Fused spines, riding and life in general.
 

I'm looking for some personal experiences here.

Anyone have parts of their spine fused and still ride? How about life in general?

My story is now 2 1/2 yrs. old and many here have read it but here goes:

July 24, 2013: crashed and broke my neck. Had C1 & C2 fused....two 5 hr. operations and 8 days in hospital. Back on the bike in November of 2013 and averaging 100 mi./wk the last two season. Have lost some ROM but generally doing just fine on the bike.

Thx. I'm looking at C2-3 and L4-5-6 (already had surgery on the Lumbar spine a decade ago. Thus would be round 2).

I ride with two fusions. One C4-6, the other L3-5, along with two hip replacements. (Rock climbing accident many years ago.) I got back to cycling 4 years ago and quickly realized that flexibility is the biggest issue. After lots of time in the gym and more time stretching I was able to get back to riding a road bike. (TCR) The limiting factor for me is a minor cord injury, which limits my rides to about 3 hours. It's not something that can be fixed by better bike fit or conditioning.

Thx. I was concerned about the loss in range of motion.

I assume the riding is now pain free?

I have 2 levels fused, L4-L5 and L5-S1, autologus grafts, cages for the bone that is in place, 2 plates running the length of the 2 levels held on with 2 screws each. Graft material was taken from my left sacrum, all the hardware is Ti, so no need for the ID card, some get from their doctor, to go through airport security. Riding is no problem at all, I ride drop bar/road exclusively, I never have had to cut a ride short, stop or cancel a ride due to the spinal fusions. No restrictions to motion, granted my grafts are pretty low so my neck had full range of motion.

I'd recommend the operation I had, a PLIF, to anyone with serious disk collapse or impingement problems without hesitation. I had paralysis in my Rt leg and constant pain throughout my spine and the Lt leg from the time I injured the spine in Oct 1989, until the surgery was performed in Jan 2004. Now the pain is gone, completely, and mu Rt leg is fully functional. Best of luck if you do have the surgery to fuse any level(s), I had 2 fasciectomies (sp?), and 5 of the injections/nerve blocks, that all failed quickly.

Bill

Wow, that's more responses than I would have expected. Best wishes to all.

Thx. That's very helpful. I'll do some research and talk with my doctor about this.

EDIT: After doing some research I realized that this was exactly what my doctor was talking about. I go back in 2 weeks for the final decision.

I don't have any fused vertebrae, but I did have L2 And L4 essentially shatter when I was hit in 2014. They are permanently deformed but not enough to indicate surgery.

Riding the bike is one activity I can continue to enjoy... the road bike is pretty neutral on my back, though I do not have much serious climbing near me to really test it.

It's the climbing that really kills me and I live in a very mountainous area.

I had an L5-S1 fusion in 2004. I ride and race quite a lot and I train pretty hard. I have some other bad discs at other levels which flare up every now and again. It affects nearly everything else in my life except cycling. On the bike is the only time when I can't feel the pain sometimes.

I had the PLIF procedure as well. I waited nearly 2 years of doing conservative treatment before taking the plunge and getting the surgery. I wish I hadn't waited. All of those other things, like injections and nerve blocks, etc., didn't do much. Plan to have a few months off if you do it. It was about 3 months for me.

This will be my second spinal surgery. The first one was over 10 years ago and I raced for a few seasons after that.

Now my discs are all but gone. If I ride I lose feeling in my hands and have a hard time walking for sevral hours and pain for a day or two. Simply not kewl. Surgery is the only real option left for me. I was hoping that it wouldn't be the end of all physical activity as my doctor is suggesting.

Hope that the gouge I gave you helped a somewhat, Bob. My neighbor, across the street, is waiting the insurance company's Peer to Peer review for his PLIF procedure, at the same levels as mine were, and by the same neurosurgeon. We talked about my experience a good bit after he was injured. The whole long drawn out insurance process for this work is annoying, and pain is prolonged for months in most cases, here in the states. Mine went 2 months of tests, and reviews, in order to to get approval.

I hope that your health care is faster than ours, for getting things underway, no one should have to put up with pain of this magnitude, and all the other symptoms that accompany disk failures and shattered,fractured vertebrae. Best of luck on what ever you decide, Bob, please keep us informed as to how things go for you. If you want any other input from my experience, please don't hesitate to send a PM, or email, and I'll be glad to talk with you about what the whole thing was like and what it involved for me.

I had L5 S1 fusion nearly 2 years ago, cage plate screws done through my stomach. Despite my best efforts to strengthen my core and overall fitness before the op I degraded to the point of total paralysis from the waist down if I walked 1 or 200 meters with pain 24 hours a day.
Funny thing is I could ride a bike 3 or 4 hours until moderate pain started and actually rode the day before the day of the operation. I would describe the recovery as pure hell that no one seemed to understand also costing me my job but now I'm pretty good walking 10km's nearly everyday like I did before my injury and quite active otherwise. My back can still get sore if I over do it but it's just muscle pain, I could and should do more core exercise now, I keep thinking about that :D and need another job now but this time of year is bad for employment in my line of work but I'll get there.
Then there's all the painful treatments and procedures I had for 3 years leading up to the fusion that I wont go in to here, it's to much trying to remember or wanting to remember so I'll leave it except to say it was all pure hell :twitchy:

http://i.imgur.com/kex0Uxy.png

Thanks for the feedback on this. I'm hearing experiences that are quite similar to mine although I couldn't ride before my first surgery a decade ago and I can't ride now. My disc are basically gone and I'm left with bone on bone as well as Spurs that are compressing the nerves.

The good news is that it seems like recovery is possible although I don't expect to be able to do anything like the intensity or duration of riding I used to.

I don't have pain from the fusion, just the residual problem from the cord injury. - Chest pain that mimics a mild heart attack. It show up about 3-4 hours in to the ride. Yeah, it's as fun as it sounds.

Interesting timing....I just had anterior cervical discectomy and fusion surgery of C3 and C4 last Thursday. So far pain free but other than bed rest and moping about the house I have not done anything physical. The thought of riding (actually going down in a crash) in a group gives me the jitters for the first time ever though.

-j