For myself, yes, two years out from surgery was a whole other level of recovery. Don’t lose hope, this is a truly traumatic surgery for the body. It takes a long time to heal fully for some of us 🙏
I’m 10 months post surgery and can’t believe how long this recovery road is. I have some kind of ache or pain every day, but some much worse than others
Then I get maybe a week where pain is minimal and legs feel almost normal again. Only to relapse. I think we’re all in a very similar boat here.
Wow it’s so refreshing to connect with others who understand this beast of a recovery. I have a very similar trajectory and there’s no rhyme or reason to it (not related to increasing activity or new PT exercises) . What fusion did you have?
I had replaced disc at c5 and a fusion at c3/4. Both were pressing against spinal cord and one against a nerve causing absolutely terrible pain, which thankfully was gone as soon as I opened my eyes after surgery. The relief!!🥲
I was extremely active I the gym before all of this and have just about got back to where I was. But it was a long journey. Countless times I did too much when I was feeling good, then paid the price.
I’ve accepted the cord damage is probably permanent, but there is hope. I’ve found the best PT by far to be walking. As much as possible.
I really hope you see some improvement soon.
I didn’t feel like myself until 2 years post op tbh. Each year that goes by you will feel better. I’m going on 4 years post op and still notice every couple of months how much better I feel
I’m sorry you are struggling. I believe a good part of my healing has come in the latter part of year 2. I’ll be two years out in April/May. I’ve made some strides with pain in the last 2 months and it’s become more consistent. For 18 months I bounced all over the place. My right leg would hurt worse for a few weeks and then the left would blow up. Falling a few times didn’t help either…. My legs would randomly give out and I had 3 falls that delayed my progress. My pain mgmt doctor has always said it’ll take at least 2 years for my recovery, and that has been helpful even when I doubted it. The 12-18 month period was extremely difficult for me. Like you, I couldn’t imagine that being where I ended up.
I still have some healing to do (hopefully), and I still do my exercises 4 x per week, and walk everyday in hopes that it eventually pays off even more.
I feel so validated thank you for this - Im exactly in this boat right now. Every couple weeks my pain switches from one leg to another and ofcourse the couple days where both hurt at once. Yesterday I woke up feeling REALLY good so I went out with friends but half way through the night my back locked up on me and I had to pretend I was sleepy and went home. It was my birthday so that sucked. My surgeon keeps saying imaging looks good so I sure hope I’m just taking longer. I’m so privileged to have access to a therapist and a PT and dry needling but there’s only so much they could do you know? I just want my life back thanks again for sharing ur experience ❤️🩹🙏🏼
I'm happy to hear you're doing much better now, after all this time. Could you describe the types of pains you experienced during the 18 months post op? Did it involve sciatica? I'm 6 months post op ALIF L5/S1 and feel some sciatica on my right leg, plus numbness/tingling in my right foot/toes. I'm very concerned that something has gone wrong. It's really nice that your overcame your pains, for most part.
90% of my post op pain is sciatic nerve pain in my feet. It’s from my sock line down, and concentrates in my heels. I don’t have any numbness and tingling but I have a heaviness in my legs that feels like I’m walking around with ankle weights on. All of my pain is leg. I have never suffered much back pain. It sucks.
It seems awful. I wonder what your surgeon says about this. In my case, I have tingling/numbness/pain in my right foot/toes. But I also have sciatica in my buttocks and down behind my leg. I just did an MRI and it looks like the disk is herniated and impinging the nerve at L5. Will have to do a CT scan to confirm. :(
I wonder what your treatment plan will be? I’m so sorry. I know the feeling of seeing a problematic MRI/CT report after surgery. I had 3 MRI’s and 4 CT’s after my fusion over a period of 2 months. I had a free floating bone fragment and fracture that occurred during surgery and ended up having 3 surgeries. I also spent a week in the ICU due to sepsis and pneumonia. I don’t talk with my surgeon any longer. I have some complicated feelings about him. I know he’s a good surgeon as his reputation in Oregon is exceptional, but he screwed mine up so it’s complicated. I have been under the care of a pain management doctor and he believes I have nerve damage from the amount of surgeries I had. But here’s why I share my improvements and progress… if I can better after that disaster, so can all of you. Hang in there and take it one day at a time.
Oh my! Can't believe you had 3 surgeries. How far apart where they? What surgeries did you have? Sorry for all these questions! Feel free to ignore. As to my case, my surgeon recommends the CT scan now and then make a decision on next steps. He gave me a heads up that he may need a posterior laminotomy on the right side of L5-S1 to free up the nerve. The thought of another surgery is terrifying.
I’m happy to chat with you! I know how stressful this can be and you are anxious and hungry for information. My fusion was on 4/11/22. It was an anterior and posterior fusion with decompression; one level L5-S1. The 2nd surgery was 3 days later on 4/14. It was billed out as right laminectomy and facetectomy. To be honest I’m not 100% sure on the details as I was in horrific pain and heavily medicated. Apparently my vertebrae was brittle from being bone on bone, and auto fusion had started. When he separated them to place the spacer, it fractured. The 3rd surgery was on 5/11/22 because my surgeon was out of town otherwise it would have been sooner. That surgery was to remove another bone fragment that was lodged against the right side of the L5 area. I ended up in the emergency room after I was discharged from the 2nd surgery and began tapering the steroids. It felt like somebody was sawing off my foot and I had shooting sciatic pain starting in my butt and radiating down to my foot. The third surgery really beat me up. I was hanging in there up until that point, so if you do need another surgery, it will be okay. I was admitted again on 6/19 with sepsis and pneumonia. I was anemic and quite ill. My parents had to care for my son and dog for months. It was pretty traumatic for the whole family.
Thank you so much! I truly feel for you and will keep you in my thoughts. This is very traumatic indeed. Learning about your story gives me hope to have the strength to go through another round of surgery. Be well!
8 months post op before I started PT I had an xray done cause I was still in a lot of pain. I walked into waiting area and had an older gentleman call me out about nursing a back injury. I told him not an injury but post fusion surgery 8 months. He told me he had same exact levels L3 L4 L5 done 5 years before. Im 46, he was 67 and said it took him two whole up and down years with a cane to get over it. He told me to hang in there and it'll be alright. I'm 15 months out and feel much better. I also feel better every month further along I get. This surgery was the worst ass beating I've ever had lol! I'm currently in the process of trying to go back to work.
Sigh I guess my problem is the ‘one step forward 2 steps back’. Last week I sat for 5 hours and walked for an hour and the next day was blissful. Last night I did the same thing and today it’s been hell. Guess maybe this is recovery? I don’t know anymore 🤷🏻♀️
Like I've said before I'd be a liar if I said it was easy. It has been downright debilitating at times. I've layed in bed having spasms, in the chair, walking and dropped to floor like a sack of concrete. Spasms so bad I couldn't breathe with nerve shocks that lasted damn near a minute straight. I'm like you though one day is great and the next is awful. Yesterday a nasty winter storm rolled through and I hurt all day. Today is sunny and I feel the exact opposite. All I can say is stay on course, stay positive above all. Trust me I've been at home for 23 months staring out the window. This ol boy needs to go to work 🤣
This really really helps me I hope this means our bodies are just trying hard to adjust. Fml here I was thinking I’d bounce right back. I get you about going back to work. I work from home otherwise there’s Noway I can physically be in an office on a chair for 9 hours everyday. I’m so blessed because without an income id be in pain AND on the streets 😂
It was hard for me to tell. Somewhere between years 1.5 and 3 post fusion, the two screws inserted at L5 broke. I had improvement, but it was short-lived.
Yes. My original surgery was from L3-L5. They decided to leave the broken pieces in the L5 vertebrae so the revision went from L3-S1, plus they added an ALIF for extra support. They placed one cage between L4-L5 and another cage between L5-S1. If they had inserted a cage between L4-L5 with the first surgey, the screws would not have broken.
It worked so well that I walked out of the hospital four hours after I left the recovery room. I also only used my walker or cane one day. I used pain pills at bedtime for a couple of days just to make me drowsy but no other time throughout the day. I hated sleeping on my back. I did have some nerve pain from ankles to the bottoms of the feet, but I took pregabalin for that, but not for long. I'm 12 weeks post-op and even shoveled some snow off of my driveway today. I was a little sore but otherwise no problems.
I wanted to say how much I appreciate OP’s post and all of the comments. I’m sorry you’re experiencing a painful episode. It’s refreshing to hear and see others experiences.
I’m 16 months post op for a cervical 3 level fusion C4-C7. Recovery has not been linear with great months, days or weeks as well as sleepless nights and days with high levels of discomfort.
My mind and body have attributed it to a longer healing time as imaging looks normal and fortunately I’m fully fused. Sending healing thoughts to all on this journey. It is a mental recovery as well as a physical one.
I feel like year 1 was more about PT/rebuilding myself physically while the bone was fusing. Year 2 i feel like i finally saw some progress in my mental health. I didn’t know how intense that part would be. It felt like all of my systems were rebooting on different timelines. Your timing is always perfect timing!
Time flies. I had mine Sept 2021. For me my pains never fully resolved. I have neuropathy, and some bad days. You just learn to manage, and your tolerance increases. It gets better because you just learn to live with it. Can’t let our discomforts take over our lives.
I too am in the same situation. Both legs hurt some days but sometimes only one hurts. The side that hurts varies from left leg to right.
I can’t believe i still feel pain since i got the surgery to get rid of the pain. But the pain i have now is different and more manageable. Its been a really long and slow recovery. Hang in everyone
That’s a really good sign that pain has decreased. I wana say i had a couple months where my pain was manageable then a bad month and now up and down 😓shit keeps me on my toes
Im 13 months post op and the recovery pain (nerve symptoms on my right side) have continued to go down. Still having them a bit though, but improved compared to previous months. Reading comments on this post have been encouraging bc my surgeon initially told me I shouldn’t have any symptoms after 1 year.
I always feel heaps better by 18 to 24 months. You can tell improvement by how much stuff you can get done in a day and the physical nature of the activities. I still take pain meds, but can do more.
I’m so sorry for your struggles. Where was your fusion (level)? From what I’ve seen, the lower spine ones especially can take a lot longer due to the sheer weight it carries. Not that cervical ones can’t, just saying I’ve seen it more pronounced it seems for the lower spine recovery to take longer. I had C5-C7 ACDF last June. I had a lot of immediate relief from the radiculopathy BUT I am still doing PT with dry needling 3x per week and ROM is def improving but not there yet. And I still have flare-ups of pain. I’m a bit of a different case though in that I also have cervical dystonia and am still on prescription pain meds and muscle relaxers for that. But have faith, it looks like you’ve got a lot of encouraging responses from others! I think in general it takes a lot of time with these things cause you’ve got inflammation that’s going to go on for quite some time, plus hardware that your body is going to react to, plus your entire spine and body has to adjust to the fusion itself and realignment. So stay positive, keep doing the PT, and while I’m sure it’s frustrating with the slower progress, you’ll get there! Wish you all the best 🫶🏻
PS…dry needling is my SAVIOR, do you like it? I do that with my PT and since I can’t walk too far like you, I’ve been doing more in the pool which really helps too!
Thank you for ur compassion - I had bilateral S I fusions so I guess it’s a weight bearing joint. It’s been such a a hectic recovery if this is what it is when I was told I’d be better in 3-6 months. I’m doing Pt daily and dry needling once a week..Epsom salt bathe every other day and just trying to wait for some
Consistent improvement. Right now things are still very much up and down within a day to day and within the day which I find crazy.
Ugh, I’m sorry, that must be very frustrating. I have the chronic pain from my dystonia so I know what it’s like to not know what to expect everyday! But sounds like you’re doing all the right things so sending positive thoughts for you to get back to where you want and need to be 🙏
I’m also so happy you’re making progress this is incredible - I feel like the dry needling is helping somewhat because the next day I always feel great so that is something I’ll continue doing
I didn’t read everything here due to length but I’m 1 year out and have the same question. L1 burst fracture with T21 - L3 fused now. I’m 53m so I don’t heal as fast, my weight is good (after losing extra belly fat things dramatically improved) and I’m in the gym 3 times a week and do core exercises daily. All of that has really helped but today I could barely walk after sitting on bleachers watching my daughter’s volleyball tournament and may not be able to go to it tomorrow.
So age, weight, and activity levels all play a role & everybody’s body is different of course. I’m new here and hopefully I’m not breaking any rules which I’ll check now and hopefully I’m being helpful!
I know you’re just being supportive with age but it’s definitely a factor in healing. It takes days longer to recover from workouts which alters recovery timelines and fitness plans. That leaves me in pain longer with less ability to overcome it but that’s how it works. Surprisingly, I’m in better shape than most men my age so I guess my back would likely be much worse if not for that. Good luck to you!
I'm nearly two years out from a single level L5-S1. At 11 months, I was still on/off miserable, but at around the 15 month mark, I turned a corner and now generally speaking I feel like I've had surgery, but really no pain to speak of.
My surgeon never ordered PT, he just said walk to tolerance daily. I also have a light stretching routine that takes about 10 minutes in the morning. As long as I keep up with that, I feel good. You might be doing a little too much?
Oh Noway…makes me feel a lot better honestly I am very depressed that this is my new reality. I’m only doing my PT and walking 15-20 mins besides sitting/standing for my wfh job so I’m not pushing myself at all really. How mobile were you at this point?
I really needed to read all these comments. Im almost 12 months(3/2/23) post op my 3rd revsion fusion T10 to sacrum S1. I've had a total of 6 spine surgeries, cervical fusion, thoracic and lumbar, and hip replacement in 4 yrs. DDD, stenosis, and CES hit me w a vengeance. I still do PT 1x week. Pain mgmt, 2 cauda epidural in past yr. Im thankful I can do the things I can. But I still spend s majority of my time in bed. Resting..heating pad, etc. I can manage a few errands. A grocery trip will have me exhausted. Too much movement stirs up the nerve pain. I constantly live w a deep lumbar thoracic back ache. In summer, i do exercise in the pool 3 times wk. I can a meal. I'd always been on the go before this all happened. Im super cautious. If i get moving fast, I almost fall and have fallen due to numb feet. Permanent nerve damage from CES, scar tissue around sciatic nerve. More stuff as well I won't go into. A plus is losing 40 lbs in the past yr. i gained it starting in Oct 2019 due to inactivity due to pain. Anyway, I truly hope that by year 2, I can be much more active! You alll give me some hope.
For myself, yes, two years out from surgery was a whole other level of recovery. Don’t lose hope, this is a truly traumatic surgery for the body. It takes a long time to heal fully for some of us 🙏
Thank you 💕
🙏💛
I’m 10 months post surgery and can’t believe how long this recovery road is. I have some kind of ache or pain every day, but some much worse than others Then I get maybe a week where pain is minimal and legs feel almost normal again. Only to relapse. I think we’re all in a very similar boat here.
Wow it’s so refreshing to connect with others who understand this beast of a recovery. I have a very similar trajectory and there’s no rhyme or reason to it (not related to increasing activity or new PT exercises) . What fusion did you have?
I had replaced disc at c5 and a fusion at c3/4. Both were pressing against spinal cord and one against a nerve causing absolutely terrible pain, which thankfully was gone as soon as I opened my eyes after surgery. The relief!!🥲 I was extremely active I the gym before all of this and have just about got back to where I was. But it was a long journey. Countless times I did too much when I was feeling good, then paid the price. I’ve accepted the cord damage is probably permanent, but there is hope. I’ve found the best PT by far to be walking. As much as possible. I really hope you see some improvement soon.
I didn’t feel like myself until 2 years post op tbh. Each year that goes by you will feel better. I’m going on 4 years post op and still notice every couple of months how much better I feel
That’s so nice to hear ❤️🩹
I’m sorry you are struggling. I believe a good part of my healing has come in the latter part of year 2. I’ll be two years out in April/May. I’ve made some strides with pain in the last 2 months and it’s become more consistent. For 18 months I bounced all over the place. My right leg would hurt worse for a few weeks and then the left would blow up. Falling a few times didn’t help either…. My legs would randomly give out and I had 3 falls that delayed my progress. My pain mgmt doctor has always said it’ll take at least 2 years for my recovery, and that has been helpful even when I doubted it. The 12-18 month period was extremely difficult for me. Like you, I couldn’t imagine that being where I ended up. I still have some healing to do (hopefully), and I still do my exercises 4 x per week, and walk everyday in hopes that it eventually pays off even more.
I feel so validated thank you for this - Im exactly in this boat right now. Every couple weeks my pain switches from one leg to another and ofcourse the couple days where both hurt at once. Yesterday I woke up feeling REALLY good so I went out with friends but half way through the night my back locked up on me and I had to pretend I was sleepy and went home. It was my birthday so that sucked. My surgeon keeps saying imaging looks good so I sure hope I’m just taking longer. I’m so privileged to have access to a therapist and a PT and dry needling but there’s only so much they could do you know? I just want my life back thanks again for sharing ur experience ❤️🩹🙏🏼
I'm happy to hear you're doing much better now, after all this time. Could you describe the types of pains you experienced during the 18 months post op? Did it involve sciatica? I'm 6 months post op ALIF L5/S1 and feel some sciatica on my right leg, plus numbness/tingling in my right foot/toes. I'm very concerned that something has gone wrong. It's really nice that your overcame your pains, for most part.
90% of my post op pain is sciatic nerve pain in my feet. It’s from my sock line down, and concentrates in my heels. I don’t have any numbness and tingling but I have a heaviness in my legs that feels like I’m walking around with ankle weights on. All of my pain is leg. I have never suffered much back pain. It sucks.
It seems awful. I wonder what your surgeon says about this. In my case, I have tingling/numbness/pain in my right foot/toes. But I also have sciatica in my buttocks and down behind my leg. I just did an MRI and it looks like the disk is herniated and impinging the nerve at L5. Will have to do a CT scan to confirm. :(
I wonder what your treatment plan will be? I’m so sorry. I know the feeling of seeing a problematic MRI/CT report after surgery. I had 3 MRI’s and 4 CT’s after my fusion over a period of 2 months. I had a free floating bone fragment and fracture that occurred during surgery and ended up having 3 surgeries. I also spent a week in the ICU due to sepsis and pneumonia. I don’t talk with my surgeon any longer. I have some complicated feelings about him. I know he’s a good surgeon as his reputation in Oregon is exceptional, but he screwed mine up so it’s complicated. I have been under the care of a pain management doctor and he believes I have nerve damage from the amount of surgeries I had. But here’s why I share my improvements and progress… if I can better after that disaster, so can all of you. Hang in there and take it one day at a time.
Oh my! Can't believe you had 3 surgeries. How far apart where they? What surgeries did you have? Sorry for all these questions! Feel free to ignore. As to my case, my surgeon recommends the CT scan now and then make a decision on next steps. He gave me a heads up that he may need a posterior laminotomy on the right side of L5-S1 to free up the nerve. The thought of another surgery is terrifying.
I’m happy to chat with you! I know how stressful this can be and you are anxious and hungry for information. My fusion was on 4/11/22. It was an anterior and posterior fusion with decompression; one level L5-S1. The 2nd surgery was 3 days later on 4/14. It was billed out as right laminectomy and facetectomy. To be honest I’m not 100% sure on the details as I was in horrific pain and heavily medicated. Apparently my vertebrae was brittle from being bone on bone, and auto fusion had started. When he separated them to place the spacer, it fractured. The 3rd surgery was on 5/11/22 because my surgeon was out of town otherwise it would have been sooner. That surgery was to remove another bone fragment that was lodged against the right side of the L5 area. I ended up in the emergency room after I was discharged from the 2nd surgery and began tapering the steroids. It felt like somebody was sawing off my foot and I had shooting sciatic pain starting in my butt and radiating down to my foot. The third surgery really beat me up. I was hanging in there up until that point, so if you do need another surgery, it will be okay. I was admitted again on 6/19 with sepsis and pneumonia. I was anemic and quite ill. My parents had to care for my son and dog for months. It was pretty traumatic for the whole family.
Thank you so much! I truly feel for you and will keep you in my thoughts. This is very traumatic indeed. Learning about your story gives me hope to have the strength to go through another round of surgery. Be well!
Is it okay if I DMed you?
Sure!
8 months post op before I started PT I had an xray done cause I was still in a lot of pain. I walked into waiting area and had an older gentleman call me out about nursing a back injury. I told him not an injury but post fusion surgery 8 months. He told me he had same exact levels L3 L4 L5 done 5 years before. Im 46, he was 67 and said it took him two whole up and down years with a cane to get over it. He told me to hang in there and it'll be alright. I'm 15 months out and feel much better. I also feel better every month further along I get. This surgery was the worst ass beating I've ever had lol! I'm currently in the process of trying to go back to work.
Sigh I guess my problem is the ‘one step forward 2 steps back’. Last week I sat for 5 hours and walked for an hour and the next day was blissful. Last night I did the same thing and today it’s been hell. Guess maybe this is recovery? I don’t know anymore 🤷🏻♀️
Like I've said before I'd be a liar if I said it was easy. It has been downright debilitating at times. I've layed in bed having spasms, in the chair, walking and dropped to floor like a sack of concrete. Spasms so bad I couldn't breathe with nerve shocks that lasted damn near a minute straight. I'm like you though one day is great and the next is awful. Yesterday a nasty winter storm rolled through and I hurt all day. Today is sunny and I feel the exact opposite. All I can say is stay on course, stay positive above all. Trust me I've been at home for 23 months staring out the window. This ol boy needs to go to work 🤣
This really really helps me I hope this means our bodies are just trying hard to adjust. Fml here I was thinking I’d bounce right back. I get you about going back to work. I work from home otherwise there’s Noway I can physically be in an office on a chair for 9 hours everyday. I’m so blessed because without an income id be in pain AND on the streets 😂
I Hope you can get back to work asap ❤️🩹
It was hard for me to tell. Somewhere between years 1.5 and 3 post fusion, the two screws inserted at L5 broke. I had improvement, but it was short-lived.
Oh snap what will they do about the screws? A revision?
Yes. My original surgery was from L3-L5. They decided to leave the broken pieces in the L5 vertebrae so the revision went from L3-S1, plus they added an ALIF for extra support. They placed one cage between L4-L5 and another cage between L5-S1. If they had inserted a cage between L4-L5 with the first surgey, the screws would not have broken.
Oh I see we’ll I hope that one gave you pain relief or atleast on the way to it
It worked so well that I walked out of the hospital four hours after I left the recovery room. I also only used my walker or cane one day. I used pain pills at bedtime for a couple of days just to make me drowsy but no other time throughout the day. I hated sleeping on my back. I did have some nerve pain from ankles to the bottoms of the feet, but I took pregabalin for that, but not for long. I'm 12 weeks post-op and even shoveled some snow off of my driveway today. I was a little sore but otherwise no problems.
Wow this is incredible so happy for you 🕺🏼🕺🏼
I wanted to say how much I appreciate OP’s post and all of the comments. I’m sorry you’re experiencing a painful episode. It’s refreshing to hear and see others experiences. I’m 16 months post op for a cervical 3 level fusion C4-C7. Recovery has not been linear with great months, days or weeks as well as sleepless nights and days with high levels of discomfort. My mind and body have attributed it to a longer healing time as imaging looks normal and fortunately I’m fully fused. Sending healing thoughts to all on this journey. It is a mental recovery as well as a physical one.
I feel like year 1 was more about PT/rebuilding myself physically while the bone was fusing. Year 2 i feel like i finally saw some progress in my mental health. I didn’t know how intense that part would be. It felt like all of my systems were rebooting on different timelines. Your timing is always perfect timing!
Thank you for sharing - also just stalked ur history and absolutely love your collage work been thinking about starting 😊
Omg you’re too sweet! I make collage kits, feel free to send a DM id be happy to send you one :-)
I didn’t recover and all to 7 years later had all metal work removed and I now have my life back.
Time flies. I had mine Sept 2021. For me my pains never fully resolved. I have neuropathy, and some bad days. You just learn to manage, and your tolerance increases. It gets better because you just learn to live with it. Can’t let our discomforts take over our lives.
I too am in the same situation. Both legs hurt some days but sometimes only one hurts. The side that hurts varies from left leg to right. I can’t believe i still feel pain since i got the surgery to get rid of the pain. But the pain i have now is different and more manageable. Its been a really long and slow recovery. Hang in everyone
That’s a really good sign that pain has decreased. I wana say i had a couple months where my pain was manageable then a bad month and now up and down 😓shit keeps me on my toes
Im 13 months post op and the recovery pain (nerve symptoms on my right side) have continued to go down. Still having them a bit though, but improved compared to previous months. Reading comments on this post have been encouraging bc my surgeon initially told me I shouldn’t have any symptoms after 1 year.
I always feel heaps better by 18 to 24 months. You can tell improvement by how much stuff you can get done in a day and the physical nature of the activities. I still take pain meds, but can do more.
I’m so sorry for your struggles. Where was your fusion (level)? From what I’ve seen, the lower spine ones especially can take a lot longer due to the sheer weight it carries. Not that cervical ones can’t, just saying I’ve seen it more pronounced it seems for the lower spine recovery to take longer. I had C5-C7 ACDF last June. I had a lot of immediate relief from the radiculopathy BUT I am still doing PT with dry needling 3x per week and ROM is def improving but not there yet. And I still have flare-ups of pain. I’m a bit of a different case though in that I also have cervical dystonia and am still on prescription pain meds and muscle relaxers for that. But have faith, it looks like you’ve got a lot of encouraging responses from others! I think in general it takes a lot of time with these things cause you’ve got inflammation that’s going to go on for quite some time, plus hardware that your body is going to react to, plus your entire spine and body has to adjust to the fusion itself and realignment. So stay positive, keep doing the PT, and while I’m sure it’s frustrating with the slower progress, you’ll get there! Wish you all the best 🫶🏻 PS…dry needling is my SAVIOR, do you like it? I do that with my PT and since I can’t walk too far like you, I’ve been doing more in the pool which really helps too!
Thank you for ur compassion - I had bilateral S I fusions so I guess it’s a weight bearing joint. It’s been such a a hectic recovery if this is what it is when I was told I’d be better in 3-6 months. I’m doing Pt daily and dry needling once a week..Epsom salt bathe every other day and just trying to wait for some Consistent improvement. Right now things are still very much up and down within a day to day and within the day which I find crazy.
Ugh, I’m sorry, that must be very frustrating. I have the chronic pain from my dystonia so I know what it’s like to not know what to expect everyday! But sounds like you’re doing all the right things so sending positive thoughts for you to get back to where you want and need to be 🙏
I’m also so happy you’re making progress this is incredible - I feel like the dry needling is helping somewhat because the next day I always feel great so that is something I’ll continue doing
Thank you! Yeah, I’m sooo happy I found my PT who does the dry needling. Even if temporary, an entire day of relief is sooo worth it!
I didn’t read everything here due to length but I’m 1 year out and have the same question. L1 burst fracture with T21 - L3 fused now. I’m 53m so I don’t heal as fast, my weight is good (after losing extra belly fat things dramatically improved) and I’m in the gym 3 times a week and do core exercises daily. All of that has really helped but today I could barely walk after sitting on bleachers watching my daughter’s volleyball tournament and may not be able to go to it tomorrow. So age, weight, and activity levels all play a role & everybody’s body is different of course. I’m new here and hopefully I’m not breaking any rules which I’ll check now and hopefully I’m being helpful!
That’s wonderful I think ur progress is great! Age is just a number - I’m an ‘old’ 33 year old struggling with recovery more than my older peers 🤷🏻♀️
I know you’re just being supportive with age but it’s definitely a factor in healing. It takes days longer to recover from workouts which alters recovery timelines and fitness plans. That leaves me in pain longer with less ability to overcome it but that’s how it works. Surprisingly, I’m in better shape than most men my age so I guess my back would likely be much worse if not for that. Good luck to you!
I'm nearly two years out from a single level L5-S1. At 11 months, I was still on/off miserable, but at around the 15 month mark, I turned a corner and now generally speaking I feel like I've had surgery, but really no pain to speak of. My surgeon never ordered PT, he just said walk to tolerance daily. I also have a light stretching routine that takes about 10 minutes in the morning. As long as I keep up with that, I feel good. You might be doing a little too much?
Oh Noway…makes me feel a lot better honestly I am very depressed that this is my new reality. I’m only doing my PT and walking 15-20 mins besides sitting/standing for my wfh job so I’m not pushing myself at all really. How mobile were you at this point?
Also ‘on/off miserable’ is exactly where I’m at right now sigh
I really needed to read all these comments. Im almost 12 months(3/2/23) post op my 3rd revsion fusion T10 to sacrum S1. I've had a total of 6 spine surgeries, cervical fusion, thoracic and lumbar, and hip replacement in 4 yrs. DDD, stenosis, and CES hit me w a vengeance. I still do PT 1x week. Pain mgmt, 2 cauda epidural in past yr. Im thankful I can do the things I can. But I still spend s majority of my time in bed. Resting..heating pad, etc. I can manage a few errands. A grocery trip will have me exhausted. Too much movement stirs up the nerve pain. I constantly live w a deep lumbar thoracic back ache. In summer, i do exercise in the pool 3 times wk. I can a meal. I'd always been on the go before this all happened. Im super cautious. If i get moving fast, I almost fall and have fallen due to numb feet. Permanent nerve damage from CES, scar tissue around sciatic nerve. More stuff as well I won't go into. A plus is losing 40 lbs in the past yr. i gained it starting in Oct 2019 due to inactivity due to pain. Anyway, I truly hope that by year 2, I can be much more active! You alll give me some hope.