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  • Anyone had surgery to fuse vertebrae? Update on my back
  • vickypea
    Free Member

    A while ago I posted on here about my back problem as I was worried about symptoms I was developing in my legs and quite a few of you were very supportive. My previous GP shooed me away last year, but my new GP referred me to a neurosurgeon. Anyway, I have spondylolytic spondylolisthesis at L3/L4 with complete degeneration of the disc, while the nerves exiting at that level are pinched, which explains the muscle weakness in my legs as well as the pain. The neurosurgeon has offered to do surgery to fuse the 2 vertebrae and take the pressure off the nerves. We had a long talk about the benefits and risks and I’m going to go for it. I’m still riding my bike at the moment but the weakness and heaviness in my quads is seriously hampering my riding and it’s only temporarily relieved by physiotherapy. It’s been getting me down for a while.
    I was wondering if anyone on here has had similar surgery and what your experience was?

    jota180
    Free Member

    My wife had it done on her neck, they took a wedge of bone from her hip to do the fusing.

    She recovered very quickly and now doesn’t suffer the neck pain she did before so it’s been very successful
    She is likely to need the same OP on her back in the medium future

    nbt
    Full Member

    Not personally but I’ve had two friends who’ve gone through this and both have come out of the other side fine. Mail me if you’d like to talk to them and I’ll see if I can put you in touch

    dogtiredandwired
    Free Member

    My wife had it done eight years ago for the same reason, spondylolisthesis. At her worst, she couldn’t walk more than 100m before the op.
    She has just returned from cycling London to Paris.
    While there is still occasional back pain, it it is mostly of the ‘normal’ variety. The op has been an awesome success.
    At the end of the day, there are risks, and you need to heed advice of professionals, and make your own decision, but Mrs DTAW decided it was all about maintaining quality of life. Thankfully, she has never looked back.

    mulv1976
    Free Member

    It sounds like decompression and fusion of the unstable spondy is the way forward and I hope it goes well! BUT please don’t make the mistake of thinking that surgery is the magical cure for your back problems though – you will still need to work hard (if not harder) in maintaining your core strength and mobility.

    Hopefully you will have some decent post surgical physio/rehab as often fused verbebrae will lead to increased risk of problems at the levels above and below the fusion. Keep exercising those spinal stabilisers and you should maintain good spinal/core strength and continue being able to ride! Good luck

    globalti
    Free Member

    Mrs Gti has been laid up for almost a year now, unable to sit, drive, cycle or work, with back pain. She’s been diagnosed with spondylolisthesis in the very bottom vertebra where it joins the the sacrum. She is going to Pilates lessons but there’s no improvement. I wonder if we should see a neurosurgeon?

    vickypea
    Free Member

    Thanks everyone for your replies.
    Mulv1976 – I know it won’t be a miracle cure but if it can relieve some of the muscle weakness in my legs and some of the teeth-grittingly awful pain I’ll be happy. I’ve always had pretty reasonable core strength, and for the past year I’ve been doing Pilates and I’m very motivated to do whatever is required of me in rehabilitation exercises. Yes, I am a bit worried about loss of stability either side of the fusion – does building core strength help with that?

    jiseppy
    Free Member

    I had the very same op back in November 2011 and am now the proud owner of a set of titanium rods and bolts tucked away in my spine. In short, it’s the best decision I have ever made. The sciatic pain down my legs, the constant ache at the base of my spine – have all completely disappeared.

    Following the op, I lost a little bit of confidence on the bike (only natural I suppose!) but have slowly built my speed back up. Indeed, I was told that my back is stronger now than it ever has been.

    The only negative I can think of is that I’ve lost a little bit of flexibility, especially first thing in the morning. Putting shoes and socks on is slightly ‘awkward’. However, I do absolutely nothing about putting that right. Pilates would be a good start I imagine.

    I suffered for many years and can’t believe that I put up with the pain for so long.

    Best wishes,
    Joe.

    mulv1976
    Free Member

    Yes, I am a bit worried about loss of stability either side of the fusion – does building core strength help with that?

    Yes. It’s not only about core strength and stability tho. Making sure your movement patterns are good is key. They can all change with chronic back issues due to pain inhibition. The most common problem I see is not being able to ‘hip hinge’ properly ie bend through the hips due to poor hip flexibility and association of that movement with pain. As a consequence, hamstrings, hip flexors and low back can get tight, glutes become inhibited, and you get poor spinal stability and mobility due to bending through the lower back instead of keeping it neutral and moving through the hips.

    This is all very relevant if you want to keep riding. If you want to learn more, the guy at bikejames.com talks a lot of sense. Also Gray Cook and Stuart McGill.

    Sandwich
    Full Member

    You might need to consider a Full Sus bike afterwards to reduce the battering of your back/neck. How you convince Mr Pea is another matter.

    vickypea
    Free Member

    Sandwich- Mr Pea has already been looking at decent full suss bikes for me, provided the op goes ok. He says I should treat myself, so provided the surgery helps, and I do all the right Physio and rehab afterwards, I will get a full susser! 😀

    Thanks to Joe and all of you who’ve said you benefitted from the surgery. Although I know it’s not a cure-all, you have to go into these things with a positive attitude.

    Mulv- thanks for the extra info. I will look into it. I do have tight hamstrings, but I’m still pretty flexible after all the gymnastics and yoga I’ve done (it was probably the gymnastics that have me the spondylolysis in the first place!)

    flossie
    Free Member

    Mr Pea has already been weighing up ladylike Santa Cruz!
    He needs no excuse to add to to the Pea bike collection! (X +1)
    Mr Pea’s only real concern is that Mrs Pea will still be able to reach the bars on her lovely carbon road bike and he won’t need to add stem spacers…. The ‘pro look’ must be maintained!!!

    (Thanks for all the advice singletrackers, it’s greatly appreciated by a concerned partner!)

    Mr Pea

    captaincarbon
    Free Member

    2005 had C4-5 fused with hip bone graft and carbonfibe cage to surround the spine. Lost use of arms and legs before the op, was done as an emergency, basically borked my cervical spine from C4 to C7, ^ hour op, and walked out of ther 2 days later. Had a collar brace to wear for the next 3 months.
    Been fine now, some limit to rotational nect range of motion, and cannot extend head back to far, so have had to change position on the road bikes a bit. Cant run without electric shopck felling through every body joint now – and dont have much knee lift so can catch my feet and trip if I dont concentrate – but vast improvement pre surgery!
    Only ever really rode hardtail, but seriously thinking of a full suss now, but that may be due to being a bit of an old fatty!

    mulv1976
    Free Member

    (it was probably the gymnastics that have me the spondylolysis in the first place!)

    You’re probably right. Most spondys occur in teenage years while the spine is still developing and typically in those doing sports such as gymnastics or horse riding at a high level.

    vickypea
    Free Member

    Captaincarbon- that sounds very scary but glad you got an improvement from the op.

    mattk
    Free Member

    I had L1 and L2 fused together when I was 17 and have not had any complications ( I’m now 35). It’s certainly never affected my cycling.

    Doctors said I’d lose about 3 degrees of movement but I never noticed. Got a sweet scar though!

    nemesis
    Free Member

    Just to add that as an ex rower, I know three people who have had this done at the lower spine and all three were able to continue to row once they recovered.

    therevokid
    Free Member

    had l3 and l4 fused 20+ years ago … I can still ride my roadie in
    almost “pro” stylee … 🙂
    Yes there’s lots of core strength and flexibility work I now have to
    do but I’d rather be able to ride than the mess I was before … 🙂

    ryreed
    Free Member

    It’s not really the same situation but my mother had a complete anterior and posterior spinal fusion (sacrum to neck – front and back) about 4 years ago. She had very severe scoliosis and had been suffering from a great deal of pain for years. In the end the curve in her spine had caused many of the vertebrae to become unstable and weak meaning that a partial fusion would only place unbearable stress on the remaining ‘free’ vertebrae. Her surgery was in the region of 15hrs.

    The reason I am telling you this is that, despite the extent of the fusion, as a women in her 50s she made a good recovery and is now suffering a great deal less pain. She has almost zero mobility in her spine, but despite this it has improved her quality of life no end. It’s incredible what can be done and she has been assured that her back is stronger than it ever would have been before. I’m sure it will be fine and I hope you get the results you want – I’m sure you will.

    grantway
    Free Member

    I busted my L2 – L3 – L5 and in shit loads of pain some years past
    But I went to see a Private guy instead of surgery I went to this guy
    Whom advised me surgery is the last thing to have on my back

    So with the correct muscle exercises, over roughly 5 months all is good

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