1.5 Years Out

Well… I thought I’d give a brief update though not much has changed in the past 6 months.  I’m still playing hockey a few times a week, doing yoga and pretty much anything I wasn’t able to do pre-surgery.  Having said that, I refuse to lift anything “heavy”.  34lbs is the most I’m lifting now and that is my 3 year old daughter!

We finally sold the house, paid off the back surgery and moved out to the burbs. 🙂  The move/lifting went off without a hitch.

I’ve found another slight decrease in pain when I sit crouched or cross legged for a long time after getting up quickly… this happened around December.   No clue how, but it was a welcome feeling.  Again, I’m not 100% pain free, but I feel great.

I’ve halted the gluco/chond/msm pills because of a study posted on ADR support about it actually wrecking discs instead of helping.  I’m erring on the side of caution right now even though it did relieve some knee/shoulder pain for me with prolonged use.

I hope everyone else is doing well! 😉

-Brett

2 thoughts on “1.5 Years Out

  1. Happy for you man. I am a 22 year old former hockey player from the U.S. (Maryland) who is now pursuing a drumming/percussion/audio engineer career. I had a discectomy this past june on my L5S1 disc (herniated disc, painful sciatica which is now gone) and now have low back pain that I did not have before. After completing physical therapy with a really great therapist I am going back to the doctor. My pain is minimal while doing about everything, but sitting. However, a lot of my activity is limited as far as lifting, twisting, exercising (biking, snowboarding, no more hockey) and especially sitting. I can sit in a low back supported chair for 15-20 mins semi comfortably (get up for a minute to ease pain/disc pressure), but after takings 2-3 breaks my pain lasts for hours following. When it comes to a typical unergonomical chair, I get maybe 2-10 mins until the pain is too much. This especially affects my drumming, which is becoming more and more depressing as I aspire to be a professional drummer one day. My physical therapist thinks I could be experiencing disc pain at this point. Therefore I am considering asking for a discogram to try and get to the bottom of my situation. My questions for you are: 1. How can I get in contact with Dr. Clavel? I understand he is one of the best. 2. Based on your outcome, has sitting improved significantly for you?

    Thank you so much. This blog gives me a lot of hope. We all appreciate it.

  2. Hi Taylor,

    Sitting for too long was pretty rough for me too… I could go for about 30-45 minutes before having to get up. I’ve got Dr. Clavel’s website listed in the opinions section and you can contact him through his site. I’d contact a few of the top surgeons though and see which one you like the most. Clavel and Boeree were tops for me, but everything just kind of fell into place with Boeree and the rest is history. 🙂 I would call my post-op sitting tolerance unlimited, though I try to move as much as I can during the day to keep those nutrients flowing to my other discs!

    I’d check out Tim’s blog too… it sounds like you guys have the same disc issues(l5-S1) and both had a micodiscectomy beforehand.

    Good luck!

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