Back Surgery

In three days, I will be going in for back surgery...  actually it is called PLIF surgery to fuse my lumbar vertebrae. L2-L3-L4-L5 & S1 will be fused which is considered to be a 4 level fusion...   and, I will not be able to drive a vehicle for 4-6 weeks nor will I be able to do any physical therapy for 12 weeks other than walk a little bit on a flat surface each day.  It is the most major surgery that I have ever experienced or will experience including 3 heart surgeries...  The photo below left is probably how my back is going to look after the surgery...  but there will also be 2 rods on either side as well...

you cannot always find a photo to match up with your surgery...  

I have been told that the surgery will last about 4-6 hours and that I will spend at least one night in the hospital but no more than two nights...

Hospitals are not the best place to recover from surgery even though there is a nurse assigned to take care of you...  you are in a strange room, using a strange bathroom, and strange people keep coming in to run tests and wake you up...

However, sometimes the food is actually pretty good, I must admit...

Unfortunately, I will not be able to post anything for several days...  after this coming Tuesday, and Wednesday's post reflects my situation as well as reminds you of my circumstances.  I trust you will give me a few days to recover before I start posting and writing again.

My doctor said that there is nothing that I did to cause this to happen...  that it is just AGE and had I not have been as active as I was, it would have been worse...  until the last couple of years, my wife and I used to walk 5 miles a day, 7 days a week unless it was raining, snowing, or too cold.  We also stopped eating red meat and fried foods 15 years ago and limited our intake of alcohol.  I quit smoking at the age of 40 and have never looked back.

Life is strange but you must do the best that you can with what you have been given.