Has anyone had scoliosis surgery?

Praise God! That must feel so good to have the hump gone and your shoulders straight and not be leaning sideways anymore! Wow, I can't even imagine. I'll bet it feels a lot different now when you sit back in your chair! Do you have more lung capacity now, too?
I'm glad to hear you're moving a lot and practicing keeping your neck straight. Does it get stiff sometimes? Mine did for a little while, which I wasn't expecting since it didn't get fused (my fusion went from T3-L1), but then again it did get un-scrunched quite a bit during the surgery and it was probably adjusting to that.

With hump gone my clothes fit and look a lot better . Yes I do have a little more lung space but my back feels so stiff and hurts more sense muscles and nerves feeling are waking up. How long did it take for pain to get better? Trying to not take as much medication as I was I think it was making me feel sick to my stomach

To everyone that has responded to me about their experiences of scoliosis surgery ( my update two months after my surgery 11\13 )I have had the surgery and still going through recovery , I had scoliosis surgery from bottom of neck down to my trail bones and pelvis ,I'm on a lot of meds. and begin to feel all my nerves and mussels waking up after being numb so now I'm in a lot of pain and taking more meds. Hopefully this will get better ,I was hoping to to the point pain free but I guess it's to early right now ,I go back to see my surgeon next week to see how I'm doing. I did gain some high back I went from 5'4" to 5'61\2" and my hump is gone now all straight and looking so much better in my clothes . I will keep everyone up to date on how I'm progressing . hugs to all and thank you so much. Janie

I've had the scoliosis surgery 9\28 now on the road to recovery it has been rough but worth it to me.I was so humped over from broken vertebra in thoracic spine and L345 and s1 surgery .and so then had the scoliosis surgery because of so much pain and balance beening off . I have had a full scoliosis surgery from bottom of neck to tailbone it took 14 hours to do and 4 pints of blood and 5 days in hospital two of them in ICU then went to Tirr Rehabilitation for 10 days and now Home Health Care 3days a week for 3 months ,Medicare has paid for it all .It is had to get use to my body being different and had to learn new ways to doing things but I have a wonderful husband that helps me so much. I go back to doctor next week I'll post you to let you know what he says I hope I have helped you in some way to know what to do , I prayed a lot about it and I know God got me through it all and still is getting me through it all I know Jesus is the #1 Physician and was in surgery with me and sill helping now . Many blessings to you. Let me know what you decide.

Has anyone had surgery to repair their scoliosis? I am 73, with a 48 degree curvature and have all kinds of issues that are resulting in severe sciatica. The crippling kind that affects my ability to walk. My pain doctor and neurosurgeon have said this is my only option, other than the Spinal Cord Stimulator, which would be a temporary fix, ifit is successful. I used to workout 4-5 times a week and bowl in 2 leagues. Now, I can not do any of these. If you have had this surgery, were you able to return to your activities that you loved? Thanks for your response.

I had a spinal fusion for treatment of scoliosis, but this was when I was age 11, which was in the ‘90s, so I’m not sure how translatable my situation is. My mom said my orthopedic surgeon was a top orthopedic surgeon at the time. I do know the risks of surgery can increase as we age, and it can be really difficult with chronic back pain to identify if the pain is generated from the biomedical source or from increased pain sensitivity the longer someone is in pain. It’s the reason some people can have surgery, but the pain persists.

To your question though, although my surgery was preventative, I was able to resume basically any other activities I wanted to do, except I lost flexibility, so the backbends I used to be able to do were no longer possible. I recall the initial recovery feeling pretty brutal, but I have a lot of side effects to anesthesia. I was in the hospital for less than a week and walking within five days. I was back at school after another full week at home, but really fatigued.

It took 12 months for what my doctor considered “full recovery.” I don’t think bowling and working out would be a problem, but you’d need to work up to it.

It’s really frustrating to become so limited. While I’m well past my spinal fusion, I have chronic pain from several other conditions.

If you’ve exhausted physical therapy with good PTs (emphasis on “good” PTs!) with experience in chronic pain, including a pain neuroscience approach (such as graded motor imagery/pain laterality or the approach used in apps like Curable), then it may not hurt to have a consultation with a surgeon to understand better the possible risks/benefits.

Spine surgery can be pretty drastic though. I recall my parents really agonizing over it. We saw at least two surgeons and my curvature was considered severe.

I’ve considered surgery for my hip for example, but I’ve decided to really lean into PT and a pain neuroscience approach to see if I can regain more function to stave off surgery. It’s hard to tell with chronic pain how much of my pain is coming from my actual orthopedic condition (hip dysplasia) and how much is from central sensitization (the longer you have pain, the more your brain and nervous system gets sensitized to pain and pain signals get magnified even if the challenge remains the same or if you get stronger). So I want to see if a pain neuroscience approach to try to “turn down” the pain signals helps me enough. Because if that’s my larger problem, surgery won’t change much—it’ll change my body, but if my pain perception doesn’t change, it doesn’t get me where I want to go.

It’s a really rough situation. Wishing you all the best.

Thanks so much for your response. I am very interested in the neuroscience approach, as this is new to me. I will research this thoroughly. I have multilevel lumbar spondylosis, stenosis at the L2-3 and L3-4 and nerve encroachment of the L-4 root. My left leg is very painful and preventing me from walking without a cane. I want to exhaust every other treatment before I would even consider surgery. Thanks again for you information.

You’re welcome. I’m sorry this is happening to you. It gets so hard when it feels like life gets smaller and smaller. Have you tried PT yet?

I have had the most benefit from the right PT (I had incorrect diagnoses for years, and/or they were giving me exercises that were too aggressive when I need to go really slowly and build up because of chronic pain), graded motor imagery (my PT told me some of the original research was originally done on chronic back pain—there is an app called Recognise that I use for right/left discrimination), and what’s now being called “a pain neuroscience approach.”

I mentioned the app Curable, because one of my Mayo PTs recommended it to me. It’s a paid subscription (as most things are nowadays of course, sigh), but they have a lot of good free content and a podcast if you just want to find out what it’s about. I found their online and introductory info about how the brain and central nervous system processes pain really well done and much better than the handouts I was originally given years ago lol.

I haven’t personally tried it yet, but my PCP said she’s had patients who had very positive experiences with it. It’s based on research and founded by a team of healthcare providers who actually have chronic pain. So it might be worth checking out as an intro.

My one gripe so far about it is that it sometimes gets a bit much on the positivity and really emphasizing, “If you just can redirect your thinking about pain, it’ll all get better!” I understand well that damage on imaging doesn’t always correlate to pain, but they Really emphasize it. I found it so upsetting I talked to my doctor about it because it was starting to make me feel bad about myself that I’m still in pain.

She assured me that as they say, pain is multifactorial, so it’s not an either/or thing: biomedical causes vs. pain neuroscience, we need to consider both. But activities like those in Curable can help add drops to the ocean to lift the ship just like medication or surgery might.

A different doctor recommended the book, “Unlearn your Pain,” if that may be of interest.

Anyway just thought I’d mention that since at least with Curable, the way they explain central sensitization can sound a little “woo woo” if you’re not expecting it.

Wishing you all the best.

Hi 👋
I am looking at a similar surgery fusion from T12-S1 and am an active 67 years old and the sciatica pain from stenosis etc keeps me from
standing or walking. I am going to try an ablation to see if I can buy more time. I will post next month after the procedure.

However, my scoliosis is not as significant as yours. I believe 50% is the threshold where you can start to affect organs and breathing etc. I would definitely check that out.

I have spoken to 2 other females (similar ages ) who had the surgery that have returned to an active lifestyle .. adapted for new mobility restrictions. they both said the 1st year was difficult and to keep the faith and not give up.

I have consulted with 5 surgeons and have a pain doc. Feel free to write me for further discussion.
Good luck
Tamra

@emo and @cynthi13
You may be interested in this video about Central Sensitization. There are also these Connect discussions about this topic.

Chronic Pain - "Central sensitization syndrome and treatment?"
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/central-sensitization-syndrome-and-treatment/
Chronic Pain - "Has anyone been diagnosed with Central Sensitization?"
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/has-anyone-been-diagnosed-with-central-sensitization-if-so-id-like-to/