Spinal Fusion Surgery Recovery - 6 month out from L5S1 fusion!

So, it's been 6 months since my surgery!

Seems like a good time for a little update.





Mostly, I'm doing ok.

I feel like I hit a bit of a plateau a few months ago. The first two months of recovery were rapid...there were obvious, big changes and improvements almost daily.

Now, it's much slower. I have to think pretty hard about where I was a month ago and usually I can pin point small changes.

The biggest change lately is that my tolerance for sitting is greater (although I'm not sure that's a good thing). For a while, it was just too uncomfortable to sit for longer than 10 minutes or so.

Over the past couple of months, I've noticed I can sit through church, I can sit through longer car rides, and last week we went to a movie and I only needed to stand up once.

I got the all-clear to start lifting things up to 25lbs. So that's good.

I started trying to plank and that didn't work out so well......after trying to plank for two days, I ended up with a super sore tailbone. So I'm putting that on the back burner for another month or so.

I was playing with the kids and did some jumping the other day....just two or three jumps.....but my back has been sore ever since.

When I do stuff like that, I feel like the area around my hardware gets inflamed and sore. Sometimes it even feels so swollen that it seems like someone could see the swelling, but that has never actually happened. It just feels like that.

So, I'm reminded I'm still healing and I still need to take it easy.

It weighs pretty heavily on me that I need to take extra care with this. The surgery was no joke and the first few weeks of recovery were rough. I don't want to do anything that will set it back or jeopardize it.

I walk 3-5 miles a day. When I feel sore or I've pushed myself a bit too hard, I'll take a day off a just lay down all day. My M.O. used to be that my body would resist and I'd push it just a bit further. Now, my M.O. is if my body protests even a little bit..........that means it's time to slow down.

I've flown a couple of times, and it went ok. I was pretty sore in the days after.

I mostly don't have to take anything for pain management. Occasionally I'll take a muscle relaxer at bedtime if I feel my lower back muscles are tense and swollen. I also ice the site quite a lot.

I'm still considering myself solidly in the "recovery" phase, and I'm still being cautious. I'm excited to see what my xrays look like in December and I'm REALLY excited to see what the 1 year mark will bring when that rolls around.

Comments

  1. How are you today in your recovery?

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    Replies
    1. Pretty good! Which reminds me I've been meaning to do a 1 year out post, so I'll get that up ASAP

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