive about the experience and as any health provider will tell you, that is a big percentage in your recovery and well-being.
I was looking back on X-rays in 2024, and compared the curvature increase from April to October. The curvature increased 6 degrees, 18-24%. I read from one person and I don't know if it was from this site, the SCS led to the increase scoliosis. Before I read that, I decided to have it removed for another reason, and will have it performed next month.
I saw a neurosurgeon at the Mayo in Phoenix, shortly after we moved to Goodyear, AZ in 2016, and it was the same doctor who performed your surgery. I saw him as I continued to experience pain from a failed spinal fusion L5-S1, and he didn't know how to address it. I did see another neurosurgeon at Mayo two years ago, and I cannot recall what his recommendation was, but I am on the right path today, after the epidural injections, staying fit, eating well, and seeing what the next course is at Mayo, with a pain management appointment next month. I turn 70 in March, and my goal is to stay active in sports, travel and entertain friends and family in our home.

Hey....I agree I think mindset is key to recovery.... I will find out soon. I will try and update after my fusion from S2-T12 on February 4th. Hoping to return to a full active life, but understand it may be a year plus until I begin to have more normalcy. I hope I can be that patient.

1-23-25 update for T11 to L4 spinal fusion - #1

Hey everyone! Here is an update on my recovery, and also a list of things that helped me during recovery.

My post is too long to put in one message so I’m going to try and break it up into 2.

I have provided several updates in this chat string that detail more of my surgery and things that occurred immediately following it. I will try not to repeat much of it so this message doesn’t get too long!

Yesterday I was six weeks post surgery. I can’t believe how slow and yet how fast time is flying by. For me, pain management has been a challenge. Everyone is different and everyone responds to medications differently. When I was in the hospital, they used several different drugs and it took quite a while for them to find the ones that helped me. From what it appeared to me, I was one of those anomalies when it comes to pain receptors and how my body processed the medications. The only reason I mention this is because it’s important to be your own advocate when you are on the hospital bed. If things don’t work for you, you need to tell them. Depending on how many days you stay in the hospital, you will see different nurses and different doctors come and go. They do a handoff briefing and the oncoming shift may or may not have a good understanding of your needs. I definitely experienced that I want to share the information with the hopes that it might help someone else.

As I mentioned before, I live just east of Sacramento and I had my surgery at the Phoenix Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Being in California created quite a challenge getting controlled medication‘s from my surgeon, because of the state lines. Even though he is also licensed in California, I could not find a pharmacy in California that would fill a controlled medication.

Soooo… depending on where you live, it would be a good idea to check before your surgery to see if there are any restrictions on controlled meds being filled by an out of state doctor. I was able to get my primary physician to fill it for a week before I went to a pain management doctor, who has been filling them ever since. The Mayo Clinic sent me home with one week of pain medication, one week of gabapentin and one week of muscle relaxers.

On Tuesday, I had x-rays done and sent to my surgeon for review, and I have a video postop appointment with him next Thursday.

OK, now for recovery… my surgeon told me it would be a slow recovery, and everything that I’ve read and heard, has told me the same thing. I’m here to tell you, that in my case, it’s the truth. That being said, I feel a little progress every single day! And as I mentioned before, I do not feel that nonstop drilling pain along the right side of my spine and down my hip that I have experienced most of my adult life!!! My pain is mostly across my lower back and along both sides of my spine from the surgery. This gives me so much hope for a future without pain once I heal from the surgery!

I have a list of questions to ask my surgeon next week and I will update everyone after that. I read in the surgery notes that he harvested bone from my spine to put in between the vertebrae as grafts. He performed an 8 hour minimally, invasive surgery to fuse 6 of my vertebrae. Surgeons have the ability to put in different strengths of rods. He put in the third strongest or a number 3. I remember him telling me this after I woke up but any more details on that are a little hazy, so I want ask him about it more.

1-23-25 update for T11 to L4 spinal fusion - #2

OK, so just a quick list of things that are helping me during healing:

Actually first…… there are a couple things you can do before surgery. The more squats that you can do the better! This really, really helped me out. It doesn’t matter if you’re only a week away from surgery, hang onto the kitchen counter or anything else and throughout the day, just drop down and do a few squats. Those are really going to help you as you recover, because you need that strength in your legs and your butt to stand when getting out of bed and off the toilet and up from a chair. I can’t emphasize this enough. The other thing would be anything that can build your core. Sit ups, planks, I hate doing these, but I made myself do them before the surgery and I know it helped me.

OK now for recovery items……

Long handled grabbers - these are amazing and Costco has the two packs, or you can find them on Amazon, etc. I have three of them in different places around the house. It’s crazy how many things you will drop and you have to keep your back straight so there is a kneeling squat position that you can do or you can use your grabbers.

Heating pad - you must have one of these! I have a large flexible one that covers my whole surgery area on my spine and also my lower back.

Large gel ice packs - you must also have these! I have two that I sit back on my couch recliner and alternate between those and the heating pad. Make sure they are the gels, they are very soft and form your back and it doesn’t hurt to lay back on them. Also make sure they are big enough to cover across your back. Mine are about 14”x 8”. Every muscle and nerve across your back is affected and will need the cold. I also cover them with a thin blanket because when you first come home from surgery, you will not have much feeling in your back at the skin level and it would be easy to burn your skin with either the heating pad or ice packs because you will not feel it.

A bed rail - this also is a must! It really helps after you do your log roll to push off of the rail to sit straight up. I think mine is about 9 inches wide and I have it up near my shoulder level and it slides into the mattress. My bed is pretty tall so I also have a small step stool that I get onto because you want to be able to sit straight back onto the bed. Scooting and wiggling and everything else hurts.

Long handle shoehorn - this is pretty handy until you get to the point where you can reach down and pull on your shoes. You’re not going to be able to get your own socks on right away either so I definitely have a lot of slip on slippers around here.

Peppermint candy - a friend brought me some candy canes several days after I got home and I wish I would’ve had them from the start. They really helped my stomach when it was upset from all the meds and not eating much. And make sure they are the quality ones with real peppermint oil and not just artificial flavor. Peppermint tea also helped me.

They will tell you no BLT. Bending, lifting or twisting, and this is very important until everything fuses, which I understand is around three months. I have a back brace that I wear when I’m standing. Everything I’ve read says it’s more about reminding you to keep from twisting and bending, along with providing some support.

Stretch yoga type pants - I am a jeans kind of girl but my new best friend is stretch pants! My scar goes almost down to the waist line of pants and is extremely uncomfortable. So stretch pants are amazing.

Sitting - you need to keep your back as straight as possible. You don’t want a deep chair to sit in. My electric couch recliner is perfect and is where I spend most of my sitting time. It is not easy getting up to the sitting position in order to stand, so it will be important to have something comfortable for you to sit in.

Back scratcher - a nice to have

Water, water, water- I am terrible at drinking water, but you need to have a way to make sure that you are drinking a lot of water.

Toilet - when I was researching before my surgery, I did not find much information about the challenges of wiping after a bowel movement. You definitely cannot twist enough to reach your hand around from the back. I bought a tool on Amazon where you can wrap toilet paper around the end and wipe yourself and then you can release the toilet paper or wet wipe into the toilet. I tried it a couple times at the hospital and it was pretty much useless for me. I found that if you squat up off the toilet, you can reach everywhere you need to without hurting your back. That being said, I also put toilet rails around the side of the toilet, and to me they are a must have for wiping and getting up and down off the toilet. It’s actually a one piece item that attaches behind the toilet seat.

Constipation - oh my goodness this is a real thing with pain, meds, and muscle relaxers together. The only laxatives I’ve really found to work are Dulcolax 1200 mg magnesium hydroxide chews. I’ve also had to use the Dulcolax suppositories. There are so many things out there like Colace and Senokot, etc. They all work differently, but these are the only ones that work for me. I believe you should also have a box of enemas on hand in case you need them.

Supplements - 7 days prior to surgery you need to stop taking any NSAIDs, vitamins, vitamin C, most everything. They will give you a list. That being said as soon as you have surgery, even though NSAIDs are still off limits because they inhibit bone fusion, I started taking calcium. I have a pretty good calcium supplement coming next week that I am excited to use. Also, take those multivitamins unless you are eating well rounded meals.

I’m sorry this was so long! I’ve been making notes on sticky pads over the past few weeks and I’m really glad to get this out. When I read back through this message, some of it sounds pretty tough. There have definitely been tough times for me, but I can say with 100% certainty that I would not do a single thing differently. We know back surgery is usually the last resort and that everyone makes their own decision, in their own time, based on their own situation.

I wish the best for all of you and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask me!

Sherry