Lower back spinal fusion recovery: How bad is it?

@annie1 My surgery was very successful. I am very happy with my results. I had moderate spinal cord compression and severe foraminal stenosis. I had a lot of nerve pain mostly in my left leg but it was also getting started in my right leg by the time I had the surgery, I also had a lot of low back pain from the DDD and herniated discs. The final straw was in 2025 when I herniated L4-5 just standing up from sitting on the couch. Yes, I do have osteopenia and it has progressed to osteoporosis in my femoral heads. My surgeon felt that my spine was in good enough shape to hold all the hardware without a problem. I am in Michigan and my spine surgeon is Bradley Ahlgren, M.D., FAAOS. He did an excellent job on my lumbar spine and he is also going to do my cervical surgery (C3-C7) next spring. I am confident that I will have another excellent outcome. I asked every medical person I know about Dr. Ahlgren's reputation in this area and they all gave him an excellent recommendation. He operates at Troy Beaumont (Corewell) Hospital in Troy, MI . I had excellent care at this hospital. Are you sure you want to travel out of state for your surgery? The trip home might be somewhat uncomfortable because of the healing incision. Good luck finding a surgeon, I know it is hard.

@yesibeleive those slip-on shoes are Skechers not sketchers!

@jenatsky 😂😂
I believe you are correct.
But, phonetically it is ok.
✌️

@llander1966
I've been recommended to many surgeons here in New York but the only problem is really only one or two of them do I know anyone who had surgery with them. And most people needed less surgery than I do if I was told correctly. So it's really hard to know what the outcomes would be. I posted on here asking if anyone had had surgery with some of them but nobody answered. I guess I can try again. Yes it would be hard going to Michigan and I'm sure there's great surgeons here I just don't have any personal recommendations except maybe one who had a different less involved diagnosis and I do. Oh well I'll just keep trying to get answers I'll keep posting it on Mayo and see if anyone had surgery in New York City and with whom. Glad to hear they're healing well.

Have you considered checking reviews on either Healthgrades or Medifind?
While they are not the best recommendations you can get, they could give
you a starting point. Medifind is pretty reliable because the ratings come
from medical people and not patients. Medifind will also give you
information about what procedures the doctors do the most often. I know
how hard it is to know if you have made the best pick. I have a lot of
health problems and have a number of other doctors whose opinions I trust.
I ultimately went with the surgeon recommended by my pain management doctor
but I also checked out Dr Ahlgren's reputation with many other doctors I
see. Did a doctor you trust recommend any spine surgeons to you? I think
that is where you might start. I hope you can find someone you can trust.
Having faith in the person operating on you is an important part of the
journey.

@llander1966
Thank you I'll check into that medfind. Unfortunately I don't really have any doctor who has any strong recommendation. I'm trying to narrow my search down. The bad news is that I had an EMG on Monday that showed more nerve damage lower down your s1 and I'm not sure if surgery will be able to help with that. Hopefully the surgeon who ordered the EMG will be able to tell me honestly if surgery will help. I guess you could help with stopping progression of nerve damage. It's a very complicated situation because I've had the same symptoms for 8 years already so I might have had nerve damage for that long although it is getting worse it appears. But I am talking to surgeon tomorrow and then another one next week and I'll see what the consensus is. In the meantime I'm going to look up medfind which I never heard of. That's a good tip to follow up on. Where do you live by the way? And who was your surgeon if it's close to New York maybe I'll check them out or even if it's not that close if they did a good job. What was your issue and what procedure did you have done? And what we are symptoms? Thanks again

ind.