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[Guest guest]

Dear individuals w recent surgery (like )

I had surgery 8 weeks ago now. A discectomy on L5/S1. It was a major

herniation--3/4 fluid spilled out around disc and pressing on sciatic nerve-

actually had adhered to sciatic nerve and had to be separated. Bad news is I

reherniated win first week. Good news- finally after 2 months, the pain is

lessening, I am feeling stronger and no more debilitating sciatica.

I have always been a high energy, high achiever in school, work and very active

outdoors. Anfew weeks before my disc ruptured, I was mountain biking for hrs and

did an 111miles road ride/charity event. My core was strong and both my

non-surge and surgical docs and residents commented on how string I was.

Sooooo... I am thinking- month tops and I would be pretty much back to normal.

Surgeon told me 2-3 weeks recovery time - my dad and I both heard it (later his

followup PA laughed and said 2-3 months is more like it!) I have been torturing

myself thinking imshould be further along, able to do more, etc. STOP! It is not

nice to urself and ur body knows what it is doing. Do tiny bits of activity and

resist pushing it. Every time I have a good hr ornday, instant getting excited

and planning more activities. Take it from someone a month plus more out, ignore

this voice and go one day bat a time.

Granted, prior to surgery I had 2 months of untreated pain w 3-4 hrs sleep a

night then a bad reaction to neurontin but still. I have had to sleep 14-16 hrs

per day and have been, until this last week on 2 oxy every 4 hrs. I was able to

stop icing day and night until I started walking and now aching, burning,

cramping and pain at night again.

I hope this helps. I have also found the following book to be immensely helpful

in terms of calming me down, helping me be patient (i am in no way affiliated w

the books author or sales)

It's called " After Surgery Illness, or Trauma 10 Practical Steps to Renewed

Energy and Health "

by Regina Sara .

Another which I downloaded via Kindle is Full Catastrophe Living by Kabat-Zinn

which is about learning to be more in the present and all that u can learn from

ur surgery and emotions surrounding it vs worrying about the future, pushing the

healing process, etc. Gotnem both non Amazon after spending hrs reviewing review

of books.

There are plenty of people who benefit from back surgery and there are studies

to show it leads to quicker pain relief for many conditions in the short term. I

know of 3 people personally from very different periods of my life who are doing

well now after surgery when all other measures had failed prior to surgery, so I

wouldn't listen to whoever said surgery is all a scam. That is not a helpful

thing to hear when u just made a major decision to have surgery and doing best u

can to recover.

Hope this helps

Take care,