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.

 

[BravoXray]

Well, it seems like when it rains, it pours.
A couple of times last week after I went to bed I got sharp pans in my abdomen. Kind of felt like gas pains, and the would go away after a while. So last evenig a friend and I went to Culver's for supper abut 6:00pm, and by 8:00PM I was in agony. Had my lady friend drive me to the ER in town at 11:00PM, and by then it was so bad I was vomiting. Ended up waiting for over an hour before I got in to a room and checked out. On the way into the ER the thought crossed my mind about a gallbladder problem. When I was giving the triage nurse all the pertinent info, and I told here I had been at Culvers and had fish, fries and broccoli, she said "bingo!" gallbladder attack.
After spending another three hours in the treatment room with a rather unconcerned nurse, they finally drew blood and sent me for a CAT scan. Back in the room, the nurse said, yep, gallbladder stones and it's going to have to come out.
Now I have had some pretty bad pain before, like a kidney stone, but this was an order of magnitude worse, way worse. After harping on the nurse for an hour, she finally gave me some pain meds, which really did do much for the pain, but I didn't care.
Hey checked me into a room, gave me me happy pills, and at 10:00AM this morning, the surgeon removed the gallbladder. I have four little incisions and one larger one below mu breastbone where they removed the little bugger.
.So no more belly pain, except for the incision sites, and came home at 5:30 this evening.
I have seen enough hospitals for the last 5 years, hope I'm done with that.

 

[MossRoad]

Ouch! Glad you are on the mend again.

 

[ArlyA]

Gee whiz Dennis,. Hope you are feeling better now. When people loose weight, most have there blood pressure go down.

 

[stuckmotor]

Ouch! Glad you are on the mend again.

What Moss said.

 

[BravoXray]

Gee whiz Dennis,. Hope you are feeling better now. When people loose weight, most have there blood pressure go down.

The blood pressure is still pretty good, even after being off the BP meds for a couple of days, this was yesterday just after my surgery.

 

[MossRoad]

 

[BravoXray]

Went to see the back doc last week, got x-rayed to check on everything.
Doc looked at the pictures and said everything looks great, better than most at this point in recovery. The graft to fuse the vertabrae is looking really good too. Don't have to see him again until August.
Went to the physical therapist on Monday, and he gave me some new exercises in addition to those I have been doing, and said unless I have a problem or question that I didn't need to see him again. I asked about the pool therapy, and he said that it would be of no benefit at my stage of recovery. I missed the window when I was recovering from the gall bladder surgery.
So, I'm walking about a half mile or more every day, spending a half hour with the stimulator strapped on, and about 40 minutes doing the exercises. I've also lost a little over 20 pounds since December, and am down to the next to the last notch on my belt, and that is feeling a little loose.
Going to go to the Thursday night cruise-in tomorrow afternoon at a local Amish restaurant since I can walk more than a couple hundred feet at a time with no pain for first time in several years.

 

[etpm]

Went to see the back doc last week, got x-rayed to check on everything.
Doc looked at the pictures and said everything looks great, better than most at this point in recovery. The graft to fuse the vertabrae is looking really good too. Don't have to see him again until August.
Went to the physical therapist on Monday, and he gave me some new exercises in addition to those I have been doing, and said unless I have a problem or question that I didn't need to see him again. I asked about the pool therapy, and he said that it would be of no benefit at my stage of recovery. I missed the window when I was recovering from the gall bladder surgery.
So, I'm walking about a half mile or more every day, spending a half hour with the stimulator strapped on, and about 40 minutes doing the exercises. I've also lost a little over 20 pounds since December, and am down to the next to the last notch on my belt, and that is feeling a little loose.
Going to go to the Thursday night cruise-in tomorrow afternoon at a local Amish restaurant since I can walk more than a couple hundred feet at a time with no pain for several years.

I am quite happy that your surgery went well and your recovery is going well. I had bone grafts twice on my wrists. The first were cadaver bone grafts and of course the cadaver didn't complain. I didn't either because I was under general anesthesia and the surgery was emergency and nobody was gonna ask what I wanted. The second grafts, being reconstructive grafts, used bone taken from my hips. Boy, was that not fun. So keep doing what the docs tell ya to do so you can avoid any more cutting. I know you are doing what you are supposed to do and it's a good thing. It seems like most of the folks posting here try hard to do the right things, and taking proper care of yourself after a surgery, like you are doing, is another example. keep it up and let us all know how your back is doing.
Cheers,
Eric

 

[BravoXray]

I am quite happy that your surgery went well and your recovery is going well. I had bone grafts twice on my wrists. The first were cadaver bone grafts and of course the cadaver didn't complain. I didn't either because I was under general anesthesia and the surgery was emergency and nobody was gonna ask what I wanted. The second grafts, being reconstructive grafts, used bone taken from my hips. Boy, was that not fun. So keep doing what the docs tell ya to do so you can avoid any more cutting. I know you are doing what you are supposed to do and it's a good thing. It seems like most of the folks posting here try hard to do the right things, and taking proper care of yourself after a surgery, like you are doing, is another example. keep it up and let us all know how your back is doing.
Cheers,
Eric

Thanks for the kind words, Eric.
They did take a chunk of bone from my pelvis for the grafts and that still gives me a twinge every now and then, but otherwise I am pretty much pain free during normal activities. Like the doc advised, if it hurts, don't do it.
Back in December I weighed in at 268 lbs, and when I saw the doc last week I was down to 247 lbs. My goal is to get down to 200 lbs or maybe a little less, but I know it won't be easy.

 

[BravoXray]

Went to the surgeon's office today for my last checkup. Got X-rays and went to see Dr. Smith. He looked them over and said it all looks great. The grafts have healed properly, and nothing has moved. Great news.
Next week marks a year since the surgery, and I couldn't have asked for a better outcome.
I was pleasantly surprised how fast I was in and out today. I arrived right on time for my 12:15 PM X-ray appointment, got check in and didn't even have time to sit down before the tech came out and called me back to the X-ray room. Walked up a floor to the doc's office, checked in at 12:30 PM for my 1:00 PM appointment and expected to wait for a half hour, but had barely sat down and the nurse came out and took me back to the exam room. She took all my information, said the doc would be right in, and he actually did just a couple of minutes later. I walked out just before 1:00 PM, fastest I've ever been in and out of a doctor's office.