ADR & Fusion help

[Buster005]

Hi all
I'm a newbie from Brisbane in Australia. I have issues with my two lowest discs. I have pain across lower back . I cannot run anymore and walking is difficult at times. I am 50 with two young children. I have been told fusion at L 5/S1 and disc replacement above. My questions are will I be able to return to a healthy life running , cycling and how long after surgery would this be expected if at all

[jsewell]

I feel your pain . i was an obsessive runner until 2008. I am still missing it so much.

About you, what is your doctor saying? If all goes well i would think you could return to normal activity in about 4 months, just a huge guess from a patient like you. I have had 11 spinal surgeries and i am trying to remember how long i had to stop my activity after surgery. It is not coming to me. Maybe 6 months, i guess your doctor is the best one to answer that one.
I have a surgeon that loves to see his patients very active so he always released me to exercise earlier than i had read. I was happy with him.

good luck and i hope some others answer you
Judy

[Maria]

Have you gotten a 2nd opinion? Just wondering. I was recommended to have the hybrid surgery as well and didn't as it would have been my 3rd spine surgery and I really prefer to try and keep the number of spine surgeries to a minimum if possible . Anyway what I know is that everyone is different with regard to how they respond to surgery.

I would expect that you will likely be in acute to moderate recovery mode for about the first 6-8 weeks with a fair amount of post op type of pain that you work thru during recovery and just getting yourself together..

Most likely from 3-6months you'll see substantial progress with regard to pain and mobility and I would imagine from 6 month to a year you'll be doing better (if you're progressing along normally). At the one year mark you should probably start to feel pretty good and may get back to your regular type of activities.

You may progress a lot quicker than this but you will want to make sure that you don't push yourself too fast too far because you don't want to overdo when it comes to spinal surgery healing. It's far too easy to overdo.

If you're working and you have to take a leave of absence try to take the most amount of time they allow which I think is at least 6-8 weeks. You'll need it all and maybe then some (an extension).

Make sure you have things arranged at your home for your ease re meals, hygiene, grooming and such.

Best not to plan on driving for a few months as well so hopefully have rides ready for you as needed and help with grocery shopping, etc.

There are plenty of people that have had ADR here and some that may have had the hybrid surgery. Check out the part of the forum that talks about surgeries and recovery.

I'll send you a private mail with a few other sites to check. Good luck! Maria

[Ringo]

It is not a question of can you go back to running, cycling and training. It is a question of should you? Having that type of surgery, I simply believe you will have the greatest long term overall health, well-being and pain free existance if you stop running. Running and cycling cause the pelvis to rock side to side plus there are comprssion forces, all this is repetitive and will be exagerated above and below the level of the surgery. A very large portion of the normal range of motion in the lower back occurs between L4 and S1. Asking the other structures in your body to take up the slack under normal circomstances is reasonable but running and cycling is asking for trouble sooner than later.

If you had a bridge that was designed to carry a certain amount of traffic or weight on it and someone came along and cut out some of the gurders and cables. Would you expect it to hold up under the same amount of traffic? It might hold up for a while but the probability that it would fail would increase. Additional force would be transfered to the adjoining structures.

I am sorry if this sound harsh but I would say "No." I don't think it is a good idea.

You will not have a "normal" spine after that surgery. If you are completely comfortable after that surgery, that would be great. You will likely have some loss in range of motion. The decrease in range of motion will transfer up the spine and down the spine into the SI joint causing greater strain on structures that probably have there share of age related changes already. It will likely even effect your gate. As to how much or if you will notice it, I don't know. It may effect your posture as well.

A surgeon will decide whether to operate on you based on evidence that he can improve your pain and make you significantly more comfortable and improve your well being. No feelings involved in that decision. What happen down the road is not up to him. You need to do the best for your over all well being.

I don't mean to be a downer. I speak from personal experience and I actually care.

Best to you and I hope you have a great out-come!

Terry

Originally Posted by Buster005

Hi all
I'm a newbie from Brisbane in Australia. I have issues with my two lowest discs. I have pain across lower back . I cannot run anymore and walking is difficult at times. I am 50 with two young children. I have been told fusion at L 5/S1 and disc replacement above. My questions are will I be able to return to a healthy life running , cycling and how long after surgery would this be expected if at all