One Year After 5-Level Back Fusion Surgery

Within a couple of days, I experienced back fusion surgery 12 months ago.  Primarily due to old age, L2-L3-L4-L5-S1 were fused together in a 3-hour surgery by an orthopedic surgeon.  There was some discussion about having this done by a neurosurgeon, especially since my surgeon had repeated my 5-level surgery over 1,500 times.  

The surgery itself lasted about 3 hours and I stayed two nights in the hospital because I had excessive bleeding with no other complications.

My other experiences staying over night were with non-profit hospitals but this one was a for-profit hospital and when they said they were going to discharge me first thing the next morning, I was sitting in a wheel chair waiting for my wife to arrive by 8:15 am.  These people did not fool around.

I never took any pain pills after my surgery and on my first night (in the hospital) I was sleeping on my back, without any pain at all.

However, my movement was severly restricted and had to force myself to walk for 5-10-15-20-30 minutes the first couple of months.  After about 6 weeks or so, I was walking a mile a day.  That first mile took me 58 minutes and I had to stop twice for 2-3 minutes to rest.

There was difficulty with walking up hill and up stairs.  However, this gradually got easier as time passed but I still have problems with both of those even after 12 months.

Limitation:  I can walk fine...  maybe there is a slight limp with one leg...  but, I cannot walk fast.

I am walking a mile in about 20/21 minutes and while I am walking only every other day, I will soon walk twice a day every other day or walk every day.  I am pretty sure that walking twice is better than walking more often or longer or faster.  My stride is long which is good and walking up hills has gotten a "tad" easier.

All the research that I have done has given me the impression that it could take 12-18 months before returning to normal...  it looks like I am going to be on the 18 month side of that range.

I have no problems bending over or lifting, although I am still careful about lifting too much.  Also, I am sure if I was younger, it would have been easier for me walk more.  Since I have retired, 2015, I spend more time sitting than walking around because my hobby is blogging and writing.

While there are many articles on the web regarding WHY NOT to do fusions greater than 3 levels, I was fortunate enough not to have any problems.  I think that was due to my surgeon's experience but also the fact that I maintained a well-exercised body until the age of 60-65.  If I was over-weight, it may have been much worse.