Advice for spouse of Spinal Fusion surgery pre-op and post-op

All those things mentioned above are great. My only addition would be to watch the YouTube videos that are available. There are many that will prepare you for surgery really well you can watch them at your convenience. I attended the pre-surgery meeting. They had at the hospital for people having joint replacements, and Spine and hip surgeries and they were very informative and you can ask questions so if your hospital or doctors office has that which one of them should I suggest you go in for those meetings. You need to be in front of somebody to round out the context in a discussion that will be most helpful to the things that people have mentioned here as to why you need those things. The best thing to prepare is to get exercise before you have the surgeryexercise exercise exercise even those little baby exercises cause you’ll need your strength going into surgery or your spouse will. Good luck.

The most important advice I can give to your spouse is this: install a partial railing on your spouses' side of the bed. This should go between the mattress and box spring just below where her head goes. She should use it while doing the log roll in order to get in and out of bed. It helps immensely! I am still using it after 4 mths post surgery and love it.
Secondly, I would suggest you get a raised toilet seat for the bathroom(s) she will be using. Many varieties and price lines. You don't have to have a plumber install a new higher toilet, but if you wish to spend the money, it would certainly be great.
Also, precede her down the stairs, and follow her up the stairs. She should use handrail plus cane.
You should also be available while she is in the shower for the first few weeks or so.
You will find you will have to follow her somewhat around the house to pick up anything she drops. It can be time consuming, but she will drop lots of stuff that she won't be allowed to pick up herself.

Also extremely important: Be patient!!!!! It won't last forever. Hang in there.

@garytpickens - Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. MCC is a great place to ask questions exactly like the one you asked.

I had a four-level decompression/laminectomy and fusion at L2-5 in May 2023. I counted on my spouse (wife) for many things! She was always with me during surgeon visits serving as an extra set of ears. She helped prepare the house for the initial period when I was pretty helpless...She also used all of her patience to deal with me during what can be a challenging recovery - especially in the early weeks.

Do you have a list of things and equipment to have at home to make recovery better? Super important, I found.

The most important advice I can give to your spouse is this: install a partial railing on your spouses' side of the bed. This should go between the mattress and box spring just below where her head goes. She should use it while doing the log roll in order to get in and out of bed. It helps immensely! I am still using it after 4 mths post surgery and love it.
Secondly, I would suggest you get a raised toilet seat for the bathroom(s) she will be using. Many varieties and price lines. You don't have to have a plumber install a new higher toilet, but if you wish to spend the money, it would certainly be great.
Also, precede her down the stairs, and follow her up the stairs. She should use handrail plus cane.
You should also be available while she is in the shower for the first few weeks or so.
You will find you will have to follow her somewhat around the house to pick up anything she drops. It can be time consuming, but she will drop lots of stuff that she won't be allowed to pick up herself.

Also extremely important: Be patient!!!!! It won't last forever. Hang in there.

Make sure to express your gratitude to your wife starting pre-surgery so you aren’t in too much pain and grumpy that you don’t remember. it isn’t always easy caring for a loved one after a fusion. She will need to have patience we are helpless at times. Things that should be easy to accomplish are so difficult or off limits. Tie a string around the remote for the TV so she doesn’t have to keep finding it for you especially when it is right next to you.

Indispensable items for me -- I had decompression/fusion surgery 10 weeks ago:
Shower chair
Handheld shower sprayer
Suction cup holder to put on shower wall for handheld sprayer (available for about $10 onliine)
Long handle bath brush specifically for private areas ($10)
Misc. suction cup hooks for placing shower items at your sitting level
Toilet aid for wiping ($10)
Toilet rails
Walker to help me get on and off the couch in the early post-op days (bought one for $4 from Goodwill).
Grabber -- I was shocked at how many things I could do with a grabber, such as laundry without assistance.

And don't forget to walk. I averaged 2500-3000 steps per day for the first two weeks and more after that. I'm now pretty much back to most of my routine pre-op activities. I attribute that, in part, to following doctor's orders on intermittent walking throughout the day.

Good luck!

I couldn’t live without my portable toilet/shower chair.

It sat next to my bed. (I wish I had thought of a side-rail - I could still use it ~18 mo later). Was able to use it to haul myself out of bed. Hubby dumped the tinkle in the a.m.

When I was able to walk reliably to toilet - unfortunately, a regular height, it went into our shower. I finally got sick of looking at it after about 6 months.

Never thought to buy a thing my dad had that sat over the bowl, and was height adjustable. I used to love using it in their bathroom, as we are all tall, and he had it higher than a regular tall toilet. It looked a lot like the shower chair.

Good luck. After the first 1-2 weeks at home, I had so little pain, my activity increased.

Unfortunately, my pain is back due to stenosis, arthritis. Had 4 ablations 3 weeks ago - doing well. Still have a hard time walking, no core strength. Just had 2nd PT vs today. Dang I really got to move!! Of course I know that, but I like my massaging zero-recliner better than exercising!!!