Options for broken rod in my spinal repair

@woojr Hello. I am a spine surgery patient too, but I do not have instrumented hardware. You've undoubtedly been through some big surgeries and I hope that has helped you a lot.

Is your last spine surgeon still practicing? If so, you may want to direct your question to them. I understand your concerns, but only your specialists have the information about your health and knowledge about your surgeries as well as the expertise to answer the question. Here, you can find support from patients in similar circumstances, but no one here can advise what is best for you. That must be a conversation between your specialist and yourself.

If you need another surgeon's opinion, you may want to search for a good deformity specialist who does instrumented spine surgeries. My spine surgeon at Mayo is a deformity specialist.

Would you want another surgeon to go in and fix that, or just want to know if that's necessary?

Jennifer

Actually my experience with the surgeon was not good. My surgery was just as the pandemic was beginning. The follow ups by phone were terrible. In short I needed a hip replacement for the pain I was having. That was misdiagnosed by my orthopedic doc before the second spine surgery. So the spine surgeon was very convincing about the condition of my spine. Post surgery visits after the covid shutdown were of no help. Over the last four years I've been dealing with chronic pain that's limited standing and walking. What I was looking for here was perhaps someone's experience with broken rods. I've had a lot surgeries, most recently a hip replacement which helped the terrible pain in that hip. But, the pain in my back has worked its way down into both hips. The X-rays were taken from the recent spine injections. I'll probably be getting ablations in that area next month. Thank you for the deformity specialist suggestion, I'll be looking into that today. As far as "going in and fixing it", I really don't want to go under anesthesia ever again. I had many after effects from the back surgeries for a year or longer. Things like numbness and pain. I would like to know if the break would lead to the other side breaking or bending and causing extreme pain causing an emergency room visit. I'm hoping someone has actual experience. Thanks again, John

@woojr John, thank you for the clarification. I think a spine deformity specialist would be the only one with the expertise to predict if your spine hardware could cause further problems. I understand why you don't want more surgery. I wouldn't either, but I also don't know if some of your symptoms could be helped. A hip replacement is a big surgery too. Have you worked with a physical therapist? I kind of expect that would have been in your treatment plan.

One type of physical therapy that helps me a lot is myofascial release. Some pain is created by scar tissue and surgery creates a lot of that. That may be something you want to explore. Here is our discussion on MFR:
Neuropathy - "Myofascial Release Therapy (MFR) for treating compression and pain"
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/
You can find listings for certified MFR therapists at http://mfrtherapists.com/

I hope you find something that helps.
Jennifer

I had the hip replacement 3-22-2022. I was officially diagnosed and made an appointment early November 2021.
My first date was Jan 18th but the hospital shut down electives for two months. I was in agony, could barely walk when I finally had the replacement. It was the easiest procedure I ever had. I was 5-11 before the problems began. When I entered the prep on the 22nd I was 5-8. I left the hospital 5pm, 5-6 hours after the surgery and I could walk straight, measuring 5-10 tall. I could walk up the steps to our second floor bedroom that night. I started PT the next day. The pain was almost all gone in my hip. My doctor was a different doctor than previously said I didn't need the hip replacement (but I ended up with the metal half way up my spine.)
I'll review your links, thank you again.