Anyone had a lumbar fusion?

[BravoXray]

My doc says for now to limit lifting to 15-20 lbs, so that's what I'm doing. Been walking more now, almost a half mile a day now, after which the lower back is complaining. I got the treadmill that's been setting in the basement for 15-20 years fired up and operating again. So now on the crappy weather days I can do my walking that way.
I've also been doing some work in the shop almost every day too, either working on something on the Nova, searching the many boxes of parts for a part, or some other task that needs attending to in the shop. Usually a couple of hours is enough, depending on just what I was doing, of my fingers get too cold to feel them.

 

[goeduck]

Looking forward to the day that you will be kicking back, pain free and driving that Nova!

 

[Jims1025R]

'Been there, had that, L4, 5 & 6 are pinned together. Those, and metal in both legs, and shoulder. The result of being ejected through an airplane windshield. Doc said I'd never notice the fusion of my spine, and he was right. Some nerve fussing as a result of the broken L5, and a bit of spinal cord rehab, but I'm good now. I can bend however I like (and still touch my toes no problem). I can lift whatever I like as high as I want, and a 5 mile walk is not a problem. I have nothing but the greatest respect for the surgeons, as anything else would have been way worse! Think positively, and enjoy being able to walk - It could be different, I was close!

 

[stuckmotor]

It's been made clear to me that I should go up and down and lift with my legs to avoid bending and another herniated disk etc. This brings to mind the YouTube videos of mechanics who I take to be in Pakistan. The ones I refer to do a large portion of their work while squatting so low they're nearly seated on the ground. I'd like to see a study comparing their back problems to those of western mechanics.

 

[stuckmotor]

For a while now, I've been annoyed by the questions on surveys following medical appointments. They seem to be overly concerned with how long I had to wait at various locations in the building. Are my care providers really concerned that I not have to wait or do they want to get me out of the building as fast as possible and improve the bottom line? I used to have to wait for up to three hours to have a leisurely visit with my kindly country doctor. He was worth the wait and I wish I had him back.

 

[stuckmotor]

I'm the dubious owner of a BONE GROWTH STIMULATOR which I understand does it's stimulating with magnetism and which one of the many voices on the phone at my surgeon's practice said was recommended. With all the talk about the supposed carcinogenic affects of electromagnetic radiation I hesitate to use it. Have any of you other surgery patients used such a device?

 

[BravoXray]

I'm the dubious owner of a BONE GROWTH STIMULATOR which I understand does it's stimulating with magnetism and which one of the many voices on the phone at my surgeon's practice said was recommended. With all the talk about the supposed carcinogenic affects of electromagnetic radiation I hesitate to use it. Have any of you other surgery patients used such a device?

I have one, and have been using it for over a month. I did some investigation on the web about the DJO Spinalogic stimulator and had a discussion with my surgeon about it. He says that all the evidence he has seen shows that it accelerates the fusion process. I'm not sure what Medicare and the insurance pay for them, but I'll bet it's $2000-$4000, for about $50-$100 worth of parts and materials. And, it is programmed to only operate for 270 sessions. I haven't done it yet, but I'm going to hook up a loop antenna to my oscilloscope and see just what kind of EMF it's putting out.
Given that a common 9 volt battery that has a nominal rating of .5AH lasts for 30 - 30 minute sessions, it can't be putting out much power. That's 900 minutes or 15 hours, so it can only be putting out about 33mw. That's not much.
So yeah, I'm pretty dubious of it's benefits too.
When I figure out what kind of EMF it's putting out, I'll post it here.

 

[stuckmotor]

BravoXray,
Thank you. When my doctor told me I could take the collar off and fix fence, I got so excited I forgot to ask him about the stimulator.

 

[BravoXray]

I thought I would give you an update as it's been a while since I chimed in.
I am doing very well, under normal activities I have no pain whatsoever. After a day of working in the shop on various projects, and after one of my 1/2 mile walks, I do get aching in my lower back, but is does subside pretty quickly.
Tuesday I went to the aqua/water therapy facility and had a very detailed, an hour and a half, evaluation by a therapist. He was amazed at how well I'm doing at 10 weeks after surgery, way ahead of most patients he sees at this point. He gave me aset of stretching exercises to do every day, which are pretty easy and only take 10 minutes or so to do, but I can tell they are working some underused muscles. He said at this point I would probably only need a couple of weeks of water therapy to get to where they like patients to be.
I have lost some weight, not sure how much, but I did have to take my belt in a notch more than I used to have to, and my blood pressure is down considerably. by that I mean 20-30 points systolic and 10-20 points diastolic. I am certain that some of that is due to no longer being in nearly constant pain, being pretty sedentary, but the rest is due to the exercise and being more active.
All in all I'm very happy with the outcome and regret putting it off for so long, but if I had had the surgery sooner, I wouldn't have had the same surgeon that finally did the work, and the outcome may not have been as good.

I hope everyone else is doing well.

 

[stuckmotor]

I thought I would give you an update as it's been a while since I chimed in.
I am doing very well, under normal activities I have no pain whatsoever. After a day of working in the shop on various projects, and after one of my 1/2 mile walks, I do get aching in my lower back, but is does subside pretty quickly.
Tuesday I went to the aqua/water therapy facility and had a very detailed, an hour and a half, evaluation by a therapist. He was amazed at how well I'm doing at 10 weeks after surgery, way ahead of most patients he sees at this point. He gave me aset of stretching exercises to do every day, which are pretty easy and only take 10 minutes or so to do, but I can tell they are working some underused muscles. He said at this point I would probably only need a couple of weeks of water therapy to get to where they like patients to be.
I have lost some weight, not sure how much, but I did have to take my belt in a notch more than I used to have to, and my blood pressure is down considerably. by that I mean 20-30 points systolic and 10-20 points diastolic. I am certain that some of that is due to no longer being in nearly constant pain, being pretty sedentary, but the rest is due to the exercise and being more active.
All in all I'm very happy with the outcome and regret putting it off for so long, but if I had had the surgery sooner, I wouldn't have had the same surgeon that finally did the work, and the outcome may not have been as good.

I hope everyone else is doing well.

Fantastic! Congratulations on your progress.