L4/5 L5/S1 Mavericks

[trkdoc714]

Kathy,

I'm beginning to think the travel miscues were beneficial in a way. I've gotten back on feet quicker than the other 4 patients in my group after the long flights. Maybe the exercise helped (even if it was painful at the time). I had a bad night last night but had a great day yesterday. During the day I had no more than a 2 or 3 pain level. After laying in bed for a while last night, I felt the pain increase to 7 or 8.

I was taking Percocet 5/325 up to 15 mg daily before surgery. I took it as necessary. After surgery I took a morning and evening dose of Targin. I stayed with that dosage until the trip home. Then I resumed the Percocet as needed.

As far as the cane or walker, I had a cane with me but the gate keeper at Frankfurt was more concerned with getting the small kids onboard first (even though they announced kids and disabled first). I got irritated and walked past her to her supervisor, showed her the cane and letter from Stenum. She waved me through to board.

Justin, I haven't had to watch Jerry yet. I bought a pay-per-view package of Paul Rubin movies that I'm only halfway through with.

Bob

[fuzzy]

Over the years I have flown to europe a lot probably at least as often as Mark. A the years went by it got harder and harder to make the trip due to my back problems. I would be worse of every time due to all the ignorance of the various personal. In Germany Frankfurt I was forced to lay my case on an inspection belt for special inspection. even though I could hardly walk I was told to tough it out and no one would help me. That was very bad. Same thing happened on the US side where they send me to "agricultual inspection" line and the belt was 15 inches of the ground, to high for me to lift. After that I was flat for several weeks. So when it came time of surgery trip I was worried even with plenty of travel experience. To have the wheel chair service forgotten is unexcusable. Some people would not be able to do that (climb stairs). And the TSA folks seem not trained very well for handling people with special needs.

When I had my surgery I decided to stay 4 weeks to make sure I am in decent shape to travel and I am glad I was able to do that.

So I really feel with you as I know what you went through.


My advice for surgery travelers, no matter what airline.

NON STOP if at all possible.

BUSINESS Class!

You *need* to have travel companion (Mark!) DONT fly lone!!!!

[trkdoc714]

Thanks to Jake222 and his wife's advice, I'm pretty much back to normal. Their advice was to eat Pringles Lite with Olean oil. It helped with the regularity issue the very next morning.

The pain levels are below what I experienced before surgery and I'm sleeping through the night. I am going a little stir crazy though.

One of the worst problems I have is the muscle tightness but my wife massages my lumbar area (staying away from the central area) and it helps calm them down. While she massages, I get faint leg and abdominal sensations in the same areas that there was pain prior to surgery. I'm guessing she's working the right muscles and releasing the tension on the nerves.

Other than that, I don't limp anymore. I'm consciously taking shorter, softer steps as a precaution but there's no shuffling of the feet. I do have minor aches in my legs until after the massages. Once I get active again, the aches return after a few hours.

Fuzzy's right to a point, take a companion (a family member) with you if you travel to a different area. The travel ordeal was the biggest setback I had throughout this experience.

Bob

[Justin]

Bob,

It sounds like you are making great progress! Slow and steady wins the race. Thanks for the update.

[Kathy]

Bob,
It sounds like you are doing really good! I'm a bit jealous of your recovery, you are less post-op than I am, and are doing better than I am. Maybe I should have went to Stenum with you! Goes to show those horror stories were just that... stories. I am glad that you did what you felt was best, stuck to your guns and are doing wonderfully. Oh, I'm jealous of the massages too, hubby will do like 30 seconds and is done. I need to start going to my masseuse again. I was seeing her 3 times a week prior to surgery; but haven't been in awhile.

I am totally stir crazy too, gets old quick. My kids are loving all the walks. Maybe I should have got Netflix prior to surgery. I've been playing alot of solitare and sudoku on the computer, though my brain does not function near as well as it used to. I'm ready to be done with all of these 'mind altering drugs', gives me a fog.

Happy Recovery, Take it easy,
Kathy

[trkdoc714]

Thanks Justin and Kathy. I had a little of a setback Tuesday though. My wife, son and I all came down with a fast moving virus around noon. It hit us that quickly. I had a dry throat and runny nose at noon and by 2 I had a fever, congested sinuses and very sore throat.

I hadn't posted anything about this until as I was concerned it would be transformed into one of those diabolical plots by the Stenum (you know, some sort of delayed bug they implanted during surgery).

As far as pain levels go, normally I'm at a 2 or 3 at worst but it went up this morning after a coughing session (end of the virus). I think I pulled some muscles as I was standing up when it hit. I overreacted and rushed for something to grab onto like I used to before surgery. I'm sure you all know the scenario. I took 5 mg Percocet around 11 AM and the effects have lasted 8 hours (so far).

Thanks again for your kind thoughts!

Bob

[Kathy]

Bob,
You are hilarious, I love reading your posts, make me laugh out loud everytime (husband thinks I'm a little kuko). I can not believe that you are not taking any pain meds, or just 5 mg. I am still taking either 40 mg of Percocet a day or 60 mg of Vicodin a day. That is amazing that you are doing so good.

I was sick last weekend and it didn't matter what I took, I hurt bad. I guess the healing of the surgery coupled with an illness, is just too much for the body to take. I layed and moaned in my chair for 4 days. I was taking a muscle relaxer every 4 hours, taking max pain meds and still felt like dying. I fortunately have a friend who had some medication for severe nausea and stomach upset (she has Crohns disease and suffers constantly from this). I took the medication and didn't even need pain medication for hours, my stomach had been upset and it was making my back hurt. I think my constipation has been making me hurt as well. The other day, I got out of the car to pick my daughter up from school, by the time I made it to her classroom, I was in a near run to the restroom. I spent 30 minutes in the classroom restroom (the bell had rang, my daughter is opening the door asking loudly "mommy are you pooping", the teacher is asking if I am ok, daughter keeps opening the door (so the everyone left in the room could see me and the door had no lock, since it is a kids bathroom), extremely embarassing ). I finally got to where I felt I could leave the restroom and make it home, then spent another 10-20 minutes in the restroom and finally felt better. Amazing how one little thing can affect the rest of the body so much.

Well, now that I have hijacked your thread with my crappy story, I'm gonna get. God Bless!