Lumbar surgery

Some of you may remember that I was contemplating laminectomy and L4-L5 fusion. Well, here I am 12 days post surgery and doing as well as can be expected. Even though many recommended using a neurosurgeon I went ahead with my orthopedic surgeon as he is well respected and has done a ton of them. If you're in the neck of the woods of Issaquah, WA his name is Ash Patel at Proliance Orthopedic Surgeons.
Upon opening me up, Dr. Patel found that my stenosis was worse than he expected and there was little room left for the nerves. He removed the lamina, removed a disk cyst, cleaned out the remaining detritus, and fused the disks together with a cage filled with bone graft starter material from the bone he removed.
Post surgery was painful but not excruciating and the pain killer pump was a help but I do much better with oral pain killer, in this case, oxycodone.
I was up and walking the next day, again, painful but it didn't kill me. Sitting in a chair was not all that pleasant but I didn't do that very often. I was discharged after 3 full days.
At home, I found sitting was most comfortable in a padded office chair. I tried to sit in my recliner but just didn't work out. For the first few nights I slept on my side on the couch as it allowed me to lay stably. Trying to sleep in bed and attempting to get into comfortable positions just wasn't working. It's still not the best and I may stay on the couch for a while. I've been off pain killers for the last 2 days. Still a little painful but I didn't like being in a stupor all the time. I can walk about 3/4 mile at a time and could probably do a little more if I wanted. I go to the doctor tomorrow for my first post-op checkup.

Grouchotoo good to hear from you. I can only reiterate what Vickie said about overdoing & pushing it. In all honesty your 3/4 of mile is really over doing. I imagine your thinking is the more you push it the faster you will heal & things really do not work that way with spinal surgery. One of my favorite sayings is, things may look healed on the outside but they are not healed on the inside. Your body went through a lot of trauma with this surgery. This can all very well come back & bite you big time. Sitting is usually not one of the easiest things to do after a fusion. Sitting puts an incredible amount of pressure on the back.

I hope you continue to do well.

Super ^^ditto^^ to what the others have said! (Patient of lumbar surgery here!)

Take things easy and be gentle and kind with yourself. I know what you mean about the padded seat. What a huge difference. I know some people find a firm seat easier to get up from? But with my back, (and even with all the padding I already have on my behind), I've found the softer seat much more comfortable all the way around.

Definitely do not push yourself too quick, too soon. I wish you continued speedy recovery. It sounds like you're doing exceptionally well!









M.

I had lumbar fusion surgery in Nov 18th 2014 , which was almost 4 months ago.. Not having the pain that I was having before surgery.. but I am having a new chronic pain on the sides of my incisions.. It hurts all the time and advil and stuff don't help at all.. My surgeon had me on percosets ( sorry misspelled it) and I ran out.. I have to go to my family Dr to get pain meds.. I haven't yet.. Could all this pain be the rods, screws, and cold weather.. Please help, hurting really bad.

Hi Tg,

Welcome to the HW Chronic Pain forum. I am sorry that you are having pain from your surgery. You are still in the early phases of healing so i would expect to have some discomfort.

You have posted on an older topic as the moderators will probably lock this and ask you to start a new thread with an introduction so that all the members will be able to welcome you and give you some input.

Will look for your intro post.

Hugs from Texas,

Pam