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  • Returning to work soon -- eek!

    Next Monday I return to work. It's a desk job and I'm only working part time for the first couple weeks, so I believe I will be okay. The strange thing is, as it gets closer and closer I find myself almost as anxious about going back to work as I was about having the surgery. Did anyone else feel this way?
    At age 56 my curves measured: 48/60/30 with lots of rotation and getting worse
    Posterior fusion T5-L4 June 30, 2009
    Excellent correction

  • #2
    Hi 52

    Going to work will be therapeutic. I know I will get flak for that statement, LOL but its true. Its good to keep things moving. Its a return to normality.

    There was no way I could have went to work at 3 months as I was pretty beat. My shoulder was also broken at that time, I had to lift my right arm up on the desk to reach the mouse.

    Fatigue will be an issue. Afternoon naps will be the norm.

    Actually, I miss the naps!

    Show your co-workers your x-ray. It helps with sympathy. Most are dumbfounded and speechless when they see scoli x-rays, just say that it happens if your lazy, and can happen to you, so get back to work.
    Ed

    PS I'm playing hookie today, don't tell anyone.
    49 yr old male, now 63, the new 64...
    Pre surgery curves T70,L70
    ALIF/PSA T2-Pelvis 01/29/08, 01/31/08 7" pelvic anchors BMP
    Dr Brett Menmuir St Marys Hospital Reno,Nevada

    Bending and twisting pics after full fusion
    http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/showt...on.&highlight=

    My x-rays
    http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/attac...2&d=1228779214

    http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/attac...3&d=1228779258

    Comment


    • #3
      Ed--

      You are hilarious! Thanks so much for the laugh and the support.

      How did you break your shoulder? I did that a few years ago falling off the upper deck of a sailboat. Unfortunately we were a 30 hour sail away from the emergency room, but we had ice and booze on board so it wasn't too bad. And no, I wasn't drunk when I fell. I probably wouldn't have hurt myself if I had been drunk at the time.

      I'm picturing you 3 months post op and trying to figure out what mischief you were into that would break a shoulder.

      Sheri
      At age 56 my curves measured: 48/60/30 with lots of rotation and getting worse
      Posterior fusion T5-L4 June 30, 2009
      Excellent correction

      Comment


      • #4
        whooped

        52

        I broke my shoulder in a devastating crash skiing, 10 days before my surgery dates. It was like Mike Tyson punch to the shoulder. I was also on the backside of a mountain, and had to ski out.

        Dr Menmuir wasn't going to reschedule as there was quite a team with people from out of state. He kept me on a ventilator in ICU for a week. He said that my pain would be too intense to wake me up right away. He was right. I was whooped. I walked into that hospital like a cat that was just run over by a car. LOL

        After 47 years skiing, I had 2 accidents, the shoulder, and 27 stitches in my head from a high jump back in the 70s. I also have been in several slides, one dragged me about 500 feet in about 4 seconds. These things happen when you ski as much as I did.

        I can still ski, I just have to tone it down a little. I do not have permission to crash.
        Ed
        49 yr old male, now 63, the new 64...
        Pre surgery curves T70,L70
        ALIF/PSA T2-Pelvis 01/29/08, 01/31/08 7" pelvic anchors BMP
        Dr Brett Menmuir St Marys Hospital Reno,Nevada

        Bending and twisting pics after full fusion
        http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/showt...on.&highlight=

        My x-rays
        http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/attac...2&d=1228779214

        http://www.scoliosis.org/forum/attac...3&d=1228779258

        Comment


        • #5
          Hi Sheri, I had my surgeries just before you, the early part of June, and I'll be 56 in November, I also have a desk job, I returned to work somewhere in the middle of August. I also went back part time for about two weeks. It really was not too bad when I got home, able to cook dinner and whatnot, did try to get to bed early. Now I'm back full time, the surgery is a distant memory, everything back to normal. Like Ed said (I'm a poet ha, ha), I do miss the days of naps and everyone running for me, it was nice! How far is your job from home, that might make a difference, I'm only a 1/2 hour from home, sometimes I have to take the railroad in, it's not too bad though, you get to read the paper and have coffee.
          Dolores A
          June 4, 2009 Anterior L3 - S1
          June 8, 2009 Posterior T4 - Pelvis
          Mark Agulnick, MD FAAOS
          NY Spine & Scoliosis Center

          Comment


          • #6
            Hi Sheri, Congrats on getting back to work so soon. I can understand your anxiety. We kind of veg out for so long after surgery, I know I worry about being alert and awake enough to go back to work. I am currently job-hunting and hope that just the exercise of looking for a job will wake up my brain enough! This may not be your concern at all, but it does worry me!

            Wishing you all the best for a smooth transition back into full time work. Isn't it great, though, just to be able to do this?
            Surgery March 3, 2009 at almost 58, now 63.
            Dr. Askin, Brisbane, Australia
            T4-Pelvis, Posterior only
            Osteotomies and Laminectomies
            Was 68 degrees, now 22 and pain free

            Comment


            • #7
              Ed is absolutely right. You will be exhausted at first, but you will adjust. And he's also right that when you show around your Xrays, people will be floored.

              It will take a while, but you will adjust. It took me about 2 months.
              __________________________________________
              Debbe - 50 yrs old

              Milwalkee Brace 1976 - 79
              Told by Dr. my curve would never progress

              Surgery 10/15/08 in NYC by Dr. Michael Neuwirth
              Pre-Surgury Thorasic: 66 degrees
              Pre-Surgery Lumbar: 66 degrees

              Post-Surgery Thorasic: 34 degrees
              Post-Surgery Lumbar: 22 degrees

              Comment


              • #8
                I'm starting back in about 2 weeks and am totally freaking out...glad to hear that others feel it will be (in a weird way) therapeutic...I'm hoping so too.

                Always Smilin'
                Colleen

                1982 fused T2-L1
                pre op 45 - post op 33 (left thoracic)
                pre op 53 - post op 18 (right thoracic)

                recheck 2006
                right thoracic 57
                lower lumbar 34

                surgical revision April 28,2009
                revision T3-L1; new fusion L1-L4
                unsure of degrees at this point

                Comment


                • #9
                  [QUOTE=titaniumed;83745]52

                  I broke my shoulder in a devastating crash skiing, 10 days before my surgery dates. It was like Mike Tyson punch to the shoulder. I was also on the backside of a mountain, and had to ski out.

                  Ed,

                  You need titanium around your whole body not just up your back :O)
                  Susan

                  Diagnosed at 10, Boston brace from 11-13 yrs old.
                  50* Lumbar w/ 5 centimeter shift to the left and slight rib hump...
                  Surgery Date: April 15 and April 22, 2009
                  X-LIF approach for disc repair L5,L4,L3,L2
                  Posterior Approach for fusions L5-T5
                  Dr. Fox @ Naval Medical Center Portsmouth
                  Nice and straight now!!!!!

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    52,

                    I don't have to go back to work because I stay at home with my son but I am experiencing depression and anxiety due to my husband having to get underway again. He's in the Coast Guard. There was a slow progression over the past 5 years of my responsibilities that transfered over to him due to my back. I have had so much help since my son was born in Feb 08 that I am so stressed about having all the responsibilities back on me again. His trips will vary in length....anywhere from 4-8 weeks. I can't imagine if it where longer. We've done longer in the past. We also went through 7 years of underway time before moving here to VA Beach. His first job here he traveled during the week and home on the weekends and the past 2 years he was in college finishing his degree fulltime and now a ship again. For me I wish he had pushed harder for a land job but for his career he definitely did the right thing by accepting this job. He will benefit from it greatly and after these three years he shouldn't have togo back to a ship. If we could have put it off for a least a year I would feel so much better about things. I still feel that I need more time and help with the baby. If it werent' for having a baby at this time we would definitely be in a better position. My two older boys are awesome at helping but there are some things that dad just needs to do. Well, just one day at a time I guess.
                    Susan

                    Diagnosed at 10, Boston brace from 11-13 yrs old.
                    50* Lumbar w/ 5 centimeter shift to the left and slight rib hump...
                    Surgery Date: April 15 and April 22, 2009
                    X-LIF approach for disc repair L5,L4,L3,L2
                    Posterior Approach for fusions L5-T5
                    Dr. Fox @ Naval Medical Center Portsmouth
                    Nice and straight now!!!!!

                    Comment

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