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My 76-year-old mother has been through the whole range of procedures. She had a C3-C7 spinal fusion last year, a six hour surgery. Her hospital stay was supposed to only be about 3 nights but ended up being 5 because she got hospital delerium. I was worried she’d overdose on her pain meds alone at home. (I won’t stay with her because her house is borderline hoarded). Physically she did well for someone her age, a life long smoker since teen years. Her post op recovery required me to help her shower and change dressings on her two incisions. She was back to driving in a few weeks, and some lifting and twisting restrictions for awhile. Several follow up X-rays done. Ongoing osteoporosis treatment to make sure her hardware stays in place.

As she was headed to surgery, urgently, her thoracic spine began hurting. They were so worried about her neck they delayed addressing it. Imaging reveals lots of degeneration, old compression fractures etc. . So far she’s had two MBB injections and a spinal nerve ablation. It didn’t work. Those were fairly “easy” procedures. Just being briefly sedated at the surgeon office, a day or two of pain or burning (esp after the ablation). But much less of an ordeal.
They now want to implant a pain pump, which seems to be a pretty involved day surgery and recovery, with much maintenance and tweaking of med dose etc. She so far had said no to this and I agree. They only aim for partial pain reduction, and some people have some real problems with it. I hope to ask her PCP soon about palliative care program.
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Reply to Oedgar23
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These are questions you need to discuss with her PCP, orthopedics and her surgeon. I don’t think this can be reasonably addressed in this forum.
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Reply to RLWG54
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I’ve had serious scoliosis all my life, just not quite to the point where I would have had spinal surgery as a teenager. I’m glad I didn’t, because by now (age 76) the surgery is often giving people worse trouble than I have now, breaking down where the implants join the body. I looked up both the procedures you mentioned, and they both seem ‘less risk’ but still ‘some risk’ of serious troubles. For more surgery on my own back, I wouldn’t touch it. ‘Better the devil you know’.

I’d certainly get more than one recommendation. Some orthopedic surgeons are a bit too keen to go (it's their job), and some are keener than others. I'd ask for 'best case', 'worst case', and 'average case', and compare them with 'now'. Your choice.
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Reply to MargaretMcKen
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I had a pain pump installed and the first day it malfunctioned. Could barely breathe and was rushed to the hospital where it was immediately turned off. Turned out the pump malfunctioned and the initial dose (bolus) of Dilaudid was way too much I found out later that this is not uncommon and could be fatal. Had it removed immediately before anything more could happen.

Just a cautionary tale...
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Reply to AnnetteCook
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Yes, I think it is called rhizotomy?
( radio frequency ablation )and my husband had it done two years ago but it was somewhat helpful for a year or so.
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Reply to Evamar
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I would research this online to get enough information to form good questions, then meet with the doctors involved in order to be fully medically informed by the medical team. When asking a Forum of strangers you tend to get anecdotal individual experiences which vary both in reality and in the retelling. That is certain something to weigh in and to help you form questions, but the best answers will come from a medical team. Expert advice requires experts to answer.
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Reply to AlvaDeer
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