Hi Kim,
I'm so sorry that your son is suffering with so much pain.
Being a Mom, myself, I know there is nothing worse than your child suffering in pain and nothing you can do to help your child.
First of all, you didn't mention what kind of surgery your son had, so it is difficult to provide you with a lot of info without knowing the surgery he had.
For the moment I will assume that he had either a discectomy or a microdisectomy and a fusion was not done.
Sometimes there can be continued sciatic pain after the surgery because of nerve irritation and inflammation that was going on prior to the surgery.
It can take quite a bit of time for those angry nerves to calm down from both compression and surgery.
Scar tissue can form from the surgery and can wrap around nerves and continue to compress them.
A CT scan is a good idea to see what is going on, but and EMG will show if there is nerve damage and the results could be inaccurate this soon post op. They could show nerve damage that doesn't exist because the nerves are still inflamed.
Walking flat footed is not uncommon with a spine surgeon and one thought would be to have your son see an orthopedic surgeon that specializes in foot and ankle, especially where he is walking flat footed and his ankle is extremely week.
He may have developed a condition called tarsal tunnel syndrome. It is the same thing as tarsal tunnel syndrome in the wrist, but instead the feet.
It is very common to develop this after spinal surgery for this reason. Prior to spine surgery, the patient is walking incorrectly for a period of time. The body slowly adjusts to the incorrect walking and there isn't a problem.
BUT post spine surgery, there is a sudden change in how the patient walks. The body doesn't have a chance to slowly adjust to the change in posture and walking and ligaments and tendons can become highly inflamed.
When that happens you have tarsal tunnel syndrome that can hurt like crazy, make you walk flat footed, sometimes called "splating with your feet" and your ankles are very week. They can feel like they are going to cave in on you and you sort of twisted your ankle but you didn't.
that happened to me after my first spine surgery for decompression of my L4/L5/SI.
Believe it or not, the treatment is fairly simple and it is quite successful. I developed it about 5-6 weeks post op. Went back to my spine surgeon and he sent me to his ortho associate that specialized in feet and ankles.
Treatment was to have custom orthotics made for my shoes. They are specially molded to your custom your feet and you wear them in your shoes all the time. They can be removed and put in any shoes, but you never go without them.
Also a course of 8 weeks of physical therapy which included ultrasound, messaage and exercises which I keep doing every day along with the exercises for my spine.
Has your son had any physical therapy since his surgery?
As for insurance, that is a problem that I am well aware of.
Usually, insurance covers the dependent child until they are 19, even if they are not a full time student.
That is what I am familiar with.
If that is not the case with your son, I believe there may be a provision in the insurance policy that would keep your son covered because he is still under treatment for his spine and is, based on your description, could be classified as disabled.
Being disabled and 18, could still keep him as your dependent and therefore under the insurance coverage.
Another suggestion as well.
Has your son been accepted to college yet? If not, don't panic. You may be able to arrange with the college that he would go to, to delay his enrollment for a year because of his spine. they would hold his place for the incoming freshman for the following year because of his health issues. Many colleges are willing to do that and if that can be done, then he would be under the policy as an accepted college student, delaying attendance because of medical problems.
I know is hard to think clearly, Kim, when you are in the situation you are in, and so many things are going on.
The first thing you need to do is try and calm down and not to panic.
Get that CT scan done on your son and see what that shows, and what the doctor suggests should be done next.
Let me know what kind of surgery he had, because if he had more than a disectomy or microdisectomy, then issues can be different.
Give your insurance company a call and calmly ask specifics about the policy as it pertains to your son.
Be sure he has to be in college to be covered.
Ask about coverage continued with serious medical problems, because that is what he has right now and they need to be taken care of right away.
Find out if he can delay attendance for a semester or 2, would he be able to be covered by the insurance.
Find out if coverage continues if your son is declared medically disabled right now because of his spine problems post surgery.
Find out if you need to get any medical documentation from the doctor to get any of this coverage.
Then, continue on with dealing with your son and see what the doctor advises. You might want to consider a second opinion for your son, after you hear what his present doctor says.
I'm not sure if getting a second opinion would be difficult or not being that he is only 9 weeks post op, but give that some thought.
And don't panic about the college. You need to take one step at a time, and the most important one is trying to find out what is going on with your son right now and the insurance.
Then you can deal with college.
Good luck and just post back any time or PM me any time.
Fran
