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Harrington rods and complications

Posted by lisa7777 @lisa7777, Jul 1, 2020

I am new here but like many of you I had scoliosis resulting in surgery, and Harrington Rods .I was 15 and I am 59. I had 48 degree curve in my thoracic area. For the last 14 yrs. I have numerous other spine problems. everything above and below my rods is starting to give me issues. I've been in pain management for yrs. I just need someone to tell me that the problems I'm having now are the results of having spinal fusion 45yrs. ago when I wasn't done growing

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Profile picture for nlback22
nlback22 | @nlback22 | Jul 12 10:14am

Cori,
Should you decide to get a second opinion, ask Dr. Mitsunaga whom he would recommend and ask for a referral--a referral is especially helpful if you go to Mayo.
Be certain to check with your health plan to see if your insurance will cover you especially if you go out of network.

My sister that lives on Kauai, needed a hip surgery due to cancer. Because no one on Oahu had experience in doing the needed surgery, her health plan approved her going to UCLA. This was a rare circumstance.

REPLY
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rwdixon4 | @rwdixon4 | Jul 13 11:13am
In reply to @scoliosisgirl "I had surgery for scoliosis with Harrington rod in 1978 when I was 20 years old...." + (show)
Profile picture for scoliosisgirl @scoliosisgirl

I had surgery for scoliosis with Harrington rod in 1978 when I was 20 years old. My curve was measured as 48 degrees and located in my thoracic spine. I have been having increasing pain above and blow my fusion for the last five years. I am being seen by a Doctor at Duke now who has been working with scoliosis patients who had surgery in early adulthood and are now having problems. First doctor to really validate my pain. I can not stand or walk longer than 10-15 minutes because of low back pain and bilateral leg pain. I hope this helps you in some way and feel free to reach out to me.

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I take 15mg of oxycodone 3 times a day and need more to allow me to stand make meals, I am trying to get in to Mayo to see Dr for further spine fusion. I have had L3 L4 & L4 L5 fused I have read here on Mayo connect a woman had a fusion of T10 thru L4 L5 that fixed her 45 degree scoliosis curve and gave her total pain relief. My Scoliosis was 45 degrees with a trunk rotation of 7 cm almost 2 years ago. I am waiting for the Surgeon that is reviewing my films to reply. I am hoping that it is not to advanced to be repaired with minimally invasive surgery?

REPLY
Profile picture for rwdixon4
rwdixon4 | @rwdixon4 | Jul 13 11:39am
In reply to @nlback22 "Hi Cori, I suggest you first see what treatment Dr. Mitsunaga recommends. He did his Spine..." + (show)
Profile picture for nlback22 @nlback22

Hi Cori,
I suggest you first see what treatment Dr. Mitsunaga recommends.
He did his Spine Fellowships at 2 well respected schools.

If you decide go to Mayo, they will want to see prior scans--MRI and Xrays-- before accepting you as a patient.

I live in California and went to Minnesota to see Fogelson due to his experience in operations on patients with Harrington Rods and Complex Degenerative spines. I hope your spine is not as bad as mine.
(I will attach copies of my xrays. )

I had 2 surgeries.
May 13 2025- Day one-- Sacroilliac Fusions due to arthritis and resulting pain from my Sacroilliac joints.( 2 hour surgery)
May 14 2025-Day two--
Spinal fusion plus doctor made wedges in 3 vertebrae to improve spinal alignment (11 hours)
Immediately after surgery, my prior chronic back pain was gone, as well as my nerve pain.
However, I did experience pain at the surgical site for awhile. And I had some hypersentivity in my nerves in that area for about a week.
But by week 4-5 almost all surgical pain went away. However, it has been, and still is, difficult to sit for very long before my back gets sore. But the time that I can sit has increased. (Now it is week 8.) I still lay down and ice 3-5 times a day--it helps to relax my back.

During my surgery, Dr. Fogelson was able to free up my nerves that were being pinched by my various vertebrae. So, since surgery, I was concerned when I started to feel my right leg nerve pain develop and increase with more activity. (numbness and weird sensations). But I was told this is common and should disappear.🙏

By week 6, I have been taking mile long walks. I take at least 3 walk a day, including the mile walk with some shorter walks.

As other spine patients have stated-- no bending, twisting, and lifting will be a way of life.

As it takes 1 1/2 to 2 years for the spine to fully fuse I will have to be very mindful of what I do.

Since you are in Honolulu. I also want to mention that some scoliosis patients have gone to see Dr. McClendon at Mayo, in Phoenix. I am not certain how much experience he has with cases like yours.

Let's keep in touch. I hope you get good news!

Best Wishes!
Nadine

Attachments--
1) xray before my latest surgery
2 and 3) post 2025 surgery

Jump to this post

This is so encouraging I want to be able to do this so much
By week 6, I have been taking mile long walks. I take at least 3 walk a day, including the mile walk with some shorter walk.
At 68 I want to travel and see places and things in the US and Internationally this is the time in our lives we all look forward to!!!

Not to stay home walk with a cane in pain 24 - 7 it's no way to live. No quality of life.

I am hoping Dr. McClendon at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix will accept me and get the T10 T11 thru L1 L2 fusion to hopefully allow me to walk like you a mile a day or MORE?

Thank you for your post and healing prayers go out to you ! ! !

REPLY
2 replies
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nlback22 | @nlback22 | Jul 14 7:45am
In reply to @rwdixon4 "This is so encouraging I want to be able to do this so much By week..." + (show)
Profile picture for rwdixon4 @rwdixon4

This is so encouraging I want to be able to do this so much
By week 6, I have been taking mile long walks. I take at least 3 walk a day, including the mile walk with some shorter walk.
At 68 I want to travel and see places and things in the US and Internationally this is the time in our lives we all look forward to!!!

Not to stay home walk with a cane in pain 24 - 7 it's no way to live. No quality of life.

I am hoping Dr. McClendon at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix will accept me and get the T10 T11 thru L1 L2 fusion to hopefully allow me to walk like you a mile a day or MORE?

Thank you for your post and healing prayers go out to you ! ! !

Jump to this post

Hello RW,
I am sorry to hear that you are in so much pain.
Based upon my experience you will get the help that you need. Mayo physicians like challenging cases. (I wouldn't be concerned whether it is minimally invasive or not.)

From the time I made my initial call to Mayo, and gathered the requested records, it took about 6-8 weeks, til I received an acceptance call.
We are about the same age, and I was in chronic pain. Like you, this is the time in our lives, where my husband and I planned to be traveling the world.
I will get there, but I may be traveling a little differently!
I send you good wishes, hoping you get a positive response soon so you can be on your way to living the life you dreamed.
Thank you for your prayers and I will be praying for you.🙏

Best wishes!
Nadine

REPLY
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sherrym25 | @sherrym25 | Jul 15 3:28pm
In reply to @rwdixon4 "This is so encouraging I want to be able to do this so much By week..." + (show)
Profile picture for rwdixon4 @rwdixon4

This is so encouraging I want to be able to do this so much
By week 6, I have been taking mile long walks. I take at least 3 walk a day, including the mile walk with some shorter walk.
At 68 I want to travel and see places and things in the US and Internationally this is the time in our lives we all look forward to!!!

Not to stay home walk with a cane in pain 24 - 7 it's no way to live. No quality of life.

I am hoping Dr. McClendon at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix will accept me and get the T10 T11 thru L1 L2 fusion to hopefully allow me to walk like you a mile a day or MORE?

Thank you for your post and healing prayers go out to you ! ! !

Jump to this post

@rwdixon4 dr. McClendon staff are wonderful. I did find that I was able to move things along quicker by reaching out to them and checking in. 😊

REPLY
Profile picture for rwdixon4
rwdixon4 | @rwdixon4 | Jul 15 4:04pm

I know there is a way for me to look at my x-rays on here. Dr McLendon's team got them 6/17/25 and I have seen them but can't find my way back to them? Are yours on here I would be very interested in seeing them before and after?

REPLY
3 replies
Profile picture for Jennifer, Volunteer Mentor
Mentor
Jennifer, Volunteer Mentor | @jenniferhunter | Jul 15 10:06pm
In reply to @nlback22 "Hi Cori, I suggest you first see what treatment Dr. Mitsunaga recommends. He did his Spine..." + (show)
Profile picture for nlback22 @nlback22

Hi Cori,
I suggest you first see what treatment Dr. Mitsunaga recommends.
He did his Spine Fellowships at 2 well respected schools.

If you decide go to Mayo, they will want to see prior scans--MRI and Xrays-- before accepting you as a patient.

I live in California and went to Minnesota to see Fogelson due to his experience in operations on patients with Harrington Rods and Complex Degenerative spines. I hope your spine is not as bad as mine.
(I will attach copies of my xrays. )

I had 2 surgeries.
May 13 2025- Day one-- Sacroilliac Fusions due to arthritis and resulting pain from my Sacroilliac joints.( 2 hour surgery)
May 14 2025-Day two--
Spinal fusion plus doctor made wedges in 3 vertebrae to improve spinal alignment (11 hours)
Immediately after surgery, my prior chronic back pain was gone, as well as my nerve pain.
However, I did experience pain at the surgical site for awhile. And I had some hypersentivity in my nerves in that area for about a week.
But by week 4-5 almost all surgical pain went away. However, it has been, and still is, difficult to sit for very long before my back gets sore. But the time that I can sit has increased. (Now it is week 8.) I still lay down and ice 3-5 times a day--it helps to relax my back.

During my surgery, Dr. Fogelson was able to free up my nerves that were being pinched by my various vertebrae. So, since surgery, I was concerned when I started to feel my right leg nerve pain develop and increase with more activity. (numbness and weird sensations). But I was told this is common and should disappear.🙏

By week 6, I have been taking mile long walks. I take at least 3 walk a day, including the mile walk with some shorter walks.

As other spine patients have stated-- no bending, twisting, and lifting will be a way of life.

As it takes 1 1/2 to 2 years for the spine to fully fuse I will have to be very mindful of what I do.

Since you are in Honolulu. I also want to mention that some scoliosis patients have gone to see Dr. McClendon at Mayo, in Phoenix. I am not certain how much experience he has with cases like yours.

Let's keep in touch. I hope you get good news!

Best Wishes!
Nadine

Attachments--
1) xray before my latest surgery
2 and 3) post 2025 surgery

Jump to this post

@nlback22 Nadine, I couldn't agree with you more about what an excellent surgeon Dr. Fogelson is. My surgery with him was simple compared to your scoliosis procedure, but he was the only surgeon out of 6 who examined me who got my diagnosis correct and offered to help me. If you look at his education, he was the top of his class and recognized for excellence all throughout his college experience and beyond. I'm glad to hear how much relief you got from your surgery right away. I know there are some residual issues related to inflammation with healing that you're going through, but as they said, that should get better in time. Thanks for sharing your experience here to help other patients. Walking 3 miles a day so soon after surgery! Bravo! That will also help you heal as it increases the oxygen absorption in your body. I don't know that I could walk that far every day, but some of that is because of seriously breaking my ankle 5 years ago. I kind of like to let my horse do the walking for me which also has benefits for core strength.

REPLY
1 reply
Profile picture for nlback22
nlback22 | @nlback22 | Jul 16 9:21am
In reply to @jenniferhunter "@nlback22 Nadine, I couldn't agree with you more about what an excellent surgeon Dr. Fogelson is...." + (show)
Profile picture for Jennifer, Volunteer Mentor @jenniferhunter

@nlback22 Nadine, I couldn't agree with you more about what an excellent surgeon Dr. Fogelson is. My surgery with him was simple compared to your scoliosis procedure, but he was the only surgeon out of 6 who examined me who got my diagnosis correct and offered to help me. If you look at his education, he was the top of his class and recognized for excellence all throughout his college experience and beyond. I'm glad to hear how much relief you got from your surgery right away. I know there are some residual issues related to inflammation with healing that you're going through, but as they said, that should get better in time. Thanks for sharing your experience here to help other patients. Walking 3 miles a day so soon after surgery! Bravo! That will also help you heal as it increases the oxygen absorption in your body. I don't know that I could walk that far every day, but some of that is because of seriously breaking my ankle 5 years ago. I kind of like to let my horse do the walking for me which also has benefits for core strength.

Jump to this post

Hi Jennifer,
I completely agree with your thoughts on Dr. Jeremy Fogelson. I originally heard about him through you and after a lot of research, I decided to schedule a consultation last year.

I am so excited about my progress! I wasn't clear in my comments about how far I can walk. I just do one 1 mile walk, and 2 to 3 shorter walks a day.

Thanks for your encouragement and guidance you give all of us!

Best Wishes!
Nadine

REPLY
1 reply
Profile picture for nlback22
nlback22 | @nlback22 | Jul 16 9:33am
In reply to @rwdixon4 "I know there is a way for me to look at my x-rays on here. Dr..." + (show)
Profile picture for rwdixon4 @rwdixon4

I know there is a way for me to look at my x-rays on here. Dr McLendon's team got them 6/17/25 and I have seen them but can't find my way back to them? Are yours on here I would be very interested in seeing them before and after?

Jump to this post

Hi RW,
Sign into your Mayo, Patient Portal,
Then go to "Test Results".

You should see your images there. They are listed in date order, with the date the images were actually taken, not the date Mayo received them. If they don't show yet, maybe they haven't been uploaded yet.

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