What Type of Therapy?

[addessa]

I am five weeks post op. for l5/s1 decompression with fusion. I am 63 years old and I consider myself in pretty good health except for the back.

Does anyone know what kind of therapy they give in my case? I cannot have therapy until three months post op.

I still have quite a bit of pain in the morning and evening, is that normal?
I am taking half of a 7.5 ml Hyrocodone two times a day.

[mmglobal]

Addessa,

This is the type of question that should be answered by your surgeon's office. You went to her because you trust her. You need her to provide follow-up care... hopefully you don't need her for too much longer though.

You need to find out what she recommends and if it's reasonable... follow it. Then you have to deal with difficulties associated with varying treatments possible from different therapists from the same prescription. Unless you are a professional athelete... don't let anyone hurt you. "no pain no gain" has no place in rehab for a recent fusion patient. Ramp up slowly, then try to build your core strength to protect yourself in the future. Work with your docs... work with your therapists... the patient community can be useful... but this is a question for your medical team!

Good luck... keep us posted. All the best,

Mark

[mmglobal]

Originally Posted by mmglobal

... don't let anyone hurt you. "no pain no gain" has no place in rehab for a recent fusion patient.

Having said that... you will probably have some setbacks. There is a big difference between finding out the next day that some gentle exercises were too much and flared you up, and having someone convince you to do something that you flat out know is not OK.

In the first case, you'll work with the therapist to fine-tune the process and get it right. (you may still have a moving target and something that was OK on Monday is not OK on Friday.) In the second case... you'll have to decide if they'll go gentle, you'll move on, or you'll try it there way.

It's tough to get it right. Good luck,

Mark