What's your experience with Vertiflex Superion Implant?

I just had the implants put in 6 days ago. I had no idea the pain would be so bad. Starting to wish I had read some reviews before doing the procedure. I am in a lot of pain. The pain med does not take the pain away. It takes the edge off but my leg hurts if I am standing and of course pain in my back is still bad. I am in more pain than before the surgery. I just don't think it is supposed to be that way.

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Thank you for your positive comments on your experience with the Veriflex Procedure. I am considering this procedureto get relief from my lumbar spinal stenosis. The comments I have seen regarding the procedure havde been vey confusing. Some think its great. Others report having a lot of pain after the procedure. My criteria in evaluating comments is --would you do it again? One thing that concerns me is how do you avoid bending, lifting and flexing for a 6 week recovery period? How did you handle this?Do you just need to stay isolated and do nothing? How do I put on my socks without bending? What do I do if I am out shopping and I drop my car keys? Your comments would be appreciated.

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Hello @mary1996 and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect, a community of members sharing experiences and supporting one another.

It sounds like you weren't expecting these results. I wonder if you can share what information your surgeon shared with you with regard to your recovery and also if you've contacted them since surgery to express your concern about the pain?

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I did talk to my doctor on the pain. He said it was very normal to have a lot of pain for around two weeks. When they put the spacers in they hammer it in place in your spine so there will be pain for a couple weeks. He had only gave me 20 pills to take every 4-6 hours. That only lasted a week. I have another script now and the pain is much better on this med.

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This is "hubby". While I was certainly cautions about my movements for the appropriate amount of time post-Vertiflex, it wasn't extremely limiting. I continued to live my life - just dialed it back quite a bit. I doubt that the limitations I incurred were as bad as what I would have faced if I had decided on a full fusion. It was a far less invasive surgery - Outpatient, walked out of the doc's office 3 hours later and went home. It did take a good 6 months before I started to fell "near-normal" and my function has continued to improve since then.

The fact is that there are no perfect solutions when our spines deteriorate and cause pain. I did a lot of research into the spinal fusions that were recommended by several surgeons, but everything I read indicated that the success rate of fusions is low and Adjacent Segment Degeneration Syndrome is common. Our spines are designed to flex at each segment, and when segments are fused (5 fusions were recommended for me) and can't flex, the torsional forces are transferred to the adjacent, unfused, vertebrae, causing more wear and tear on them. The common result is another trip to the surgeon for more work at some future point.

As my wife noted in the original post, I've been delighted with Vertiflex. I'm very active - rough, back-country hiking almost every day, home repair projects etc. I stretch every day and am much more flexible than my younger pals who haven't had surgery and don't stretch. I do have referred pain in my glutes and hamstrings from a "serious" stenosis at L5-S1, which isn't suitable for Vertiflex due to the bone structure at that segment. I live with that pain and treat it with low doses of Celebrex and Biofreeze "Professional" (great product).

Everybody's experience differs, but personally, I've had great success with Vertiflex. Good luck.

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It is encouraging to hear that one can continue to have a near normal life, even with the restrictions, following Veriflex I have an appointment with my pain doctor next month to discuss in more detail the procedure. If I decide to haved it, I will probably schedule the procedure for this fall. I don't want to miss a summer of golf.

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I did talk to him yesterday. He gave me more pain meds. I think they are reluctant to give you two weeks of pain meds at one time.

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The sooner you have this procedure done the better. I know with mine, We didn’t find a problem for four months and my doctor said there’s less damage the sooner you get this taken care of. I was very scared to have the surgery but it really wasn’t that difficult. You have to trust your doctor completely though.

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That is such an important statement....." you have to trust your doctor completely though". And you know your doctor needs to be able to trust you......that you share what is going on....that you have followed the homework given you by your PT, that you have taken your medication as prescribed. We, as patients.....need to earn their trust.

May you have peace and ease.
Chris

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