[jessmith07]

Hello Paul, welcome to the forum.

I am just under 4 weeks post-op with a 2 level ADR at L4/L5 and L5/S1. Here's a little cut-n-paste from my surgical blog:

"I had my surgery on a Tuesday afternoon. I was kept in ICU until Wednesday afternoon for monitoring because of my anxiety dissorder, and I guess they didn't want me to wake up and freak out. Wednesday, I pretty much slept, although I did get sick to my stomach a couple of times because of the morphine, but once they took me off of that and I started taking my own pain meds, I was fine. Thursday morning, I woke up at 5:00 am, got out of bed, put on my brace and went for a walk, and walked about 6-8 times total that day. By Friday, I was taking the stairs instead of the elevator (just 1-2 flights, usually just 1, though), and walking for 10 minutes every hour and a half or so. Saturday, I walked out of the hospital and walked about a mile (half one way, then half going back to the hospital). Sunday I left the hospital and flew to Paris to recouperate for a week with my Sweetie. Back pain is GONE! I'm up and walking, albeit slowly, with very little discomfort from the actual surgical site. AMAZING!"

All of that was from being about 1 week post-op. I have been off all narcotic pain meds for a little over a week. My muscles are still a little tight, because I had lost almost 2 inches from the loss of disc height, and I got all of that back in one afternoon, so I take a mild muscle relaxer and an anti-inflammatory at night. I can walk upright without pain. I can lay on my back, which I haven't been able to do in a couple of years.

By contrast, my ex-husband had a single level lumbar fusion (back when we were still married) and it took him almost a year to get back to "normal". He was off work for almost 2 months, and the pain after the surgery was much worse than his pain before. It took him a long time to be able to not take pain meds. Sex was out of the question for a long time afterwards, and he had some dysfunction in that area, if you catch my drift. He has trouble tying his shoes, because of loss of mobility, and that was at a single level. (I, on the other hand, was able to paint my toes a week ago )

All of that being said, everyone is different...

In my humble opinion, fusing the spine is the most unnatural thing you can do to something that by nature was designed to move, and should only be considered as a last resort. Yes, it's very scary and confusing to have to sort all of this out on your own, but you have to do it anyway, and YOU CAN do it! Research, research, research...I knew the risks of ADR, that it doesn't always work for everyone, but it was a chance I was willing to take. I knew that if this didn't work for me and if I ever had to have them removed, that fusion was what would most likely happen. I was also taking a gamble on time and technology; that over time, the technology around revision surgery would improve, and so would my options.

Hope this helps. Please keep us updated.
Jess