Normal to have severe stiffness/pain3 wks postop from lumbar fusion?

I think it will get better, 3 weeks is very early into your recovery.

@sherrym25 thank you!! I hope you have a nice Sunday!

I've had 2 lumbar fusions, and it does take a long time to heal. Great advice you've been getting on here, remember don't overdue in your haste to recover.

Give yourself two full years post surgery. Keep moving!

@ga29 I agree. This is a great forum and I appreciate the encouragement!

@mariette I am walking 2-3 miles each day. I know movement is the key!♥️🥰

Has anyone in this thread had ALIF ? They say I need that plus interbody fusion and that I will have a very big surgery! I'm really worried about side effects or unexpected things happening afterwards. I actually haven't chosen my surgeon yet. So has anyone out there had that type of surgery? Thanks much I'm 73.

@annie1
Did they describe in detail to you what is wrong and what this surgery will do to help? Did they walk you through exactly what they will do in surgery, what the prep would be, what the recovery would be, what medications are prescribed before after surgery, restrictions after surgery, etc.?

ALIF is a lumbar procedure they going through your abdomen to address the disc issues in the front of your spine and then need to put in an inter-body spacer and hardware to give spine proper height and stability for fusion.

This procedure may be done over a couple days due to the length of time under anesthesia and do the abdomen entry first and then do hardware from the back. It is basically 2 surgeries spread out and you have pain from both.

My lumbar fusion was only from the back and it was off the charts painful (11-12 out of 10) but I am glad I had it. My L4-L5 was totally closed (bone overgrowth/hypertrophy) and my surgeon needed to cut away a lot of bone to make space for my spinal cord/canal. My L4 was slipping over L5 so they needed to stabilize L3-L5 with hardware. It has been over a year and I still have some hip/hip flexor nerve pain but this may be due to the length of time of my compression injuries to my nerves.

They did describe going in through my abdomen first and then doing a decompression and fusion in the back, but they didn't offer a two day surgery. I talked to two surgeons who both would do this, and another that would do TLIF. The two that would do ALIF were very blunt, emphasizing how "big" a surgery this would be and with a long recovery time, not promising a certain percentage of pain relief.
Overall, is your pain less ? My nerves have been compressed for a long time also, very long, so I don't know if the surgery would really help with some of my symptoms,

Do you mind if I ask where you had the surgery ?

I had ALIF surgery a week ago tomorrow. On L4-L5. I had no disc in between the vertebrae, and L4 was slipped over L5, so it was bone-on-bone. Very painful which I was managing with ice paks day and night and 2 hydrocodone per day for quite some time. So I was a candidate for the ALIF. I was basically a 'clean slate' for this surgery, meaning I had no previous abdominal surgery (including pregnancy), no diabetes, no blood thinners, not morbidly obese, etc. The only thing was my lumbar spine had a 90 degree angle which made it trickier. The docs said they'd never seen a spine that deformed. So on with the procedure: it was one day, not two. About 5 hours or so. I came through fine, no complications. Sore? You bet, but soreness from the surgery incisions on the front and the 3 on the back. When they go in through the front, they make an incision from below the navel to the pubic area. And they have to move a lot of 'stuff' in that area to access the spine in order to put the spacer in. That's why it's so sore in the front. And puffy, from all the tissue trauma---to be expected. Yay for ice packs!! Keep 'em coming! And oxycodone, plus other meds. In the back, tissue trauma as well, but again, yay for ice packs. The agony of pre-surgery pain was gone, so I had no fear of the 'lightening bolts' of pain due to the slipped vertebrae. I am being very conservative with use of oxy---only 2 per day. Plus x-strength tylenol (no advil, sadly). But it will take, from what I have read here and other spots, several months for everything to knit together regarding the hardware that holds the 2 vertebrae til they actually join. No BLT's: no bending, lifting, twisting for months to come. I sleep in an adjustable power recliner which helps me get up safely--I highly recommend this, even if it is expensive---it is a worthwhile investment ( we actually bought it for my husband after his open heart surgery several years ago) and could save you from a movement accident. Also get one of those toilet seat risers.
Now, 2 weeks post-surgery, am I glad I took the chance? Yes. Do I have pain? Yes. But it is bearable, and I know that given plenty of time, the pain will subside. There is a lot of tissue/abdomen disruption with this surgery, so pain is to be expected but can be managed. providing you have enough flexible ice packs for both front and lower back, pain meds, plus people to help with basic needs. If I had not had this surgery, I would have been 'living' with unbearable, excruciating pain from those vertebrae pressing on my spinal cord, which oftentimes drove me to tears---and I am a pretty tough old gal. This is a very long answer to some of your questions and concerns, but hopefully will help you. Best of luck. PS one last piece of advice: choose your surgeons wisely!!!