Good evening @spudmato, I don't know if my experience will help you because it was quite a long time ago. When I was much younger, I had spinal surgery from falling down the stone stairs at the movie theater, At the time, I was so uneducated that I blamed my legs for creating their own pain. Of course, it was lumbar vertebrae. At that time after surgery, we stayed in the hospital for 10 days so that we could have lots of PT before going home where there was none.

I felt pretty good and sauntered back out on the golf course. However, the spine began to hurt again. One of my golf partners was an orthopedic surgeon and he found that the surgery had not been done well. In fact, the first surgeon was given his walking papers. And the next thing I knew was that my golf partner wanted to fuse bone from my hip onto my spine. Risk/benefit? Driven by a sense of trust (he didn't cheat at golf even when I was winning), I agreed.

Cutting to the chase, I was home by Christmas and using every club but a driver in a few months. Another friend and Yoga teacher told me that she was going to show me two exercises to do every morning to keep that spine healthy. I still do them today and I have not had any back issues in "are you ready for this?".........45 years.

There is no magic.......we are the ones who are responsible for doing what the surgeon and PT requested. We are the ones who must make sure we are ready for physical activity whether that be months or longer. Until fully recovered, we must look at every golf invitation or tennis match as another risk/benefit decision.

Here is another golden truth......if we learn to sit up very straight when we slide into a chair, that alone will strengthen our supporting muscles.

If you were waiting for the bad news.....yes there is some. The place on my hip where they "borrowed" the bone.........I now get injections to keep it happy.

May you be safe and protected from inner and outer harm.
Chris