My update!

One more small tidbit of information that some will find interesting!
Those you you that have to have surgery down low and in the frontal area may have thought of prepping yourself as far as removing any extra hair prior to the surgery. Well I did too!...and thought I would do the poor little nurse a big favor,
and prep myself. Before you do, make sure you get approval from your nurse or surgeon.
When I did my preoperative check in a couple of days before the surgery, I told the nurse about it, and she told me to never do that again. Reason being, that if I nicked myself, it might be an entry point for infection. I never thought of that, and I did indeed nick myself,
but it had scabbed over since I had done it a few days before hand.

However, when I was in surgical prep, and the young nurse came in to do the honors, holding a battery operated razor, shaver, clipper type of a device, she was quite surprised to see that I had prepped myself.
She was very grateful, and the other nurses congratulated her and said it was her lucky day. They were all bragging on me and made quite the big deal out of it.

I will have to agree with the first nurse that chewed me out for it though, as I can see the true concern about it. I figured that she would be there all day, as I'm a pretty hairy guy! :)

Do any of you have any thoughts on this?
I'm not trying to make a funny about this, but thought it might be of some value, as it could turn into a very serious item to consider.

SE :)

SE,

I'm so glad to hear that you are coming along nicely. It sounds like you are being a great patient & being careful not to overdo it. Hopefully you keep improving with each passing day. Did the surgeon give you an estimate of how long it would take before you know if the surgery helped relieve your pain?

hugs,
Skeye

Hello Skeye! Good to see you here! How is school? are you done yet? I thought of you today, as I took our Cat to the vet to be put asleep. I grew up with the Dr, and he noticed my back brace. I told him that I had a double lumbar fusion, and he asked me if I was still in pain. I said "Do you have any Special K on hand?" He just smiled and said, in fact he just gave some to a horse outside they were working on. He also said they went to a training seminar and they told how they were using it on humans now. He was surprised that I knew anything about it. Of course you know that "tmjpain" is receiving these treatments now. She has been in terrible pain lately. Just Horrible!

The surgeon has really not said much about when the pain should get better, but I will be picking his brain Thursday! :) That you can count on! :)

Snowbunny, I too, tried to stay away from anyone that was sick with a cold or such. That would have been terrible to have to recover with that going on as well. Makes me shudder to think about it :(
Wow! It sounds like you were on lucky girl! :)

All of this has been great today, and interesting to say the least. Again, I cannot thank you all enough! Wonderful! :)

Please pray for my good friends Tmjpain and Privey as they are going through some very rough times right now! Their conditions are serious and on the edge of being life threatening at times in my opinion.
We have so many members that are hurting so very bad, and my heart is heavy for them.

SE

Michael..I am so sorry to hear about your cat...our pets are parts of our family..Special hugs for you and your family tonight:(

Hey mikey,
So sorry to hear about your Kitty. That is one of lifes worst time when you have to take your fear family member on their last ride to the vet. I can't think of anything worse. Tell your wife I'm sorry. I love dogs but am a cat person at heart!

Your Buddy,

Pete

Michael,

I'm glad to hear that you seem to be doing well! Yesterday was my 1-yr anniversary of my L5-S1 fusion using the ALIF approach. It's definitely a roller coaster to recover from.

Another suggestion would be to reorganize your kitchen in a way that eases any bending that you may have to do, I had my mom help me do that and it helped tremendously. I put my toaster, pans, cleaning supplies, and anything else that I use frequently in the cabinets that normally keep plates and glasses. I keep enough plates and glasses up there to use but not having to bend over to get the cleaner whenever I want to wipe the counters makes life so much easier. I also used extension cords to make outlets accessible, I plugged them into the outlets and then nailed them at shoulder level so I can easily plug things in when needed, like the vacuum cleaner.

My surgeon doesn't believe in using braces after fusions so I had to forego that experience and can't comment on that aspect. I've heard from people that have used braces that when they transition out of them their pain level increases temporarily while their body adjusts.

Physical therapy helped me tremendously. My surgeon left that option up to me and I would recommend it. I was out of work for 3.5 months and upon my return I was cleared to go to PT. I went for 3 months and am about to start my second round of it since my pain has migrated. I went to a therapist that specialized in spine rehab and found him to be a wealth of knowledge. The therapy focused on strengthening the core and back muscles that support the spine. I bragged to my friends that I got a 6 pack and never had to do a crunch or a sit up!

I think that the success of a surgery is a relative question. I ask myself that question on almost a daily basis. To give some perspective, I am a 30-yr old woman who has never smoked, works out 5-7 days a week, and am on the low end of normal weight-wise. Currently, one year out, I am still on Vicodin (about 6 pills a day of the 10/325). I still can't do a full day in the office without full blown pain. I have an incredibly hard time bending and heaven forbid I have to lift anything heavy. There's never a moment that I don't ache and hurt. My pain is mostly mechanical in nature and not nerve related which I guess is a plus. I agree that walking helps, the days that I start off with some sort of exercise are my best days, it's like it loosens things up. The pain that I have now is 75% in my SI joints and only 25% at the fusion site. Even though the pain has migrated the pain at the SI joint is most likely due to the extra pressure at that level caused by the fusion.

Overall I consider my surgery a success because I am in less acute pain than I was in beforehand and my spine is no longer unstable. Prior to surgery I would have flare ups and more acute pain but post surgery it is constant. Going into the fusion I knew that realistically it would not be a cure all. I didn't comprehend chronic pain at that time since I had dealt with it for a year. The hardest part has been the mental part because before surgery there was a light at the end of the tunnel and now there isn't. Talking to people that are further out I'm constantly reminded that I'm only a year out and that's still relatively early. That might be more encouraging if all of the people that I know that have had fusion weren't still dealing with chronic pain issues of their own. I hope to be able to enjoy eating out again since sitting for even that amount of time is difficult. My ultimate goal is to have more good days than bad.

I know that when you are actually living something it seems to take so much longer than when you look back. 6 weeks out is still early. One year out is still early in this whole process. I think that the fusion itself doesn't impact the pain since the instrumentation should stabilize the area, but the healing of the soft tissue is more of an issue and can take time. When I was in PT was when I felt the most improvement and it was empowering to feel that I was actively doing everything that I could to improve my situation, even more so than now even though I religiously do my exercises. It was also nice to have my PT's perspective on how I was doing in comparison since he had much more experience with post-fusion patients. The guidance and insight that he had was tremendously helpful. It was nice to have someone with experience and knowledge reinforce that I was doing well and give me encouragement on a bi-weekly basis. I found that my surgeon, as wonderful as he is, is definitely more interested in the pure technicalities of the surgery and less interested in the residual soft tissue and pain and at 9 months he referred me to a pain specialist to help. I've even gone to my PT for a check-up here and there to make sure that I'm keeping my core strength up and to give me a few more options for exercises. They also do heat/ice and electric stimulation which is nice to ease up on the pain.

For not I would try not to focus on whether the overall surgery is a success since it will be a while before that is determined, but rather try to focus on the little improvements that come up when least expected and on remaining proactive in your recovery. Try to make the most out of the little successes that you have and it seems as if you are going a great job at doing that and keeping things in perspective. The fact that you would do the surgery again based on what you've experience is a good indication that the surgery is successful in many ways for you. I hope that continues! It's good that you had a strong community here that understands. I seldom post since I've been having a really hard time coming to terms with the reality of chronic pain. I thought that I'd come to grips with what I call my "new reality" but then I have a series of bad days and I just crumble and become a recluse. The month approaching my 1-yr surgiversary was difficult since the entire recovery everyone drills the 12-month healing process our heads and not being without further along painwise was difficult. Try not to let arbitrary healing deadlines and other people's expectations for your wellness impact your satisfaction with your progress.

In summary, I hope that you continue to experience improvements and your attitude seems great. If your surgeon will allow it I definitely recommend physical therapy as it was the most positive experience I've had so far in the past year, although most surgeon's don't recommend PT until at least 3 months out. I don't think that I was even walking 3-4 miles a day at that early out so it's encouraging that you can do so. I believe there are 2 types of success with this surgery, there's success as determined by the surgeon (mine has officially deemed my surgery a great success since my fusion is almost complete and I am structurally where I shoudl be) and success as we determine it to be. I actually keep a list of things that I can now do that I couldn't before and I pull that out periodically when I'm feeling down to remind myself how far I've come. It's a great way to track success and keep things in perspective. Good luck and happy healing!

Thank you for the comments concerning our Cat. I never thought that I would want a cat of mine own, but I quickly changed my mind after I looked up the information on the Ragdoll Breed. "Mieko" our newest addition to the family has been a remarkably positive experience for me. It has been amazing to see him split his attention evenly between the wife and I. Even, at night he hops back and forth between the both of us, curling up at our feet. Simply amazing! A real Joy!

Again Thanks!

SE

Thank you Lyn! Your my little HW Police Officer! :) I will always remember your help and of course MMMNAVY's as well. Good People you are!

We never think about how valuable pets can be in ones life, and in your case, as real life saver.

SE :)

Hello VicoVixen!

I wanted to mention your reply here, and that it was very good reading for me and the other members as well. I was off on vacation, and did not get a timely reply posted back to you, but wanted to acknowledge it here.
This was good stuff you posted here, and I hope it will be worth some help to other members as well. I wanted to say that I was really impressed to see a fairly new member post such an extensive reply on this subject.

Excellent Reply! :)

Thank you so much!...and to the rest of my HW friends!

SE :)

Hello Hydrangea! I was wondering where in the world you were! :) I still....for the life of me can't figure how you went back to work after the second or third week! Simply Amazing to say the least! :) How did you do it? Did you have a full fusion? ....or did they go in and shave a disk or two? I was shell shocked when you went back to work so early!

I could have never done it! My surgeon said there is no PT for me, but just to walk as much as I can. I know several members are at odds with this, and I can't explain it either.

My surgeon told me to take the 12 months healing suggestion, and throw it out the window. He said that is just a base line figure to go by and that I can take much longer that that to fully heal. In fact, he said that 12 months should be considered a minimum for a full fusion to heal.

Yes, the first time I sneezed, it drilled me to the floor, and of course I thought I had a failed fusion :( But that went away gradually by the 3rd to 4th week. Whaoo! :)
Hydrangea, please don't get in a hurry at all to do as you were doing before. You certainly don't want to go through that again! :( I know I don't!

"To me a successful surgery means NO MORE PAIN" I know there are a few here that will disagree with you on this statement, and I 'm inclined to agree to a point. I think what we have to remember, is that you and I had a need to be mechanically fixed first, and then hope it will take the pain away or reduce it to a livable point. Right now, without meds I'm at a 3 to a 4 on the pain scale. My biggest worry at this point is the incision and the scaring tissue and numbness I have in a rather large area.

I'm down to 3 Percocet's a day #10 325mg, and I never had withdrawals when I came off the Oxycontin's.

My surgeon said it takes 3 to 5 months for the fusion to start, so you and I are still in the very early stages for the fusion process. Time will tell as to whether our fusions will be a success, and even then we may have to live with some pain.
I still need the same operation in my neck, and I think the success rate is better, and have been told the pain is not as bad afterward's during the recovery.

I'm glad to know that your doing well, and please feel free to email me if you want to compare notes.

SE :)

Hydrangea,
I'm going to pop in here and hope SE doesn't mind, but please don't go riding on a motorcycle anytime soon! And just in case you think I am against those nifty 2 wheelers I used to have one myself back in my twenties. (Not a Harley, mind you, those were way too heavy for me! LOL) So I know the great feeling of freedom you get. Heck, I road a dirt bike in my teens, much to my mother's chagrin!

But there's a lot of bouncing on a motorcycle. Even sitting is hard on the spine, although that's so hard for most people to comprehend. And you're nowhere near fused - barely starting. You said it yourself in your post - your doctor has done his job, now it's really up to you. BTW sounds like you may have had a minimally invasive procedure similar to mine. I did have two levels done, though, but one level had almost closed up on its own. The PT I had also sounds similar to yours. Before the surgery, I had used my Pilates machine to make sure my legs were strong, but since the surgery boy has my muscle strength deteriorated. I need to do something, as walking isn't quite enough to strengthen the core, but I so hate it when I try something even simple and it sets me back, so I guess I get too cautious at times. It's a difficult balance.

I also had to stay off all NSAIDS for 3 months post-fusion, as well as aspirin. I was told they also can impede the fusion process. Interesting thing was that I went without them for so long I got used to not using them anymore. So now I just use them on a prn basis.

Anyway, just wanted to toss in a few cents worth!

PaLady

PaLady, my surgeon did suggest crunches for some sort of PT. Like when you lay on your back and act like your going to do a sit-up, but not a full one. Maybe that will help!

I did ask my PCD why no PT was suggested by the surgeon, and he told me that there are reports out now and or studies that suggest PT is not that helpful with back surgery.
I'm guessing you will not agree with this, and I can't say that I blame you. My Dr. worries that PT left up to the patient may do more harm than good. We also worries that a Therapist
may push too much, and the same damage may happen.

It may be, that once a full fusion has taken place, Pt may do some good with the scar tissue. I'm really talking off the top of my head here, so feel free to give your educated opinion
on this. My toughest thing during my recovery so far, has been the incision, and the pain associated with it. There is certainly quite a bit of tugging and pulling in that area, along with
hardness, numbness and tingling pain.

Suggestions are OK with me! :)

Se :)