Back Surgery Question(s)
 

The Mrs is going in for surgery on Fri..

She is having a couple of her vertebrae shaved so the herniation's fall back into place and alleviate her pain.

I am wondering

1) Has anyone had this done, or know someone close to them that has?

2) What is the recovery time?

The Doc is saying she should be down for 4 days and then moving around, we don't have little ones that need carrying, but she will have to start driving if possible on Tues because I have to go back to work (Commission based sales job, if I am out, no money being made)

3) Pain with the surgery?

How is the pain related to the surgery, how has the pain left after the surgery.


I am mainly concerned if I have to take more time off, it kills the pocket book, but I need to be with her if it is not like the doc says it is.

I'm sorry I can't give you any specific information, I've had a lingering back problem that I've been blissfully ignoring.

However, I guess the first question that pops into my mind is, "Is the surgery open or arthroscopic?" Quite often people say they have less pain with the arthroscopic surgeries (in general), but I couldn't judge that. I have a friend who had herniated disc surgery done arthroscopically and he said it wasn't bad. But I don't know how similar his procedure was to your wife's.

The other thought that comes to mind is that it sounds a little like bone spur removal surgery. I had a big spur removed from one of the bones in my hand, the pain from that was pretty easy, though I've had a lot of surgeries so maybe I'm biased, plus it's never been in my back... I was back at work the next day, though not really using my hand. By the following week (I think I had the surgery on a Thursday), I was feeling mostly alright.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful, and good luck to your wife!
/tk

Can't help much with surgery knowledge, but I encourage everyone with back/neck pain to try yoga. It has done wonders for me, alleviating back pain and restoring movement, particularly in my neck. I should mention that I take a type of yoga specifically designed for this purpose.

Yeah, my wife has tried everything...

Here is where the scary part was...the MRI was 1 1/2 weeks ago..the DR personally called and told her that she was being referred to a Neurosurgeon. Last Wednesday she went to the Dr, he looked at her MRI, the report and ran some testing and wanted to schedule her for surgery that Friday, I wasn't in town so they have her placed for this Friday.

It was severe enough that both doctors have stated they can't believe she is not paralyzed from the waist down.

SO, we have finally opted for Surgery 9 yrs later.

Bleh, on the way to the hospital...

She is scared as usual and barely slept last night..

Keeping you both in my thoughts for a successful surgery and speedy recovery.

Hope everything goes well!

You know, even though I've had 10 surgeries at this point, and expect at least 1 more this year alone, I always get nervous right before the surgery. Not as much the night before, but definitely day of. Admittedly, I have had some...complications with surgeries before, but it always strikes me as odd as to how anxious I get, given how many I've had.

/tk

Best of luck for your wife Dennis.

Thanks for the well wishes, we are home now, the surgery went well according to the doc, once the bad parts were removed everything shifted back into place and he said she should notice that her pain is gone once the surgery pain wears off.

We will see, she almost passed out from the pain with me walking her to the room.

Since I am playing nursemaid, I will be right by her side with the laptop for the next few days.

well at least it'll hopefully correct the problem!!

Glad things went well! Give her our best.

Good luck Dennis and Mrs. Macro

I had back problems bad enough to need an epidural so I can only imagine what she is going through.

Glad to hear it went well.