Looking for people who have returned to athletic activities post-op

[the_baroness]

Wow, Aileens, "hard-core spin class," that sounds awesome! And thanks, all for the tips on swimming. I've gone three times now, and each time it's a little easier. The last time I did 10 minutes of free-style (which is uncomfortable, and I actually hate it, but found I'm none the worse for wear afterwards), then 5 minutes of back-stroke (my favorite!) and 5 minutes of water-walking. And I did not immediately fall asleep once I got home. So maybe my endurance is improving! I've been going once a week, since that's when the pool is open and the least crowded, and then doing PT and bike and weights and walking and tai chi on the days in between (not all on the same days, I do mix it up.) Ok, I'm beginning to think that maybe I will survive this! Don't know what I would do without your encouragement, Forum-Friends.

[djkinkead]

Another Dog Show Exhibitor

Hello JanetS,

I show Belgian Sheepdogs. I stopped for a while but finally made the trek back into the ring around 1.5 years post surgery--I had the full fusion.

You eventually learn how to gait yourself so you don't jar your back too much and you learn how to kneel and bend (a bit) to straighten up your dog...but it is a learned balancing act.

You do need to watch that you don't trip on your dog--falls can be bad...haven't done so yet, but haven't shown a lot either. My youngest dog is just coming into his own now, but is still a bit wild.

Hope this answers some questions!

[springchicken]

Hi! I had a question for Megan and Aileen,

Both of you mentioned having pain incidents at 7 mos post op. May I ask if it was due to exercise or unrelated? I'm at four mos post op and starting to return to exercise slowly. I've been in PT for a few weeks now and have found it quite helpful. I think on my own I was trying to do too much. Now I've stuck with walking, for my cardio, and am gradually adding strengthening exercises.

Anyways, I finally feel like the past couple of weeks I've had a reduction in pain and I'm scared to death of having an incident that would set me back. I know its hard to avoid pain increases as we increase our activity, but I'd like to avoid any major setbacks if possible.

Thanks!

[golfnut]

If I remember correctly, I had been doing a lot of walking at around 7 months post-op and was feeling great. I decided to kick it up a few notches and walked some steep hills at a local golf course for an hour and had a lot of pain afterwards for over a week. I finally called Dr. Lenke's office and they thought it was soft tissue pain and allowed me to take Aleve. It's just human nature that we want to rush everything in hopes that we get back to "normal" sooner rather than later and it often backfires.

[JanetS]

Another Dog Show Exhibitor

Thank you for your encouraging update on showing dogs. The more things I learn I may be able to resume post surgery, the more comfortable I am with the idea of having it someday. I would probably avoid the outdoor rings as wet grass can be slippery and the surface can be uneven.
Good luck with your young boy. Please post updates to this thread when he is ready to show!

Janet

-----------
I show Belgian Sheepdogs. I stopped for a while but finally made the trek back into the ring around 1.5 years post surgery--I had the full fusion.

You eventually learn how to gait yourself so you don't jar your back too much and you learn how to kneel and bend (a bit) to straighten up your dog...but it is a learned balancing act.

You do need to watch that you don't trip on your dog--falls can be bad...haven't done so yet, but haven't shown a lot either. My youngest dog is just coming into his own now, but is still a bit wild.

Hope this answers some questions!

[aileens]

Springchicken - I did way too much activity because I was feeling better. I can't remember everything I did over a 2 week period, but I know I clocked 14 miles of walking through NYC on my fitness tracker over a weekend and that was the last straw. Huge spike in pain, unfortunately! I took it easy for months afterwards, limiting myself to the gym no more than 3 times a week. The body is pretty good at telling you when you're getting ahead of yourself, just go slower than you think you need to. It's frustrating, but will save you in the long run.

Hi! I had a question for Megan and Aileen,

Both of you mentioned having pain incidents at 7 mos post op. May I ask if it was due to exercise or unrelated? I'm at four mos post op and starting to return to exercise slowly. I've been in PT for a few weeks now and have found it quite helpful. I think on my own I was trying to do too much. Now I've stuck with walking, for my cardio, and am gradually adding strengthening exercises.

Anyways, I finally feel like the past couple of weeks I've had a reduction in pain and I'm scared to death of having an incident that would set me back. I know its hard to avoid pain increases as we increase our activity, but I'd like to avoid any major setbacks if possible.

Thanks!

[springchicken]

Thanks, Aileen, for your message. I could see that happening with me, too. I just returned to work this past week. I work from home and have to travel into work one day a week. It's a long commute, almost 2 hours, and it was definitely harder than I thought it would be. I was happy to get through it, though.

I think when you kick it up a notch, you are reminded of how far you have to go.

[the_baroness]

Beware of exhaustion

Hi Springchicken - The thing that caused me a 2-month spike in pain following the 7-month mark, is pretty much the same thing that caused me a delay in responding to your question in a timely manner: house parties! At the time it happened, I was traumatized by the set-back, but now that I look back and notice a trend in my life, it's kind of funny

So, what happened at the 7-month point was this: it was December. My husband mentioned he wanted to have our usual somewhat raucus holiday party, and I saw no reason why not because I was starting to feel a little better, and I planned on sitting around like a queen with my feet up, greeting my beloved guests all evening. Didn't turn out that way. Almost immediately after we sent out the invites, my husband got slammed with a giant project at work, and I got stuck with handling the party planning and house-preparing. Leading up to the party I did some stupid things: Namely, I decided to touch up the paint on the walls, so I was dragging a ladder around and climbing up and down and kneeling on the floor a lot. The day of the party I did some even more stupid things, like walk 12 blocks to Costco in a snowstorm and then drag a shopping cart full of party supplies back home, and then walk a bunch more blocks to the bakery for cakes and cookies. Then it got even stupider, when I tried to clean the house: the works - sweeping, mopping, cleaning the bathrooms. By the time the guests arrived I was in so much pain. But I didn't want to look lame in front of everyone, so I stood around chit-chatting and hostessing. I basically delivered a one-two punch to my recovery all in one fell swoop. That was on Dec. 14. By the time Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year's Eve rolled around, I was knackered. (We also hosted parties those days too! I tried to limit my participation, but by that point the damage was done.) And then the icing on the cake so to speak was that I tried to do some dancing at midnight on New Year's Eve (to Prince, as is our tradition.) What was I thinking! I'm bolted to the pelvis! I can't shake that booty anymore! Upshot: I spent the next 2 months in bed. I finally did recover from that bout of pain and exhaustion, with the help of my PT. We did nothing but stretching and heat packs for those 2 months. I saw a big leap of improvement beginning in March or so, but now we are planning another party at our house! A very joyous occasion of a friend's wedding, and I want to fix up our backyard so it's full of flowers and looks nice. So I've been trying to plant and put down mulch. I strategized for a long time before I began about how I could mulch without injuring myself, and I arranged to have my husband place the bags where I wouldn't have to bend or crouch, and I got a little bucket to use, and I thought it would be no problem to just carry small buckets of mulch back and forth for a while. But after 3 bags of mulch, the familiar and debilitating rib pain came roaring back, so I've been pretty out of commission for the last week. And the mulch still isn't done!

What have I learned from these two experiences? (A) I can't party like I used to and (B) it's not the actual motion or activity that causes the pain event. It's the over-doing it. Does that make sense? It's the pushing your body to move -- in any configuration -- you're not ready for. Any overdone physical activity at all will overdo it. I get the sense that the healing going on in there is a very complex procedure. It's like baking a cake. There's chemical reactions and physical reactions and heat and bubbling and stuff going on in there. And the process is not to be f***ed with, my friend. I sure did learn that the hard way. Baby steps. One bucket of mulch per day. Leave the cake alone and let it bake. That's enough metaphors for today

Yes, the body has ways of telling us things - loud and clear!

(And I should note, I think I was so vulnerable to the December pain incident because I went back to work too early. I went back at 4.5 months post op, and my Dr. said I should, but I honestly think it was too soon, because the commute and the sitting up all day had steadily been contributing to my exhaustion when I decided to push myself still further. Working in an office is not for the faint of heart! Don't discount just how exhausting it is to commute and to sit up. Be kind to yourself.)

[titaniumed]

What have I learned from these two experiences? (A) I can't party like I used to

Baroness, you mentioned Prince. You mean you cant party like its 1999. (smiley face)

There was no way I could have done all that at 6 months post. Or go to work at 4 months. That would have been torture.

Ed

[golfnut]

My reason for starting this thread

My purpose for starting this thread was to give people in the pre-op stage and those in the first year post-op hope that it would be possible that they would EVENTUALLY be able to return to most sports and activities that they enjoyed before surgery. I was so afraid that I would never play golf again, but had fortunately corresponded with people on the forum who were also golfers. They reassured me that they returned to golf after a year and that I could as well. Please don't try to do too much too soon. I had been walking several miles in flat subdivisions at about 5 months post-op. I thought I should kick it up a notch or two and walked extremely steep hills on a golf course. I was in pain for weeks! The problem is that while I was walking up those steep hills, I wasn't in pain and thought I was doing something to speed up my recovery. Wrong! It is so hard to be patient, but I think it's the answer. I can't stress the importance of walking as much as possible and if you are going to physical therapy, be certain that they understand the surgery and the reason for not being permitted to twist and bend.

[springchicken]

I'm so sorry Megan/Baroness that I didn't write back in a timely manner after you were kind enough to share your story with me. I totally get it. I would imagine all that you did would have put anyone out (scoliosis surgery or not!), though it sounds like you were having fun. Glad you're not overdoing it now? Careful with that mulch! Ouch!


I'm optimistic after reading of peoples' return to activities postop, so thanks for starting this thread, Karen. One of the hardest parts of the recovery for me has been not being able to exercise like I used to.

[golfnut]

Spring Chicken,
I always enjoyed exercise classes and missed them during the first year of recovering. I have returned to the less intense classes and make a few modifications-no crunches. I can get up and down from a floor mat without a problem but I am talking about well over a year. I probably won't go back to my spinning class because they stand up and pedal a lot. The first year I got plenty of exercise by walking and taking aqua aerobics. I was allowed to use arm weights while lying on my back on the bed. Give yourself time to heal and you will gradually get back to some of your exercises.

[golfnut]

Old Thread

This is a thread I started during my recovery. I "bumped" it in case it might be of interest to anyone considering surgery or recovering.

[JaniceD]

Thanks, Karen for bumping this up. I had not come across this thread in my months of browsing this forum.
These stories of success are exactly what I need to read about as one who is scheduled for surgery 3 months from today!!
Janice

[ripley]

Thank you for bumping up - very encouraging and calming!

Thank you so much for bumping this thread up, I never would have seen it otherwise. I was so down and worried after reading the "Sorry I had it done" thread. After looking through this one I feel a bit better. Thank you!