ALIF L5/S1 Impossible0ne

[ImpOssibleOne]

Nothing much to report. Same ol', same ol'. I seem to have hit a plateau in the recovery and am biding my time. I'm walking an hour/day, but it's really more of a forced march. The one improvement is in sitting, which I can do a lot longer now so it must mean some of the swelling is going down.

I had been feeling some new weirdness on the front of my lower thighs and, naturally, thought it must be another disc level gone bad. They were going over like dominoes! Took me a few days to realize it was caused by the heat given off by my laptop.

In other good news, they say I can start taking NSAIDS at six weeks and I am X'ing the days on my calendar. I so can't wait! Tylenol does nothing and I hate the narcotics...so I'm probably in more pain that I should be right now.

All in all, I'm making progess....albeit slowly.

[phylly]

Good job for you on the walking. Today is Judge Judy and Dr. Phil for me. I cannot get going. I did 1/2 hour on the treadmill yesterday and probably walked too fast but I am determined to try two walks per day after my vacation today. You are inspiring me to get my butt up more. I guess we all have days like this.
I have noticed the sitting getting better also. Are you wearing a brace? I will be happy when I get to stop wearing this. I know it would be okay to run to the bathroom without it but I have the fear of messing something up if I don't put it on whenever I am up. I am glad to hear that you are doing better all the time. Keep up the great recovery and less pain when on the NSAIDs.
Phylly

[ImpOssibleOne]

Hi Phily,

Can't quite stomach Dr. Phil; my thing is Desperate Housewives. Actually I have a lot of 'things' with so much time to fill but even I was stranded on a desert island where the only cable channel is the Dr. Phil Channel, I couldn't watch that man.

No, I'm not wearing a brace and every time I hear about someone wearing one I sit up a little straighter. I wonder if I should have. I think my body lets me know if I'm doing something really stupid but you never know. Sometimes I think I should wear one at night. Each night I fashion this elaborate pillow construction designed to keep my spine aligned and every morning I wake up with the pillows all over the floor and me twisted up, all comfy, the way I like to sleep.

How nice you have a treadmill. I either have to pace my house or trudge the hills. Ick.

[ImpOssibleOne]

I flew to Seattle (2 hours) from the Bay Area with my son. He got into a couple of great colleges up there and there was no way I wasn't going with him to help him decide. I didn't check with the surgeon, I figured I'd just bite it and spend a few days on ice when I got home.

It hurt needless to say. The flight, the long car ride, Seattle to Portland, etc. First day was OK; I hobbled in and out of cars and across campuses. The second day found me lying in the back seat, on campus lawns and admission office couches. I hurt in places I didn't know I had body parts. I thought I had blown a gasket. There were even a couple of toes I couldn't feel. Went back to the hotel that night, downed a couple glasses of wine (the size of Lake Superior), iced my back, went to sleep and woke up....fine. Better than fine, in fact. The last campus in Portland was hilly, damp and huge. I hurt some but I was at the front of the tour group, attentive and happy the entire hour and a half.

Sometimes it seems that if I have a really bad day, the next day is better than baseline. Maybe the body's natural pain killers kicking in?
I still hurt for sure; the recovery is slow, but it seems like the setbacks are shorter than before surgery.

I see the surgeon Monday and am slated to go on a trip to Hawaii on Tuesday. (Husband's medical conference) But I'm a little leery of a five hour flight....and even more leery about leaving my high school senior home alone. On the other hand, Mai Tai's are very theraputic. I will get the surgeon's opinion on this trip however.

Anyway, at two months post ALIF, I was able to travel and came back no worse for wear...except for the pain of finding out how expensive college will be.

[Cindylou]

Good for you. Glad you were able to make the trip with your son to look at colleges, even through the grit of pain. You know, you may look back one day and only remember what a rough day it was for you, however, when your son looks back one day........and he will, the only thing that will really stand out in his memory is the fact that you were there. He won't have a clue how much pain you were in, so God bless you for bucking up and making that lasting memory with your son. And big bonus that you actually felt pretty good the next day. I do believe precisely what you said about the bodies natural pain killers kicking in. Absolutely. I'll be curious to see if you do the Hawaii trip! Hang in there.

My best,

Cindylou

[dshobbies]

Glad your trip didn't do you in. Now you know that ice, both on your back and in a glass help a lot... when you go to Hawaii, see if you can find some of those cold pacs that have the chemical reaction. You break them or shake them and they get cold??? Bring a lot of them with you and use often. They might just do the trick.

About leaving a teen-age son at home alone . Can't help you with that one. Damned both ways.

Happy flying, Dale

[ImpOssibleOne]

I am better than I was pre-op but I really can’t say whether it’s because of the forced marches et al. my surgeon made me do or the surgery itself. While I can do more than I did before in terms of walking, sitting and such, there are times when I feel every bit as badly and in the exact same way as I did pre-op.
But those episodes don’t last as long as they did pre-op. I don’t know if it’s because that when I have a bad episode, I just keep going now rather than succumb to the couch or because I can go on now because something is ‘fixed’. Just don’t know.

So anyway, at three months post ALIF, I’m walking 2 – 3 miles/day but at about a pain level 3. I ice afterwards and recover quickly. Leg strength is better but the numbness remains as before. Bending, twisting, squatting still set me off and my hips hurt like hell.
The xrays indicated I’m fusing quickly, months ahead of schedule in fact, so I’m taking a few Advil per day. Also a 2.5 Valium at night to sleep but nothing else unless you count a stiff chardonnay with dinner.

I could probably work, as long as I had a lot of physical flexibility. My energy level is fine but it really took all three of these months to feel that I had completely regained my it.

Anyway, I’m better and more active but the jury is still out as to exactly why. If I had to put money on it, I’d say the recovery was due to the rehap, my ‘it’s now or never’ attitude and feeling post-op just HOW painful back pain can be and realizing mine maybe wasn’t so bad after all. The most important component is that I don’t have the weakness now. Now it’s just pain so I keep going. I don’t fear losing my legs and that makes all the difference.
A few years ago, I was very active running miles a day and lifting weights, etc. So when my back went out I reasoned that I should do the opposite and sat down. And I stayed there for two years. I probably should have walked or done whatever to my capacity. There’s probably something to be said for keeping your muscle tone up and staying as active as you possibly can.

All for now. Maybe I’ll have something more definitive to say next month. Or maybe I’ll never know why I got better. Maybe it doesn’t matter.