Over the past couple of days, I’ve noticed a marked decrease in lower back discomfort and an increase in shin pain and a small bout of weird numbness in my left hammie and buttock.  Kind of like before, but different.  I’ve been taking it very easy and am only walking for PT, so I’m not sure what could have caused it.  I’m going to chalk it up to nerves healing at this point, because I really don’t know what could have triggered it.  I woke up with it on Sunday and it continued through yesterday.  The nerve symptoms are not persistent and resolve when I move positions.  Hopefully everything is ok back there.  Recovery sure is a roller-coaster!

Update:  I just went for another walk and got to thinking the shin pain might be coming from my worn out birks combined with walking 7.5k per day.  I’ll switch up to proper runners today to see if it makes a difference.

-Brett

Found a great interview on ADRSupport, here. I think I’m in the just walk for 0-6 weeks boat… the core exercises still don’t feel right.

I made the right decision on 6 weeks before back to work. I went into work to see the guys today and had a haircut from our in-house hairdresser and I’m absolutely exhausted. I’m not in pain, just tired. It’ll be early to bed tonight. I was out from 2:00 to 4:00pm, so it’s still a long way to go!

It probably didn’t help that my two year old had me up at 5am this morning either.

-Brett

Well, it’s 4 weeks since surgey… only 2 more weeks with these bloody DVT socks on!

I had to drive to my 4 week follow up appointment across town and I’m in slightly more discomfort that I normally am.  I’m going to take a walk and see how I feel afterward.  The seated position for driving seems to be the hardest thing for me to do right now.

My back is progressing as it should be and the spinal doctor loved to see the xrays and information that Mr. Boeree had provided.  6 weeks are important, but 12 weeks is the magic date for bone growth.  He also told me not to attempt sports for at least 6 months and I told him I was going to wait the full year before I try to sneak back onto the ice (if everything goes well).  Some guy in Calgary decided it would be alright to go bull riding at 6 months – needless to say, I don’t think that’s a good idea.  The doc re-iterated that I had done the right thing and that he would have done the same thing my shoes.

Mr. Boeree ok’d my joint supplement as well, so I’ll start taking it today.  Sorry, no photos. 🙁 Boring Update.

I’ve cancelled my return to work next Monday in favour of going back on August 29th.  I need to do some more healing.

-Brett

I went though my camera today and picked out a few shots that I didn’t ever upload previously… here they are:

Top Gear

Trafalgar Square in London

Local Pints

My room in hospital

They marked me down as needle phobic!

I am VERY needle phobic.  🙂

I ended up walking 8km yesterday across 4 outings and helped my wife grocery shop.  I felt fine yesterday and have no discomfort so far this morning.  So far so good.

-Brett

Our Sunday morning walk was great today and I had no ill effect from pushing the distance a little. I did 4.5 km just this morning, so I’ll go over my 6km mark today and my back feels nice and strong. My pain level is still very low and spikes only when I sit/stand for too long. By spike, maybe a 2 out of 10. After 20-40 minutes lying down, I’m good to go again.

The pain when it spikes is not around L4/5 either, I will note. It happens in the muscles/ligaments slightly lower and to the sides of my spine… as well as around the sacro joint. I’m guessing these “distraction” pains will subside with time.

I’ve driven a few times now without any issue too. I’m going to limit the drives to short distances so I’m not sitting for too long just to be safe, but the act of driving is not strenuous at all.

I’m also feeling stronger and more confident as the abdominal pain/swelling from the OP dissipates. It’s almost completely gone now and I’m able to flex more core muscles properly for stabilization exercise. The months of core work pre-op are paying off now and I can’t wait to start some gentle yoga again when the bone is fully integrated with the M6.

-Brett

I took a short drive today and it wasn’t too bad at all.

-Brett

It’s great to see that Tim’s surgery went well and I wish him all the best in his recovery.  Those photos are pretty cool!

I had an appointment with my GP today and had a good chat about my recovery and pursuing reimbursement from our provincial healthcare system.  He put me in touch with someone that had success in the fight previously and we’ll see where that takes me.  He ok’d the reqs for my xrays at 3 months, 6 months and 12 months as requested by Mr. Boeree, and a six weeker that I wanted for myself.

I’m also trying to sort out my expenses from my London work trip for the week pre-surgery.  Expense reports suck at the best of times, and are even more of a chore after spinal surgery!  So many little receipts, so limited my time in the sitting position!  Back to the real world, eh?

Netflix has been a god send.  It works on my macbook, iphone and tv.  No matter where I’m at, I can always watch a movie.  I’m also finally reading Shantaram – 900 pages should keep me wrapped up for a little while at least.

I’m going back into my physio on Monday and have been doing some of the very gentle core exercises as well as my walking.  I haven’t altered my speed or time on the walks yet and probably won’t until week 4 or 5.  My discomfort is getting  a little better each day and I’ve tried a couple little, gentle bends… NO PAIN LIKE BEFORE.  It is quite remarkable.  I still get the tightness and discomfort if I’ve been standing or sitting too long, but the sharp pains I’d get from a slight bend or getting up out of a chair are completely gone.  I will not try extension or twisting until well after 6 weeks.

I’d like to get back into my glucosamine/chondroitin supplementation, but I’m worried about the ginger and tumeric that is included in Animal Flex.  They are both natural anti inflammatories and are cox-2 inhibitors… just like NSAIDs.  I’m guessing they could serve as bone growth inhibitors.  I’ll post on ADRSupport to see what they say.  I really want the gluco/chond to help protect the rest of my cartilage and prevent any future surgies if possible!

I’ve officially worn out my first pair of Birkenstocks! I bought them to help my back last fall and have worn right through the cork with all of my pre-post surgery walking.

These flight socks are getting more annoying each day.  It’s almost like wearing a toque for too long.  Only 3 more weeks!

Lastly, I still feel weird about having a piece of metal and polymer in my back.  I don’t really know how to describe it, but I’ve had to augment myself because my own biology has failed me.  The M6-L is better than what I had, but will never be as good as the real thing.  I still have a number of reservations about how well this device will last and whether or not it will cause complications for me down the road.  Only time will tell.  From a more philosophic side of things, I watched a great documentary on Netflix called Transcendent Man.  It talks at great length about the pace of technology growth in our society and the idea of augmenting ourselves.  It’s worth a watch, especially for us cyborgs.

-Brett

Everything thing seems to be moving according to plan. I went in to speak with my physiotherapist on recovery day 13 and checked out our Canuck protocols on ADR. We sure don’t do as many as Europe! One of his clients is back to playing competitive soccer post ADR, so that’s promising. In Canada, they try to get people up and running in physio between 2 and 4 weeks. I’m ok with some light physio, but I do not want to do anything that will aggravate my back/belly. I tried some of his gentle core work and it hurt my belly – so, I’ve opted to wait another week or two before I try anything again. Walking is it for the near future.

I’ve contacted our local hydrotherapy pool and should be able to setup a session next week for some gentle exercise.

I had another little setback when a bee flew into my head and startled me… just like the elevator incident. Again, I flinched, arched back slightly and had some pain shoot down my left leg. A couple days of sore shins, sore sacro and throbbing in my left foot followed, but have since subsided. You can take it VERY easy, but you cannot defeat your own reflexes!

My discomfort hasn’t changed much in the past few days, but my recovery time is getting quicker. Where I used to have to lay in bed for 40 minutes after getting sore, it’s only taking about 20 minutes now to feel comfortable again. I’ll take that as some progress. I also haven’t had to take any pain killers for a few days.

The biggest problem for me right now has been the NSAIDs. I stopped taking them after the last post, though Mr. Boeree wanted me to keep them for a few weeks… but to quit if I had any nasty side effects. My stomach is still a mess. 🙁 I need to try a different type from Naproxen if I’m ever going to take these things again.

All in all, I’m lucky that everything is going ok and I’m crossing my fingers that it continues.

We went down to the beach today and had a great time. However, I spent 60% of the time lying on the grass, resting, after the walk to get there! Dog and kid water party. 🙂 I’ve also been very lucky so far to have had my parents with me in the UK, a very understanding (and very pregnant) wife waiting for me at home and her parents to help us out around the house for the past week. Next week is going to be interesting on our own!

It’s now 2 weeks ago that I went under the knife. I’m still right around the same discomfort levels I’ve been at since Sunday. Yesterday hurt a little more I think because I tried to sleep on my side a couple of times in the night. My back didn’t like that very much. 🙁 I ended up taking some more tylenol (2000 MG total) to help.

I also contacted Mr. Boeree and confirmed that he still wants me taking Naproxen for the first few weeks post op to hinder HO. This stuff is murdering my stomach, but HO would be worse if it ever happened I’m guessing.

Of note to any of you in North America – hydrotherapy seems to mean something completely different in Calgary… I decided to look up aquatherapy and found some centres close to my house.

I’m heading in to see my spine specialist physios today to have an assessment done. I’ve got all of my discharge docs from the Spine Clinic and my scans and we’ll hopefully be able to hammer out a gentle program to start up next week. I wasn’t expecting this, but it would appear that for us Canucks, our first 7 physio sessions are covered by our provincial healthcare system post-op. It’s not much, but I won’t have to pay out of pocket at least. I completely drained my extended physio benefits this year with my desperate attempts at physio and chiro for 9 months pre-surgery.

From the insurance side of things, I submitted my application for STD just before I departed for London and got word yesterday that all was approved. As it stands now, I’ll be looking to resume part time work on the 15th of August and a return to full time on the 29th. This all depends on how I recover and I do not want to push anything that might screw my back up. My job is highly sedentary (IT Manager), so part time in front of a computer shouldn’t be too big of a deal if my recovery goes decently. I had also rigged up a standing workstation pre-surgery, so I won’t have to sit the entire time. Fingers are crossed, but as always, one has to be prepared for setbacks.

I’m still walking 4 x 20 minutes per day and won’t be upping my speed or distance for the foreseeable future. Thanks Si for all of your information on the hydro side of things… it will come in handy when speaking with my local peeps.

@Tim – good luck! T-minus two days for your flight. 🙂

Sneezing continues to be the Bain of my existence. I feel like my spine is going to pop out each time it happens and I’m never quick enough to stop it! Pointers from any of you veterans?

Cheers,

-Brett