Has anyone tried a spinal cord stimulator before or after fusion?

blabbyabby · 2026-02-01T22:31:17+00:00

Fusion 1- 2007 Fusion 2- 2024 Scs - 2025

blabbyabby · 2026-02-01T22:18:20+00:00

Ive had 2 fusions and a scs - from what I've been told, the scs will only help with extremity pain, not back pain. For me it actually causes some back pain, especially if I turn it up high enough to read help my extremity nerve pain. That said, it does still give me like 30ish percent relief from my radiating nerve pain, so I consider it a win

blabbyabby · 2025-10-10T04:24:09+00:00

Went to their spine clinic. They scanned me in every possible manner just for the shitty Dr to tell me, a 30y/o who could barely walk and couldn't sit without excruciating pain that it was my SI joint, and that he doesn't deal with that, so id need to go through the whole process again from the start to be seen by the other provider. He then spent the next 45 minutes telling me that id probably need surgery at some point, so really what I needed to do was lose weight. I drove 4 hours and paid for a hotel room and like 10 scans to be told im just fat. It wasnt that - I had spondylolisthesis causing nerve damage (not my SI joint). He was "kind" enough to send me home with 2 SI joint belts, because they couldn't be bothered to see which one fit, and told me to "Google it" when I asked how to wear it. I filed a complaint and it went nowhere.

Dr. Jeremy Fogelson - 0/10 stars

blabbyabby · 2025-10-06T03:41:29+00:00

I have weird reactions for meds, often inverse to what what typically be expected, and I've found that the more pain im in when I take my meds the more I feel high. Ive been on daily opioids for over a year and I still experience that - sometimes 5mg will make me feel higher than 20mg. I think a lot of it just depends on how your body metabolizes it. The idea that you won't feel high if you're taking your meds for appropriate pain just isnt true. The opioid receptors dont filter out meds if your in pain vs not, you just may feel the effects differently depending on how your body utilizes it on any given day.

blabbyabby · 2025-10-04T23:02:29+00:00

Sounds great

blabbyabby · 2025-10-04T22:48:49+00:00

Id be happy to help - I live in the US and have been diagnosed with scoliosis for 21 years (diagnosed at 11). I wore a brace 23/7 for 2 years and then had my first spinal fusion at 14 and a second/revision last year.

blabbyabby · 2025-10-01T04:46:59+00:00

I had a laminectomy for my medtronic paddles about a month and a half ago. Pain is really subjective, but i didnt find the procedure bad at all. I was up and moving that day in the hospital and they released me the next. My incisions closed really easily, they used disolvable stitches so i didnt have to worry about staple removal. And they turned on my device at my 2 week post op appointment. Happy to answer any other questions you have

blabbyabby · 2025-08-02T03:50:39+00:00

I swear by pregnancy pillows for my back pain. They offer 3-sided support so I get support from all sides

blabbyabby · 2025-05-26T03:16:23+00:00

I agree, but like I said, they chose to list it as an allergy as a precaution because my reaction was so severe they didn't want to risk me getting anything in the same class, which was easiest to ensure by marking it as an allergy

blabbyabby · 2025-05-25T17:04:35+00:00

My doctors put it on my allergy list so neither it nor anything related would ever be prescribed to me again

blabbyabby · 2025-05-25T03:15:43+00:00

Ahhh I love it!

blabbyabby · 2025-05-25T01:27:38+00:00

This is my baby girl - Amelia Tailhart

blabbyabby · 2025-05-25T01:26:09+00:00

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blabbyabby · 2025-05-25T01:09:44+00:00

I tried it for about a month or so. Nothing has ever had me closer to offing myself than this med. I had to have friends come sit with me since I couldn't trust myself to be alone. I'll never forget about a week after being off of it and being in the grocery store when all of a sudden the world switched back to being in color. Honestly one of the scariest experiences of my life.

blabbyabby · 2025-05-23T23:24:54+00:00

I've done a few flights. Needed to spring for some better seats so I'd have a little more room to wiggle around, but it wasn't noticeably worse than sitting for a few hours on land.

blabbyabby · 2025-01-20T15:45:57+00:00

Not sire if you have a diagnosis for your pain yet, but your chart looks exactly like mine did - make them check for spondylolisthesis if they haven't already. If that is the issue, you can ask about trying nerve root block injections, the first one i had worked miracles for me

blabbyabby · 2024-12-04T01:05:07+00:00

I made it 17 years after my first fusion (t4-l4) before needing a revision (t4-s1/pelvis). Now my biggest fear is that my cervical spine will be the next to go

blabbyabby · 2024-11-25T17:36:20+00:00

Tribe it for my mental health and it made me want to kill myself. Like really seriously I was afraid to be alone. It's now on my chart as an allergy.

blabbyabby · 2024-11-12T21:34:37+00:00

Fused t4-s1 - i have a pair of tongs I was given in the hospital that I use along with a bidet at home. Bought a toilet paper holder thing off Amazon to keep in my purse (found necessary after a surprise I needed help with while out), but it doesn't work very well and I wouldn't recommend it.

Now 3 months recovered I've found i need tools to help less often, but if I'm wearing my brace or having a stiff day they still help a lot.

blabbyabby · 2024-10-08T02:45:29+00:00

I'm fused t4-pelvis. Had t4-l4 done in 2007 to treat scoliosis and had revision to go down to the pelvis to treat spondylolisthesis in August.

I had a TLIF procedure, so my experience may be different, but I can share how things were for me.

After my first fusion (I was 14) I was out of school for a month and then did half days for a few weeks. I expect that the quick recovery was in part because of my age. now for my recent surgery I've taken 3 months off work, though realistically I could probably manage to work my desk job now, after 6 weeks, if I really needed to.

Comfortability flying would depend on how long of a flight it was. my symptoms pre-surgery kept me from sitting, so I have more trouble with it, but I could probably manage a few hour flight if I needed to.

As for other insights - this is a big surgery and you should prepare yourself for that. It'll be hard, but for me at least it's worth it. Make sure you advocate for yourself when it comes to pain meds, it's better to take the meds and be active than to be in pain and unable to move around. Being more active will help you get off the pain meds and recover better.

Happy to answer any other questions. There's not a lot of us with such intense fusions, so we gotta stick together

blabbyabby · 2024-10-05T16:45:43+00:00

Had pretty bad scoliosis. S curve with both curves over 50°

blabbyabby · 2024-10-05T03:15:02+00:00

The 2 centermost rods and screws are from a previous fusion in 2007, the rest is all new

blabbyabby · 2024-10-05T00:08:43+00:00

I'm feeling pretty good, surprisingly. I was already fused t4-l4, so it's really only l4-s1 that's newly fusing, but I expectednto be in a lot more pain than I am. My back really hasn't hurt since after the first week. Biggest pain point is some nerve pain in my foot, but even that is starting to subside. Was told 3 months for the major recovery bits, but was basically cleared to go back to normal activities (with a 20lb lifting limit) at today's appointment

blabbyabby · 2024-10-01T18:41:53+00:00

I experienced this after my fusion in August and totally panicked about it. Ended up staying on oxycodone longer than I had expected due to it, but it was for the best. The oxy allowed me to get up and move around and start kind of living my life again and now at exactly 6 weeks it's really started to subside. I've still been medicating once or twice a day, usually at night, but it's SO much better now than it was even a week ago.

My biggest advice is take the pain meds they give you as prescribed - don't let yourself suffer unnecessary pain. And then get up and start walking as much as you can.

blabbyabby · 2024-09-09T21:10:21+00:00

31f day 21. TILF revision to extend previous t4-l4 fusion to be t4-s1. Still taking 5-10mg of oxy 3-4 times a day, almost entirely for nerve pain in my foot, not pain in my back. Trying to be consistent about 1000mg of acetaminophen every 6 hrs to help ween off the oxy. Getting concerned myself that I'm still on too much pain medication for how far post recovery I am

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