Back surgery a huge success...

[shawn474]

Well, I went ahead and had my surgery (L5-S1 fusion). Suregry was on Thursday (I was at the hospital at 5:30am and was in recovery by 10 am!!!!). I was supposed to stay there until Monday, but did so well with therapy and OT that they discharged me yesterday. So I am very happy to be uncomfortable at home vs. uncomfortable at the hospital. Any reservations that I had were put immediately to rest when I woke up. It was the first time in at least the last 16 months that I had absolutely NO back pain. Recovery will be a bear, but definitely worth it. Anyone who wants the name of a great spine surgeon (I don't throw that around lightly as I work in the Sports Medicine field), let me know and I will forward you his information. He had already visited my personal room at the hospital twice before I was discharged and I had a message on my home and cell phones to call him over the holiday weekend if I needed anything. Very rare for today's doctors!

[george daniel]

Shawn,, I have a chronic issue also with L-5 S-1,,,neurosurgeon wanted to do a diskectomy,,I declined at the time,, after your convelesance/rehab,let me know if you would have it done again. Good luck with your recovery.

[Strong Bad]

Fantastic news Shawn! Very happy for ya! You hear so many horror stories about how surgeries don't work, blah blah blah. For me, I heard so many people say how my sinus surgery was going to be brutally painful, not have any effect and such, man, it couldn't have been any farther from the truth. My doctor was totally on the ball and I feel (and breathe) great!

Again, I'm very happy to hear you're doing great. Back pain sucks in the worst way and can ruin everything in your life. You get better soon so all us Maryland Polkies can get together soon.

John

[shawn474]

George,
I had the discectomy in November. I am 33 years old and the neurosurgeon that I saw said if he was to only look at the MRI, he would guess that I would be about 50 years old due to the amount of degeneration that I had. The three options at the time were to do the discectomy (least invasive), do the fusion or do nothing. I decided I couldn't not do anything due to the quality of life issues that the pain was creating, but definitely did not want to do fusion. I got a few opinions and went with a great neurosurgeon. Under no circumstances I told him was fusion an option. (The reason that I told him this was because if fusion was to be done, I wanted an orthopedic spine surgeon doing it - not a neurosurgeon) Immediately after I woke up, he told me that he would have done fusion had I given him the green light to do so. With therapy, etc. I was getting very bad spasms and pain due to the fact that the amount of disc that had to removed produced an intervertebral instability. I saw three orthopedic spine specialists in the next four months and had two more MRI's - both of which showed rapid, progressing degeneration. Fusion was my only option this time and I can honestly tell you that after only three days of recovery, I would have absolutely gone through it again. Hindsight is 20/20 - if I knew then what I know now, obviously I would have opted for fusion the first time, but even the orthopedic spine surgeons suggested that I try the discectomy first. The problem with mine was that the MRI's never showed the amount of damage that was actually in there.

So George my suggestion to you would be to determine if the pain / discomfort that you are feeling on a daily basis is interrupting your quality of life. If it is, definitely do it. If not, hold off and do what you can (PT, OT, etc.) to prevent the surgery.

Strong Bad, thanks again for all of your kind words and best wishes to you as well.

Shawn

[daboyz]

Excellent!!! Very happy for you!!

[cfrizz]

Congrats Shawn I wish you a speedy recovery.

And as you have found out, it doesn't pay to listen to other people's extreme fears when it comes to this type of thing.

You just have to think of all the options, do some research (if possible) and decide which is the best way to go for you. Eventually your body/quality of life will force you to make a decision.

Most people find out that once they have it done, they kick themselves for not doing it sooner.

Medical science is a constantly changing thing. What was torture 10-20-30 yrs ago, is now a cakewalk since they have since refined the process from all those years ago!

[schwarcw]

This is great news Shawn! I wish you a speedy recovery! I'm glad to hear that you're feeling better after the surgery.

[mrbigbluelight]

Great news, Shawn, and thanks for sharing your insights with us.

Yes, if the wheels (legs/knees) go, or if the back goes, life becomes very difficult. I had a frozen right shoulder but was able to go to work and BS my way through until it got better. If your back/legs/knees are bad, though, that's a harder difficulty to cover up.

[danger boy]

Take it easy for a while... but that's great news that the surgery was a success... OT sucks.... but it's worth it in the end.. :)

[MrNightly]

Glad to have ya back Shawn...

Speedy recovery. If ya need anything, just let us know!

[joeparaski]

Good for you Shawn, it's nice to here of a success story with back problems.

Joe

[Fireman32]

Shawn, Glad to hear the surgury went well. I have the same problem with L4 and L5. I've been putting off the surgury for the past 2 years. If my pain gets worse I will ask for your dr's name. Again glad to hear your doing well.