Thoughts on recovery, pain, and trying to live a normal life
I am about 9.5 months out from fusion surgery and have been trying to alter my expectations. I am doing quite well, but somehow had the unrealistic expectations that all of this would "settle out" and that I would have the relatively pain free life that I had 5 years ago. Now I am still dealing with headaches and seeing a neurologist for that. She thinks that there might be a cervical component to them. My neck does hurt a lot, mostly in the late day and evening. Sometimes the pain brings me to tears which I have discovered is difficult to drive through. I do PT and just received a cervical traction unit which I will try. I need to try my TENS unit on my neck. I do not take analgesics for my neck pain and doubt that meds short of high dose narcotics would do much to relieve my pain.
My hernia hurts periodically and I am on my second wind of attempt. I really want to take care of it as I am tired of looking like I am having my menopausal baby and having lower abdominal burning pain.
There are hours that go by when I feel "normal" and forget that I have had extensive spinal surgery. That is awesome and the time seems to stretch out more and more. That's good! Recovery takes longer than I had hoped, for me it seems that I am on the 2 year plan. The muscles in my upper back feel pulled although I do not remember a sudden pull.
So, I do my PT exercises and continue with my weight loss efforts. I am still pleased with my surgical results and memories of lying on the floor preop in pain are fading.
I have survived, and the process for me was a survival process. I have great support from my pain management doctor at OHSU who has done various procedures to decrease my pain. I fear the future possibility of having neck surgery.
I am in Hawaii now for 5 weeks and the aloha spirit should improve my outlook. It is 79 degrees and sunny outside. What am I doing on the forum? Bye!
Susan
I am about 9.5 months out from fusion surgery and have been trying to alter my expectations. I am doing quite well, but somehow had the unrealistic expectations that all of this would "settle out" and that I would have the relatively pain free life that I had 5 years ago. Now I am still dealing with headaches and seeing a neurologist for that. She thinks that there might be a cervical component to them. My neck does hurt a lot, mostly in the late day and evening. Sometimes the pain brings me to tears which I have discovered is difficult to drive through. I do PT and just received a cervical traction unit which I will try. I need to try my TENS unit on my neck. I do not take analgesics for my neck pain and doubt that meds short of high dose narcotics would do much to relieve my pain.
My hernia hurts periodically and I am on my second wind of attempt. I really want to take care of it as I am tired of looking like I am having my menopausal baby and having lower abdominal burning pain.
There are hours that go by when I feel "normal" and forget that I have had extensive spinal surgery. That is awesome and the time seems to stretch out more and more. That's good! Recovery takes longer than I had hoped, for me it seems that I am on the 2 year plan. The muscles in my upper back feel pulled although I do not remember a sudden pull.
So, I do my PT exercises and continue with my weight loss efforts. I am still pleased with my surgical results and memories of lying on the floor preop in pain are fading.
I have survived, and the process for me was a survival process. I have great support from my pain management doctor at OHSU who has done various procedures to decrease my pain. I fear the future possibility of having neck surgery.
I am in Hawaii now for 5 weeks and the aloha spirit should improve my outlook. It is 79 degrees and sunny outside. What am I doing on the forum? Bye!
Susan
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