Well, I just got home from my 6 week post-op appointment with Dr. Janssen. He was so thrilled with my recovery, he wouldn’t stop going on and on to the doctor from the UK that was there with him learning to do ADRs. He hugged me twice, and actually kissed my cheek once! He released me from all restrictions, aside from ‘if it hurts, don’t do it’, including the brace (oh, I can’t go bungee-jumping or skydiving for a year). He said I could ski, have a kid, go back to full days at work as of the 6th, whatever I wanted to do. I’m supposed to start PT with a Pilates or Yoga program, with no restriction on movements I can do. One thing I thought was interesting was something he said to his ‘student’ (and I’m paraphrasing) “The disc implant itself isn’t what restores movement in the area. That’s our job, during the surgery. We have to mobilize all the structures surrounding the disc or it won’t restore movement.” I thought that was quite interesting. He said I’d gained an inch of height. I was down to 4 mm of disc, and came out with 25mm (does that come out to an inch? I can’t remember the conversion). No wonder my legs hurt! He said the sharp pain I have at that level, near the skin, is the facet joints like I’d thought. They now have a lot more movement than they’ve had in 8 years. He said they’ll get used to it and the pain should pass. Oddly, they said there was no problem using my TENS unit, which is something that I’d heard was definitely off-limits, and that no antibiotics were necessary before dental procedures. He did give me a card to carry in my wallet about the implant, the nurse said it was for the airport. I asked if it would set off the metal-detectors, but was told probably not. It was really just for records, and in case of an accident or something. But I had to give it back, as they’d put the wrong level on it. Needless to say, despite the 4 hour drive to get there, I feel great after such a glowing report!! Now to figure out how not to go from 0 to 10 hour days in one shot. 4 hour days anyone??
