Daughter having kyphosis surgery...
Hi all,
So my 15 year old daughter is scheduled to have spinal surgery for kyphosis (congenitally connected vertebrae in her lumbar spine that causes a forward curve) in February. She will be having the vertebrae separated and then connected with rods. I would appreciate feedback from those who have had spinal surgery regarding questions they made sure they asked their doctors or wished they had asked. I'm so nervous I'm going to overlook asking something obvious. My current concern is will she be left, secondary to this surgery with chronic pain. I want to ask about that. I don't know if the surgeon will be able to answer that question. Any neurologists out there who can offer me some great questions to ask? I feel pretty confident about our surgeon, Dr. Diab, with UCSF. I just want to make sure I'm asking all the right questions. Any one else out there in this situation? I know that scoliosis is more common. Thanks!
Parent Replies
My daughter had the 'smaller' version of this, and it was very painful right after surgery, but got better every day. She, like many others, could not tolerate the narcotic pain meds well, so we managed with Neurontin (unusual for post op pain, but worked great) and tylenol. I made sure she did not sit too long at a time the first few months. She is pretty much pain free now.
My son was also born with congenital scoliosis and kyphosis - he is only 6 and had partial spinal fusion at 3, fused with rods for 3 levels. I can't speak for how a teenager would recover (it was a painful recovery for him, but the recovery is probably different for a child than a teenager), but I want to let you know about the congenital scoliosis facebook group which has been tremendously helpful for me. It's a private group so you will have to request to join, but there I got a lot of suggestions from other parents on how to prep my son for surgery, recovery, questions to ask doctors, etc. there are some teenagers/older adults with congenital scoliosis/kyphosis on the group as well, so you may get some tips directly from other teenagers who have gone through similar surgeries. best of luck to you and there is a lot of support out there!