"Karen" <spoof_address@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>Normally a lurker, I'm hoping someone here will have had a lower back op
to
>relieve sciatica (oops that doesn't sound right, I wouldn't wish an op an
>anyone) or know someone who has had one.
>
>I'm facing the 'to op or not to op' decision and would like to hear about
>the recovery period and just how long I will be "incapacitated" for.
>The doc says 2 nights in hospital followed by 3 weeks 'recovery' and then
I
>would be fit to go back to work a desk job...ie sit comfortably again. Is
>this realistic?
Depends on exactly where the surgery is, and exactly what it entails.
Based on those numbers, I'd say he's expecting to do a fairly
straightforward diskectomy through a small incision. Those estimates
are probably pretty good for that procedure.
Recovery from a spinal fusion is much longer than recovery from a
diskectomy. In general, the farther down the spine the surgery is,
the longer the recovery will be, and spinal fusion involves a much
larger incision than a diskectomy.
I had double fusion (L4-L5, L5-S1) two and a half years ago. It was
probably one of the best decisions I ever made. (A diskectomy was not
an option, as the vertebrae on either side of the ruptured discs were
already beginning to fuse together.) Two weeks after the surgery, I
was walking better than I had in a couple of years, and was pretty
much back to what I considered 'normal' in eight months -- well ahead
of the surgeon's prediction, but he also said that I was an outlier on
his patient scales anyway (fitter than most), and he wasn't surprised.
jenn
--
Jenn Ridley : jridley@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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