Can someone give me a sample time line on healing after long fusion .

Hi Robert,

I am so happy to here how well you doing and that your Pre-surgery chronic pain is gone!🙏🙏🙏😊
Keep up the good work🚶‍♂️😊
Best wishes!
Nadine

@rwdixon4 Yaaaay!!!! I’m so happy to hear how well you are doing! Keep up the good work 😊
Wishing you the best, Sherry

@sherrym25 I push hard every day to get the 1K steps the pain is still there and it has it's
setbacks and disappointments' that's all part of getting better. It's hard just sitting here typing this! ! ! It was showing signs improvement every day then it stopped I will keep trying to get more steps and moving outside to walk will help I hope. Have to keep trying as I know I am not finished yet! Not even close !
Keep on pushing ~ ~ ~

@rwdixon4 you’ve got this!!!

@donaldrobert

I will not lie to you Donald. I’m 62. I had nearly the same thing. I had developed 30% scoliosis. It hurt but I could do everything and live on my own.
The pain after a full spine surgery escapes all words. I am almost a month post surgery. Still in ridiculous pain. I have lost function in my right leg, and I now also have paralysis in my left arm. I am angry. I was told I could have worn braces for a year or more and correct the scoliosis as an alternative to this insane surgery. Instead I rushed into the most painful surgery i have ever had. A full spinal fusion ( mine included a SI joint fusion) is barbaric, it’s brutal and hellish. People will avoid the negative aspects of the surgery but I want you to be ready for less than a perfect outcome. My post surgery outcome is NOT what I expected. Don’t be fooled, you are a number and dollar sign to them. They can brag they completed a very difficult and long (mine was 9 hours) surgery and make a sweet million in one day. Did you see the article that just came out the other day? Mayo has over 100 doctors who make over a million a year. You are a $$ to most of them. My surgeon saw me for 30 seconds after my surgery. He hasn’t asked how I’m doing or anything. I think there is a surgeon at Mayo in Arizona that seems to genuinely care about his patients. I suggest you research ALL noninvasive options, try to avoid surgery. But if you absolutely have to go through the living hell I just past through, I pray you have a better outcome. Even IF you have zero complications (which is NOT the norm for such an incredibly invasive surgery), it’s MAJOR trauma to your body. You think you’re in pain now? Just wait, there are no words to describe the first 2-3 weeks. Slow down. I had 5 prior back surgeries, I’m was in great shape. I knocked those out of the park like it was little league. A full spinal surgery is MAJOR league. Few ever experience the type of pain you’ll experience. Ask AI the truth about an full spinal surgery and how you’ll feel physically, mentally, emotionally even spiritually afterwards! The doctors won’t tell you things like it even messes up your vision. I haven’t asked anyone yet if my normal vision will return, because it’s the LEAST of my worries. Other things they won’t tell you. I was at a healthy weight, had a good appetite, my skin looked good. Now I have lost 30lbs since I didn’t eat the first two weeks post op. I just drank juice and water. Now I have a body of a ninety year old. My muscles disappeared in a month because my body is just trying to survive, it can’t even think about building back muscle mass right now.
Finally, SLOW down. There are other options. Research them. Also I’m a man of strong Christian faith. If I didn’t have that, I’m afraid I would have died. You’re looking at a decision that will change everything in your life and it won’t all be positive.

@donaldrobert

PS- I cannot walk a month post surgery. I am in a wheelchair. Please RESEARCH all options, take your time. You are a dollar sign to most of the surgeons.

Hi Jackk,
I certainly hope that your inability to walk corrects itself as soon as possible. How awful.
Thank you for that advice. Will continue to research and to reach out to people.
Take care and please, get well soon.

Hi Jack,
Sorry I saw the PS first (my e-mail updated and now I can’t find half of what is sent).
Thank God you have faith. It certainly sounds like your surgeon has faith in how much he can make and not in what he should have done properly. It is unfathomable that you have to live in more pain and being certainly more disabled than prior to surgery. Did the surgeon skip classes the day they explained surgery was to correct not destroy?
Suppose every doctor wants you to recover from this surgery before they will assess you.
Is there much time left before a “typical patient” would be able to get up, move around, see a doctor/surgeon? Hope you have a good GP who can coordinate your recovery.
Please take care Jack. You have given me so much to think about. Really, really appreciate your frankness. It is refreshing to get honest information.
Cheers,
Don

You’re quite welcome, Don

@donaldrobert
I odn't know if this will be helpful or not. I am in a position of having no more non-surigical options. I have already done MILD with some relief. My pain is all Sciatica. Right now it is accepting the pain levels and loss of quality of life or do the fusion. Mine would only be 3 levels but thats plenty.

I am not going to do surgery until I have to and both Dr.'s I have seen agree,
I need to take off weight also. Both are telling me realistically I'm looking at 50% pain relief and probably pain in my back that I don't have now.
I do appreciate the fact that both of the don't blow smoke up my a**

My wife is fused from T9-Pelvis. It was done over 6 surgeries and probably 10 years but had a revision done the 2nd to the last surgery that encompassed the whole thing. It was a combination of the discs failing above the fusion, a quack of a dr. and a fall.

She is walking but is on long term opiods which is another slow form of death.
She gets around with a walker or using shopping cart and can do about 3/4 of a mile with it.