One year postop

[Confusedmom]

Juno,

Glad to hear from you! Can't believe it's been a year (I know, it probably seems a lot longer to you!). You said that the weakness in your leg muscle gradually returned. You mean strength, right???! I'm hoping you're doing better in that regard!

As always, I appreciate your insight and candor. Glad to hear you are recovering well!

Evelyn

[junosand]

yes, sorry, i did meant the strength returned; i can do stairs without thinking even of needing an assist from railing and, when working out, i can do as many squats or lunges as i could pre-op

[Doreen1]

yes, sorry, i did meant the strength returned; i can do stairs without thinking even of needing an assist from railing and, when working out, i can do as many squats or lunges as i could pre-op

You're able to do squats/lunges fused to sacrum?! I'm SO impressed and happy to hear that.

Warmly,
Doreen

[titaniumed]

Hi Juno

Better a late post than never, I’ve been on the road travelling in my RV.

Since I started skiing 50 years ago, I guess you might say that I have “cats” balance. If you lean in any direction, you have to counter with a leg or arm or both and its second nature to me. I have always suggested ski poles for recovering patients, they act as counter balances on both sides of the body. With more practice this second nature balance issue should resolve itself. I would use ski poles and walk a line, and get used to throwing your weight off in different directions using the poles. I used to practice this as a young skier running on curbs. Ski poles act as counterweights in skiing. Snowboard, and you lose this advantage.

I felt my recovery was at 90% at 12 months post. The second year I battled the fatigue,(many afternoon naps), and the final 10% of healing. At age 51 and 2 years out, I was pretty much done with my recovery.

The challenges of a scoliosis recovery need to be accepted up front by every patient. Instead of training for a sport, we need to train mentally for what will happen in our recoveries. It’s a slow process that shouldn’t be rushed. At 1 year, you can push a little harder and test things....I had permission to lift 100# at 1 year. It sounds like you are doing well. Congratulations.

How were the Galapago islands?
Ed

[mabeckoff]

Hi Juno



I felt my recovery was at 90% at 12 months post. The second year I battled the fatigue,(many afternoon naps), and the final 10% of healing. At age 51 and 2 years out, I was pretty much done with my recovery.

Ed

Ed, That you were still napping into the second year makes me happy as I am still so tired 3 months out

Melissa

[titaniumed]

Melissa

These surgeries can really knock your socks off and can take a long, long time to heal. You are just in the very beginning, and should take it easy for now. Naps are signals for more needed sleep but in the long run, you need to get that 9 hours each night.

Weaning slowly off meds is part of recovery. It should be a goal. Eating a proper diet, and maintaining your digestive health are also critical. Eat good things!

Even though you will nap, you still need to be taking short walks often. My surgeon gave me a warning about sleeping all the time. He had all the girls coming out to my house every day making sure of that! I miss those days...

With such a slow recovery, learn to accept small amounts of improvement. If you have had that bad day, remember that we see-saw, and that our goals will eventually be reached in time. Recovery teaches patience.

Ed

[debbei]

Great news! Remember you will continue to improve, possibly for a few more years.

[mabeckoff]

Melissa

These surgeries can really knock your socks off and can take a long, long time to heal. You are just in the very beginning, and should take it easy for now. Naps are signals for more needed sleep but in the long run, you need to get that 9 hours each night.

Weaning slowly off meds is part of recovery. It should be a goal. Eating a proper diet, and maintaining your digestive health are also critical. Eat good things!

Even though you will nap, you still need to be taking short walks often. My surgeon gave me a warning about sleeping all the time. He had all the girls coming out to my house every day making sure of that! I miss those days...

With such a slow recovery, learn to accept small amounts of improvement. If you have had that bad day, remember that we see-saw, and that our goals will eventually be reached in time. Recovery teaches patience.

Ed

Thanks Ed. I do not know what I should be doing regarding my meds. Dr Bederman does not feel that I need to worry about weaning at this time, esp as I am
starting PT next week

[junosand]

thanks ed,

i started skiing in high school and have always (as i was taught originally) to keep my arms forward and "mark" my turns with the poles; i'm not sure to what extent i used to use my arms for balance but i'll keep that in mind this winter when i try to get back into it

the galapagos were great, the naturalist/guides superb; quite a special spot on earth; i was apprehensive about it since it involved a lot of hiking, sometimes climbing steep grades climbing the inactive volcanoes; this was at about 8 mos postop; turned out i didn't have much trouble with the hiking but i got easily short of breath when snorkeling and had to go extremely slow - not sure why

[Mojo's Mom]

It's funny, after reading about this balance thing and worrying how I would adapt, I realized a couple of days later that I should already have the muscle memory for compensating since I spent several years of my childhood in a Milwaukee brace 24 hours a day. In that brace I played tennis, ice skated, ran and hiked and played at the beach and did basically everything a child would normally do, with a few exceptions (ballet class was out).

So I'm guessing that when I find myself in my new, fused to the sacrum body, the old muscle memory will know what to do, if not right away then pretty quickly. In fact, I have a feeling that during the last 36 flexible years I've enjoyed, I still use a lot of the body mechanics that I developed while braced. I think the braced years probably helped my hips stay very loose, to the point that I can do just a couple of inches short of a full split. Maybe the balance won't be that strange.

[jrnyc]

Mojo's mom...have you not had the surgery yet?...your signature says April 2011
for surgery...?

jess

[Elisa]

Jess, I think her signature is supposed to say April, 2012.

[titaniumed]

thanks ed,

i started skiing in high school and have always (as i was taught originally) to keep my arms forward and "mark" my turns with the poles; i'm not sure to what extent i used to use my arms for balance but i'll keep that in mind this winter when i try to get back into it

Arms out and forward, AND leaning forward are good general skiing habits especially on hard surface skiing. You were taught well. You use your arms more than you think, it should come automatically.

It took me years to master deep powder skiing which involves sitting back or shifting your weight back and balancing. I grew up on the east coast skating around on the ice and dodging rocks. Upon moving west years ago, and loving deep powder, learning was a necessity....a much different style of skiing. Let me know when you are ready....

[titaniumed]

thanks ed,

the galapagos were great, the naturalist/guides superb; quite a special spot on earth; i was apprehensive about it since it involved a lot of hiking, sometimes climbing steep grades climbing the inactive volcanoes; this was at about 8 mos postop; turned out i didn't have much trouble with the hiking but i got easily short of breath when snorkeling and had to go extremely slow - not sure why

I would LOVE to dive the Galapagos Islands. It sounds like it was a great trip! I don’t know why you would have been out of breath snorkeling unless you were battling currents, or dealing with cold water, which they have down there. I started diving about 15 years ago for my back, it seemed logical and of course I was “hooked” after my first drift dives. In the last few years leading up to my scoli surgeries, I had many painful dives and realized that the damage in my lower spine could only be resolved by surgery. The writing was on the wall.

Ed

[titaniumed]

Thanks Ed. I do not know what I should be doing regarding my meds. Dr Bederman does not feel that I need to worry about weaning at this time, esp as I am
starting PT next week

Talk to your surgeon about weaning off. Yes, you are early but its ok to keep it a goal.

I had such a hard time with my meds with constipation and immunity that it really wasn’t working for me. The pain after 6 weeks was not being controlled taking huge amounts, and hot 107 degree tubs were the only way for me to deal with the bone and nerve pain from my partial corpectomies. The water therapy for you will be highly beneficial. It’s a great method of relaxation.
Ed