Hi I'm new here! I found this wonderful forum a long time ago, and have been lurking for a while. My history: Scoli surgery in 1979 at age 11 in Albany NY. Wore a turtle cast for 9 months (during which I had my first ski lesson!) and then a milwaukee brace for another year perhaps after that. Fusion from T3 to L4. Single harrington rod.
35 years post-op and I'm a poster-child for all the things you can make your body do after surgery. A lifetime skier, I recently started surfing at age 40. My adventures have included waterskiing, backpacking, horse riding, skateboarding, and all other things that can possibly freak out your mom. However in the back of my mind, I always knew eventually there would be a point when I am going to slide sideways off the track into the hay bales…
And here we go… I've started to experience increased pain to the point where I needed injections at L4/5 and L5/S1. And a visit to Dr. Errico.
So here's how it's going down.. Last spring, I noticed during long walks that I had to constantly stop and rest due to stabbing pain. This persisted all summer and fall. Fast forward to the winter. After a day on the slopes I would be at a point where I couldn't make it back to my car without wincing every 100 steps and screaming out my car window the whole way home in stabbing pain. Mind you, skiing did not hurt. But the walk to the car was a killer. I could also surf all day pain free, but a simple walk to the snack bar would stop me in my tracks. All the OTC nsaids and acupuncture in the world didn't touch this pain. The pain would shoot from 0 to 60 in seconds flat, and then recede again just as quickly. So I headed for the Hackensack Univ pain clinic for treatment while waiting for my appt with Dr. Errico. The injections worked immediately. 6 weeks now and my pain is reduced to arthritis level aches, with residual pins and needles running down the front of my leg. The searing knife-stabbing pain radiating from my back through my hip to my thigh I've had for 18 months is currently g-o-n-e. PT helps, and I've easily added my assigned exercises into my nightly yoga routine.
Onto the visit to Dr. Errico: First and foremost, Dr. Errico confirmed that I absolutely can, and should, continue all sports and activities with no restriction, including skiing and surfing to my hearts content. He also confirmed my fears that my future may likely include additional fusion. He said I'd be in this same situation no matter what, even if I were a couch potato, and that it's more likely I would've had this pain sooner rather than later. My level of activity is helping me here. I'm in the same bucket as everyone else with the same early degenerative issues in the same location in the lower spine beneath my fusion, with the same prognosis of further fusion. I'm showing early degeneration in my two remaining motion joints, L4/5 and L5/S1. He says I can keep getting shots up to 3x a year, if they are working, great, keep going. But if I get to the point where pain can no longer be helped, then the choice comes to continuing the fusion all the way down the remainder of my spine to the sacrum.
I'm so thankful I have a golden ticket to keep going right on up until I can't any further. The pain doc even said to stop my activities "would be detrimental to my wellbeing." This is going to be a good race. I'm hoping I can outpace the inevitable for as long as absolutely possible. I've lost a whole inch. If (or when) I allow them to do this surgery, they will jack me up to full height again (oooh!, 4'11!) with spacers after they take my discs out. And then after the period of restricted activity I would be able to get back to life (yes, the doc says, including skiing, albeit in a oddly stiff dippy-bird kind of way). *[Ed, I'll be following you closely, paying special attention to you how you've adapted to skiing post surgery. Your notes about how you first hit the slopes again 14 months out, about your skiing muscles being extremely weak, G forces, and putting on ski boots - are all so helpful to me in particular!! I will need to accept that I won't be able to ski like I used to......I guess I too will also have to slow down at some point. I do worry about the loss of side to side hip motion.]
Meantime, I'm self-restricting certain activities. Even though I'm being encouraged to continue unrestricted, I need to preserve what precious little I have as long as I can. To me that means eliminating tasks that involve lots of bending, pushing, straining and lifting or activities that I have decided are too jolting to my body. Sorry vacuum, sorry yard work. Sorry sledding, sorry roller coasters. Sorry speed boats. It was nice knowing ya!
Big encouragement to athletic kids just coming in… Simple pushups are easy to do, and yoga has allowed me a solid flexible body with strong core muscles. I've always had tight hamstrings, and I'm sure that's a long-running result of my surgery. I definitely recall being shocked that I could not touch my knees(!) after my surgery way back then… Now I can lay my hands flat on the floor…. I can also pop up off the floor onto my feet from laying flat on my stomach in a single motion (this is a necessary surf move). I've worked hard to get to this point, and I still surprise myself with how much further I can push this whole fusion thing. I've also learned that there are people out there who invent things to modify sports gear, and I have a pad on my surfboard to help me keep my back arched when paddling, since arching~ I cannot do. There is also someone out there who makes a rash guard shirt with air pillows in the tummy for the same purpose! --> Ed, I'm sure you can vouch for the use of wedges and canting to modify ski gear based on an individual's stance and balance needs. Kids, once you are fused solid you are good to go! This is true! You will be able to get back out there and rock it! Just don't worry your mom to much in the process... ; )
Best regards~
marta
35 years post-op and I'm a poster-child for all the things you can make your body do after surgery. A lifetime skier, I recently started surfing at age 40. My adventures have included waterskiing, backpacking, horse riding, skateboarding, and all other things that can possibly freak out your mom. However in the back of my mind, I always knew eventually there would be a point when I am going to slide sideways off the track into the hay bales…
And here we go… I've started to experience increased pain to the point where I needed injections at L4/5 and L5/S1. And a visit to Dr. Errico.
So here's how it's going down.. Last spring, I noticed during long walks that I had to constantly stop and rest due to stabbing pain. This persisted all summer and fall. Fast forward to the winter. After a day on the slopes I would be at a point where I couldn't make it back to my car without wincing every 100 steps and screaming out my car window the whole way home in stabbing pain. Mind you, skiing did not hurt. But the walk to the car was a killer. I could also surf all day pain free, but a simple walk to the snack bar would stop me in my tracks. All the OTC nsaids and acupuncture in the world didn't touch this pain. The pain would shoot from 0 to 60 in seconds flat, and then recede again just as quickly. So I headed for the Hackensack Univ pain clinic for treatment while waiting for my appt with Dr. Errico. The injections worked immediately. 6 weeks now and my pain is reduced to arthritis level aches, with residual pins and needles running down the front of my leg. The searing knife-stabbing pain radiating from my back through my hip to my thigh I've had for 18 months is currently g-o-n-e. PT helps, and I've easily added my assigned exercises into my nightly yoga routine.
Onto the visit to Dr. Errico: First and foremost, Dr. Errico confirmed that I absolutely can, and should, continue all sports and activities with no restriction, including skiing and surfing to my hearts content. He also confirmed my fears that my future may likely include additional fusion. He said I'd be in this same situation no matter what, even if I were a couch potato, and that it's more likely I would've had this pain sooner rather than later. My level of activity is helping me here. I'm in the same bucket as everyone else with the same early degenerative issues in the same location in the lower spine beneath my fusion, with the same prognosis of further fusion. I'm showing early degeneration in my two remaining motion joints, L4/5 and L5/S1. He says I can keep getting shots up to 3x a year, if they are working, great, keep going. But if I get to the point where pain can no longer be helped, then the choice comes to continuing the fusion all the way down the remainder of my spine to the sacrum.
I'm so thankful I have a golden ticket to keep going right on up until I can't any further. The pain doc even said to stop my activities "would be detrimental to my wellbeing." This is going to be a good race. I'm hoping I can outpace the inevitable for as long as absolutely possible. I've lost a whole inch. If (or when) I allow them to do this surgery, they will jack me up to full height again (oooh!, 4'11!) with spacers after they take my discs out. And then after the period of restricted activity I would be able to get back to life (yes, the doc says, including skiing, albeit in a oddly stiff dippy-bird kind of way). *[Ed, I'll be following you closely, paying special attention to you how you've adapted to skiing post surgery. Your notes about how you first hit the slopes again 14 months out, about your skiing muscles being extremely weak, G forces, and putting on ski boots - are all so helpful to me in particular!! I will need to accept that I won't be able to ski like I used to......I guess I too will also have to slow down at some point. I do worry about the loss of side to side hip motion.]
Meantime, I'm self-restricting certain activities. Even though I'm being encouraged to continue unrestricted, I need to preserve what precious little I have as long as I can. To me that means eliminating tasks that involve lots of bending, pushing, straining and lifting or activities that I have decided are too jolting to my body. Sorry vacuum, sorry yard work. Sorry sledding, sorry roller coasters. Sorry speed boats. It was nice knowing ya!
Big encouragement to athletic kids just coming in… Simple pushups are easy to do, and yoga has allowed me a solid flexible body with strong core muscles. I've always had tight hamstrings, and I'm sure that's a long-running result of my surgery. I definitely recall being shocked that I could not touch my knees(!) after my surgery way back then… Now I can lay my hands flat on the floor…. I can also pop up off the floor onto my feet from laying flat on my stomach in a single motion (this is a necessary surf move). I've worked hard to get to this point, and I still surprise myself with how much further I can push this whole fusion thing. I've also learned that there are people out there who invent things to modify sports gear, and I have a pad on my surfboard to help me keep my back arched when paddling, since arching~ I cannot do. There is also someone out there who makes a rash guard shirt with air pillows in the tummy for the same purpose! --> Ed, I'm sure you can vouch for the use of wedges and canting to modify ski gear based on an individual's stance and balance needs. Kids, once you are fused solid you are good to go! This is true! You will be able to get back out there and rock it! Just don't worry your mom to much in the process... ; )
Best regards~
marta
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