Quote:
Originally Posted by henry4956
... Lying in bed 22 hours a day for 3 years will do that to you. My back feels invigorated during the walk (no back pain at all).
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Henry... this literally brings tears to my eyes! Take care... enjoy your recovery.
My real recovery didn't start until I was 7 weeks post-op. The first 2 weeks were hell on earth. The next 5 weeks were dominated by withdrawal symptoms as I did a fairly aggressive taper off my meds. I didn't care... I was in a hurry to find out what the rest of my life was going to be like.
After that... it was like every moment, I could feel the life being sucked back into my body. Every morning I'd look in the mirror and could not believe that I could stand up straight. It took 6 months for people to stop telling me how different I looked. (Funny, I thought I looked normal before my surgery but the pain was written on my face.)
I was never as bad off... your 22 hour/day prone is pretty extreme. The long, severe pain syndrome... the worse it is, the slower your recovery may be. Hopefully, you'll have a little slower version of what I experienced.
Note that I probably had 5 or 6 setbacks in the first 2 years that scared the crap out of me and made me rush to the doctor for xrays to see how I'd damaged my ADR's. Invariably, a few days later I'd be kicking myself for panicking. The odds of moving or damaging the discs (if properly installed) are astronomically low.
Good luck my friend.... keep posting your experience as we don't see as many folks in your situation as we do the "yoohoo, look at me, I'm water-skiing" patients.
Mark