@sue4
Yes, my surgery was a success and I am fused L3-L5 now with hardware. They went through my back for open surgery so it was extremely painful (worst pain I ever experienced and due to cutting muscle and cutting away bone/drilling in hardware. My cervical spine surgery was nowhere near as painful as the lumbar surgery.

I only stayed overnight at the hospital and left the next day midafternoon after drainage reduced. I took pain medications for about a week and then started to taper down. The significant pain started to reduce after the first few weeks and so had 2 week, 6 week and 3 month follow-up appointments to check wound healing, etc. I was not able to shower for a couple weeks but found ways to do sponge baths and wash my hair hanging over the bathtub. I used grabbers to reach things done you cannot bend or twist for a while. I had many pillows in my bed to help me change positions and prop myself up/put pillows between knees, etc. I had a walker in the hospital and leaned on when getting out of bed and putting on shoes. A bed bar helped a lot to turn over in bed and reposition myself (long arm fits between mattress and box spring and a used the bar next to the bed to pull myself over to change positions).

The first month was the hardest but as the weeks and months passed, the pain reduced and my movement improved. It takes about 3 months to fuse and my physical therapy didn’t start until 2.5 months (really important not to smoke, take NSAIDs or twist while recovering/fusing) and 6-12 months to fully heal and see how your surgery addressed your pre-surgery symptoms. My year anniversary is early August and my pain in lower back is much less and the numbness in my legs/feet is mostly gone. I still have some weakness in my hips/legs but not sure if this is also tied to my cervical spinal cord injury (which can also affect lower body).

Do you have surgery planned soon?