Spinal fusion: Hardware removal

Thank you for your response. This is very helpful. Tomorrow will be my 1-year anniversary of having my Lower Spinal Back Fusion Surgery L4-S1. Like you I am in more pain than before. I have been on pain meds up until last weekend and they were not helping at all. My Surgeon wants me to go see a Pain Management doctor and I refuse to go after my 1st initial visit. They wanted to do the injections on me that I tried way before having my surgery and none of them worked. Since my surgery, my Surgeon has had me on Tramadol 50mg tablets 3 times a day (that are Opioids), and I was terrified to take them and slowly over time reduced the dosage myself and I was only taking a 1/2 a pill once a day along with two other prescriptions he gave to me Gabapentin 300mg Capsules (3 time's a day) and Cyclobenzaprine 10mg tablets for muscle spasms as often as needed.
In the beginning, before surgery he informed me I will not need to have physical therapy. But after a few months I asked him again and he informed me yes if I wanted to he will have me go to physical therapy. So I did it for 8 weeks and I was not feeling better at all. After I had physical therapy, the next day I would be in a lot more pain.
I ice my back everyday. Even when I sit still my lower back is hurting. It NEVER stops.
On my last appointment with my surgeon, I begged him to take out the equipment, that it hurts and I'm in worse pain than prior to surgery. He told me he could not do that. All of my equipment is Titanium. How do we go about getting the equipment removed? HELP PLEASE HELP!!!

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@sapphireblue Welcome to Connect. I have not heard of spine surgeons willing to remove spine hardware except during revision surgery that likely places new hardware in place. If you cannot have hardware removed, there may be treatments to reduce the symptoms. There are Environmental Medicine doctors who treat metal immune responses and this field of medicine was started by a practice in Texas call the Environment Health Center Dallas. Here are 2 discussions where patents are discussing immune reaction problems with metal implants and a member who is undergoing treatment with the Environmental Health Center Dallas. Here are the links:

Joint REplacements - "Is there a hospital or Dr in US who understand metal allergies in TKR?"
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/is-there-a-hospital-or-dr-in-us-who-understand-metal-allergies-in-tkr/

Spine Health - "Metallosis of cervical disc replacement "
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/metallosis-of-cervical-disc-replacement/

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Thank you for your response. This is very helpful. Tomorrow will be my 1-year anniversary of having my Lower Spinal Back Fusion Surgery L4-S1. Like you I am in more pain than before. I have been on pain meds up until last weekend and they were not helping at all. My Surgeon wants me to go see a Pain Management doctor and I refuse to go after my 1st initial visit. They wanted to do the injections on me that I tried way before having my surgery and none of them worked. Since my surgery, my Surgeon has had me on Tramadol 50mg tablets 3 times a day (that are Opioids), and I was terrified to take them and slowly over time reduced the dosage myself and I was only taking a 1/2 a pill once a day along with two other prescriptions he gave to me Gabapentin 300mg Capsules (3 time's a day) and Cyclobenzaprine 10mg tablets for muscle spasms as often as needed.
In the beginning, before surgery he informed me I will not need to have physical therapy. But after a few months I asked him again and he informed me yes if I wanted to he will have me go to physical therapy. So I did it for 8 weeks and I was not feeling better at all. After I had physical therapy, the next day I would be in a lot more pain.
I ice my back everyday. Even when I sit still my lower back is hurting. It NEVER stops.
On my last appointment with my surgeon, I begged him to take out the equipment, that it hurts and I'm in worse pain than prior to surgery. He told me he could not do that. All of my equipment is Titanium. How do we go about getting the equipment removed? HELP PLEASE HELP!!!

Jump to this post

Thank you for your response. This is very helpful. Tomorrow will be my 1-year anniversary of having my Lower Spinal Back Fusion Surgery L4-S1. Like you I am in more pain than before. I have been on pain meds up until last weekend and they were not helping at all. My Surgeon wants me to go see a Pain Management doctor and I refuse to go after my 1st initial visit. They wanted to do the injections on me that I tried way before having my surgery and none of them worked. Since my surgery, my Surgeon has had me on Tramadol 50mg tablets 3 times a day (that are Opioids), and I was terrified to take them and slowly over time reduced the dosage myself and I was only taking a 1/2 a pill once a day along with two other prescriptions he gave to me Gabapentin 300mg Capsules (3 time's a day) and Cyclobenzaprine 10mg tablets for muscle spasms as often as needed.
In the beginning, before surgery he informed me I will not need to have physical therapy. But after a few months I asked him again and he informed me yes if I wanted to he will have me go to physical therapy. So I did it for 8 weeks and I was not feeling better at all. After I had physical therapy, the next day I would be in a lot more pain.
I ice my back everyday. Even when I sit still my lower back is hurting. It NEVER stops.
On my last appointment with my surgeon, I begged him to take out the equipment, that it hurts and I'm in worse pain than prior to surgery. He told me he could not do that. All of my equipment is Titanium. How do we go about getting the equipment removed? HELP PLEASE HELP!!!

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Hi Jennifer,
Thank you for that information. I will definitely check them out. I was told by my surgeon that I will be doing just fine and the pain I had prior to my surgery will be gone. He said Nerves do not like to be touched so it will take some time to heal. But this pain from the equipment is terrible. I just want to rip it out! When I am in the lake and just standing in the water and the water is above my waist, I have no pain at all. I told my husband, that's it, I just need to become a mermaid and live in the water. LOL He laughed.
It is so hard to move around. I'm limited. I'm 57 years old and I've never been in a bad accident or lifted anything heavy that caused me harm. The Surgeon seems to think it could be from my pregnancies (I had two children); and or just me getting older. I informed him I also have MS but I'm in remission for 3 years now. I was diagnosed back in 2011, but my first symptoms were in 2001.
I don't want to be addicted to any prescriptions and there has to be another way to be able to try to live a normal life.

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You have my sincere sympathies for your continued pain. I had a revision surgery July24,2023, at Mayo. The surgeon removed my prior hardware from fusion on L4-5, then extended down L5-S1, in a minimally invasive fusion. He prescribed 3 months of wearing a brace, doing only walking, PT after that. I had significant pain after my first fusion, it felt better after a few weeks, then the pain worsened and never improved. I don’t know if this will be the answer, but I am improving, the pain is less now. I feel a release from something, was the hardware touching a nerve? I feel it was. But in any case, it can be removed in revision surgery, get some consultations! Wishing you the best.

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Hi ga29,
Thank you for your response. That does give me some hope. Like you, I feel it's touching a nerve. My surgeon keeps telling me that Nerves do not like to be touched and they take a long time to recover. I understand that, but this is ridiculous. When he was informing me about the surgery before I had it, he made it sound like my pain will be gone and I will have no more pain and he did not inform me this could happen with what I'm dealing with now. There are so many times I really wish I didn't have the surgery and delt with the pain that I previously had. It was bad but not as bad as the pains I have now. I just want to rip it out!
I will definitely look into getting some consultations. Wishing you the best as well.

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Hi ga29,
Thank you for your response. That does give me some hope. Like you, I feel it's touching a nerve. My surgeon keeps telling me that Nerves do not like to be touched and they take a long time to recover. I understand that, but this is ridiculous. When he was informing me about the surgery before I had it, he made it sound like my pain will be gone and I will have no more pain and he did not inform me this could happen with what I'm dealing with now. There are so many times I really wish I didn't have the surgery and delt with the pain that I previously had. It was bad but not as bad as the pains I have now. I just want to rip it out!
I will definitely look into getting some consultations. Wishing you the best as well.

Jump to this post

@sapphireblue Welcome to Connect. I have not heard of spine surgeons willing to remove spine hardware except during revision surgery that likely places new hardware in place. If you cannot have hardware removed, there may be treatments to reduce the symptoms. There are Environmental Medicine doctors who treat metal immune responses and this field of medicine was started by a practice in Texas call the Environment Health Center Dallas. Here are 2 discussions where patents are discussing immune reaction problems with metal implants and a member who is undergoing treatment with the Environmental Health Center Dallas. Here are the links:

Joint REplacements - "Is there a hospital or Dr in US who understand metal allergies in TKR?"
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/is-there-a-hospital-or-dr-in-us-who-understand-metal-allergies-in-tkr/

Spine Health - "Metallosis of cervical disc replacement "
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/metallosis-of-cervical-disc-replacement/

Jump to this post