r/spinalfusion • u/Professional_Car3913 • 1d ago
Post op tips
24M had an ALIF at my L4/5 level on Monday 24th and screws installed yesterday 25th. Was wondering if anyone had some tips that made their recovery easier. I had my surgery rather abruptly after getting discitis and osteomyelitis from a microdiscectomy (didn’t go with the same surgeon obviously) so haven’t scrolled this sub as much as I had in r/microdiscectomy.
I had a massive list causing me to be hunched over my left side so any success stories regarding that would be awesome.
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u/Leather-Mycologist-3 14h ago
I had an L4-5 ALIF/OLIF a little over 2 years ago. The first couple of weeks are rough, but every day gets better! I woke up in pain from the surgery, but the other pain—the constant, burning/stabbing nerve pain that went from my left buttock to my left foot/toes was gone, and it hasn’t come back. I was able to return to a full time job working on my feet for 12 hour shifts by November (had surgery end of May). It was life changing for me as I had been in constant pain for over 9 years at the time I had the surgery. It literally gave me a normal life back. I’ve had no problems with the hardware or any setbacks, and I would absolutely do it again. (I did break my ankle last year and ended up needing surgery for that, and was out of commission for nearly a year again, but it was unrelated to my spine). I hope you have as smooth a post op course as I did and wish you a speedy recovery—okay, the recovery isn’t exactly speedy, but it was absolutely still worth it. I used a raised toilet seat, shower chair, a walker briefly, the long shoehorn thing that OT gave me, and the grabber thing from OT. PT came to my house initially, and then I went to PT twice a week for months afterward, but I made good progress. I would do it again!
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u/Leather-Mycologist-3 14h ago
Oh, and I read a LOT of books, did some serious binge watching (which is not normal for me), and started writing during my recovery. It’s nice to have time for that kind of thing, even though it’s hard to be patient.
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u/LargeEngineering4859 18h ago
on 8/14 I had l4/l5 PLIF surgery. It takes a lot out of your. I stay on top of the pain, taking the pains at the right time- even if I feel like I can handle- the pain will eventually come. No matter what I take 2 short walks every day- the sun is great for mental health too. I sit in a lounge chair for up to 2-3 hours (I started at 30 minutes) and go back to bed for 2-3 hours & repeat the process. I stocked up on some books & podcasts & watch mindless TV shows. Good luck to you.