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I go in for back surgery on Wednesday, Jan 16th. This last year has been rather painful one for me. What has been determined is that the L4-L5 disk is not stable. It is moving around about 2-3 mm, which is a lot. I feel it move 2-3 times a day. Just from getting up out of chair or bed. At times it's in the normal position pain is low but when it makes the big shift pain can go off the chart. I will be having a second fusion at L4-L5. I all ready have one at S1-L5 so the hardware will be upgraded so it can be extended. My new surgeon will also remove all bone chips/spurs that were left behind from previous surgeries. The surgery will be a long one, 4-6 hrs just depends on all the scar tissue and what they find. Which I suspect there will be a lot of scar tissue since I have had 3 surgery in 2002-2003. I will be in the hospital for 3-5 days, it all depends on how soon I can get off of the IV meds. I should be up walking around the next day. I will be in a back brace for 6-8 weeks, restricted to very light duty till the fusion takes. I'm hoping that every thing goes right, and I can get off of all the meds I have been taking for 10+ yrs for pain control. Last March my back moved to a position during my stretch routine that had me pain free for 3 weeks. Up till that time I had no clue that it was possible to be pain free. When it shifted out of the pain free position I have had problems ever since.

Will update when I make it back home.

Yikes! I am sorry that you had to live under such conditions for so long. I really hope this surgery fixes up your back so you don't have to deal with so much pain and medication. My thoughts and prayers will be with you and your family, David.

I wish you the best. I'm fused S1-L4. I did the anterior-posterior/360. That was the worst post op pain I have ever had. None of my previous surgeries came close. I don't think I could go thru that again. I guess you know whats coming, since this is not your first rodeo. I will tell anybody that asks that you are a brave man! I know that 3 weeks had to be great! I hope you get the pain reduction you are hoping for. I can attest to how being on constant pain meds sucks. Good luck, I'm pulling for you!

Good luck with your procedure. I know you've given me some sound advice for back pain mitigation over the years. Hope this one makes your quality of life much better.

R,
Bullseye

Good luck, and God bless, David.

Will pray here for your rapid recovery.

Blue,
Here's praying for a full recovery and back to shooting Bullseye...PAINFREE!!

Al

Best to you, Blue. I hope your procedure works out. Simply stated, a bad back is the dickens. Many people suffer from bad backs from time to time and it isn't a joke. A bad back saved my life in 1987 though, believe it or not, as the osteopath found an aoritc heart murmur which, with further medical procedures, found an aneurysm in the aorta which was near bursting. About a month after the osteopath found the murmur, I had surgury to intall an 'aortic valve prothesis'. I now have a mechanical aortic valve and dacron mesh for the aorta. The surgeons said I was fortunate to be in for surgury that very hour, any longer I wouldn't have made it. Funny how things work? The heart issue was found because I had back problems.
Get well soon,
Haka

Best wishes for a speedy and successful recovery from the surgery.

I have had a hard time.

I came down with Shingles the day before the surgery, which i thought was a food allergy for something I ate, since i only had 4 spots at the time.

Any way the surgery ended up taking 7 hrs, yes 7 hrs. The main problem was they could not get the old hardware out. They ended up cutting it down so they could use pliers to unscrew the lugs. During the process they disturbed the spinal fluid so I was forced flat on my back for 48 hrs. Pain was out of control for that period of time. Some fibrillation problems showed up the 3rd night so their testing for that, too. I ended up with unitary track problem/infection. Thought I was over that and fever came back again, now their running more tests.

All indications so that I no longer have the pain in my foot & toes, SUCCESS if it stays that way.

I should be released in a day or so if they find the source for my fever.
All for, done from my 4yr old ipod.

Sorry to hear about that Blue!

Seems like when things go bad, they bring a bunch of friends along too.

Here's hoping you get through this with a full recovery, or as much as is humanly possible to hope for.

For something to do, run your mind through a few 2700 matches from arrival at several ranges, through every shot, banter with your fellow shooters, and departure from the range. It'l help take your mind off a lot while things are slow.

Good things to you!

Al

Hope you start feeling better soon,

R,
Bullseye

Ouch. Hope this clears up soonest.

The surgery may be no problem,the shingles may give you fits, Came down with them on my right side chest but even worse on right back next to shoulder blade. Prob;em started in early September an still getting some pain at times

Good news, I was released to go home today. My back incession is healing good. Talking to my dr today I got some more info on why my surgery took so long. Apparently my original hardware supposed to be a 1 time use. I was not design to be taken apart. My dr ended up drilling out all 4 post to remove the rods the used pliers to unscrew the post. My dr said his assistant took the first rod and post to a bench and could not get it apart using a hammer. He also said my scar tissue was massive, which was what I expected.

The shingle on me are on my right side, starts in the center of the sturm about 3" wide to the center of my back. The area around the shoulder blade is what hurts the most. It has started backing off, only have to take meds for 3 more days for it.

My shingles were i n about the same p;ace, bigger on y\the back than the front.I still have some pin in the same areas.That is a about 5 plus months ago.