An Anniversary

Yesterday was the 6-month anniversary of my third and latest back surgery – a 4 level spinal fusion. Readers know that occasionally I use Feathered Photography as a means of keeping family and friends up to date on significant developments in my life and this surgery was nothing if it wasn’t significant. Thus today’s post.

 

My surgeon told me that “full recovery” (whatever that is) would take at least six months and some of his patients report continued, slow improvement for up to a year after surgery. At 6 months, this is where I stand – reported as “Discouraging Signs”, “Encouraging Signs” and “Future Challenges”.

 

Discouraging Signs:

  • Too much standing or walking continues to cause nerve pain and discomfort in my legs, hips and back, but not nearly as much, or as often, as I had pre-surgery. Yesterday I spent too much time walking around Lowe’s and I’m paying for it today.
  • Those rods and screws in my back have stiffened me up significantly but that was expected. My surgeon told me that people “get used to” the loss of flexibility. I’m not there yet and I may never be.
  • I continue to have good days and bad days, though the number of good days has increased significantly.

 

Encouraging Signs:

  • I can now walk up and down the stairs in my home repeatedly without causing leg symptoms – a major, positive development.
  • I’m no longer restricted by how much weight I can lift. My surgeon told me to just “use common sense”. If it hurts, don’t do it.
  • I’m beginning (tentatively) to do home maintenance chores again without paying for it for days. A few days ago I crawled under my kitchen sink to tighten up the loose faucet. Pre-surgery, and for months post-surgery, that’s something I had zero chance of accomplishing. It wasn’t fun but I got it done.
  • I can now drive for long distances without pissing off my back – a huge development considering that many of my favorite birding locations require long drives to get there.
  • I can now pick things up off the floor when I drop them. You can’t imagine what a game-changer that’s been.
  • Most nights I can sleep without pain or even discomfort – hallelujah!

 

Future Challenges:

  • Yard/garden work, if it ever stops snowing, will be a major test. I know I’ll have to alter many of my usual work patterns but I’m hopeful that I can at least accomplish the basics. And I consider garden tomatoes a “basic”.
  • My camping trailer. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been slowly and very tentatively working on some trailer maintenance and minor upgrades. Time will tell if I can get it road-worthy and do all the other physically demanding chores required to go on extended camping/photography trips this spring and summer. How that turns out will determine whether I keep the trailer or sell it.

 

  • Putting my socks on without using my handy-dandy “grabber”. For some illogical reason that seemingly minor challenge has become symbolic in my mind of the surgery’s ultimate success or failure. I’d love to throw that damn thing away. Or at least relegate it to storage for emergency use only.

My last challenge is to make today’s blog post the last one, ever, that contains the words “surgery” and/or “back fusion”. That would be a relief for me, my family and friends and my blog followers.

Ron

 

43 Comments

  1. Mary Walton Mayshark-Stavely

    Formidable!! Sounds like good progress! I do some minor pilates and Chi Kung (not sure of spelling) exercise that really seem to help. The pilates coach (on line) is also my physical therapist. I’d be happy to send a link to the pilates if you’d like to try. Bon courage!

  2. Hi Ron –
    Well, actually as I read through the list, I see a lot of positives. It’s good to see the improvements you listed. It’s a natural tendency to want to keep doing more, but I trust you’ll keep seeing more improvements the longer you go. My wife has had two of those, with 11 fused now, and it can be a challenge but still doable. Thanks for the update and continued best wishes for better health.
    (By the way, there’s a better device for sock pulling – voice of experience here! Check out those plastic, cloth-covered devices with 2 pull straps. Work great, has taken us through combined 6 surgeries. But I highly recommend that grabber for everything else!!)
    Quentin

  3. Glad to hear that you are doing well and improvement continues. Slow but steady wins the race. Perhaps that snow covering your lawn is a godsend ?? For now it keeps the rake and lawnmower in the shed !!

  4. I’ve heard stories of back surgeries with very bad results. I’m very happy your progress is, so far, very positive. Here’s hoping that continues, Ron!🤞

  5. Happy Anniversary, Professor Dudley! I, too, am very happy to see that the “encouraging” bullet points outnumber the “discouraging” ones — as it should be, given what you’ve been through. So congrats on getting this far and making the best of a tough time. 🥳

    Just saw this on Twitter: “California is about to have its largest snowpack in recorded history with another atmospheric river arriving tomorrow expected to bring 2-4 feet more snow. The snowpack is currently 225% of the peak average.” So…yes, sadly, we have a ways to go ‘til warmer and greener days. 🤷🏼‍♀️

  6. Thank you for the update from Utah! Those “encouraging signs” are really great ones! And it sounds like pretty soon your grabber can just become a handy tool, not a necessity. (The clacking sound ours makes is very useful for coaxing a cat out from under the bed!) Love Lyle’s suggestion of work pants with built in knee pads. Possible to do raised garden beds for tomatoes? The New York Times online had a prominent story about Great Salt Lake the other day – heartbreaking. Thinking of you trying to bend with all that metal in your back – slow, slow, but you are making progress.

    • Ha, I’ll bet the business end of a grabber would REALLY get the attention of a cat, Carolyn.

      Yes, that Times article about the lake was written by my friend Terry Tempest Williams. I read it a couple of days ago.

  7. Ron,

    Hopeful news and best of luck. I am taking my wife into the neurosurgeon this week anticipating a similar post-operative spinal X-ray (it will be her fourth operation). As you already know: you are not alone.

    “Sucks to get old,” and “Youth is wasted on the young,” as they say…

    All the best,

    Stephen

  8. Progress is progress. My wish, my hope is for you to go on a camping trip in your trailer this summer.

    Take Care,
    Kaye

  9. I appreciate the updates! Like others, I’m glad to see that your “good” list exceeds the “bad” and “ugly.” As a fellow ‘stocks-in-the-snow person –although I did break down and wore the clog ones the last time I was in DC during winter — I hope you have some wild socks to wear with them (and get the soft footbed versions of the shoes)! 😉

    I still have one of my mom’s old reachers and and find it quite handy to fish out a wayward bit o’ stuff that falls between the washer & dryer or something that rolls under the fridge. I have switched to long BBQ tongs for grabbing stuff off the top shelves of cupboards, though.

    Speaking of snow, sorry to report that we’re having more of it in the mountains and rain down here Wednesday and Thursday, so you’re probably gonna get it too. Sorry about that.

    Wishing you continued progress and bountiful tomatoes! ❤️

    • Marty, I’m afraid I’m not a “wild socks” kinda guy. Decades ago someone gave me a couple of pairs of wild socks that only sat in my drawer until I finally threw them away a couple of years ago.

      It’s been snowing most of the morning. Again. I’m beginning to think it will never end. Alta Ski Resort hit 749″ of snow this season and Brighton has had 765″. We’re going to have an interesting snow-melt…

  10. I really, really hope it is your third and LAST back surgery. Thanks for the update.
    Health challenges outsuck Dyson.

  11. I have a grabber just like yours, and it’s literally for the birds. I use it to get one of the bird feeders down off the pole (it’s high because of squirrels and sprinklers).
    Although my back problems pale besides yours, I found that those work pants with the knee pockets that hold a piece of foam were game changers for gardening. I can kneel down with back straight and the pads keep my knees cushy and dry.

    • Lyle, I’ll have to keep those work pants in mind when I get back to gardening. I hope it’s soon.

    • Thanks for the update, Ron! I’m sure you’ll add more to the encouraging signs list as time marches on. Once this forever winter ends and the air warms up a little I’m sure that’ll do you some good too. I know that it will for me.

  12. Everett F Sanborn

    Very interesting post Ron.. First thing you did was make me feel much better. Bothered by a painful muscle pull near my ribs on the right side that has been making me feel sorry for myself as I prepare to hit 85 in a few days. Just looking at that back surgery and what you and so many others have overcome post surgery makes me instantly feel better.
    Five years ago I started putting the morning newspaper up on a ledge by the garage door for my widowed neighbor my age who had the same surgery you did. And five years later I still do it although now she can bend over, but it took a long time for her to get there.
    Best wishes for continued improvement and more energy and strength to handle all you do. Look forward every morning to this post. Thank you.

    • Everett, I’m sorry that it hasn’t been there for you “every morning” lately. I hope to improve upon that record soon.

      I love that you and your neighbor are getting double duty out of your newspaper.

  13. Michael McNamara

    Happy anniversary Ron. At least the “Encouraging Signs” have twice the bullet points than the “Discouraging Signs.”

    That is a quite an impressive bit of hardware you are carrying around. Recovery takes patience and courage. I think you got both of those.

    Keep us posted.

    • “That is a quite an impressive bit of hardware you are carrying around.”

      Michael, a good friend of mine said it resembles a “medieval torture device”. I don’t disagree.

  14. Good to hear you’re progressing… I’m sure not as quickly as you’d like. Hoping in another 6 months I’ll be even better.
    Keep on truckin Ron😊

  15. So happy to hear about the improvements that you have made in your recovery. I’m sad that you didn’t get everything you were hoping for, but heck, that’s a lot of hardware in your back…

    I’m sure you are tired of talking & blogging, or even thinking about your ordeal, but I find it inspiring that in spite of it, you get out there and do it. My knees are both afflicted with arthritis and I’ve allowed it (along with a couple of other easily surmountable challenges) to slow me down to the extent that I rarely get out to photograph anymore. I work on drawings and paintings, but am now running out of my own source material. Your post shows me that I have to muster the grit to get back out there again. Get back to doing somthing I love to do, but maybe in a more manageable way.

    So, thank you once again for sharing with us both your challenges and your successes.

  16. I’m surely glad to hear your “glass half full” characterization of the situation.
    Back when I had a serious spinal situation, I don’t think that the “grabber”
    even existed ( if it did, I never heard of it–40 years ago ), and there is NO WAY to make anyone who hasn’t experienced it understand the agony of trying to put a sock on a foot. I send you heartfelt wishes for continued progress and
    congratulations on making it thru these 6 months with good improvement !

    • “there is NO WAY to make anyone who hasn’t experienced it understand the agony of trying to put a sock on a foot.”

      Exactly, Kris. I wouldn’t have understood it until I had this surgery.

  17. Glad to hear of your reduced pain and increased mobility. Healing from surgery can seem like an interminably long road… much like this winter. Maybe by May we can get together for a visit.

  18. Appears life is/will be more tolerable, even enjoyable, as a result of the surgery tho far from “perfect” or “hoped for”. 😉 These old bodies just continue to wear out and the “sins of our youth” demand payback…… Thx for the update!

    • Judy, I’m sometimes asked if I had it (the surgery) to do over, would I do it again. I would. But I’m sure as hell glad I don’t have to.

      Too bad that the list of the “sins of my youth” is such a long one…

  19. This post makes me very happy! And you are not the only one saying “If it ever stops snowing!”

  20. That the number of good days now outnumbers bad days and that their number is increasing is good to hear. But as a shortie who loves her “reacher” I don’t understand your antipathy toward this so useful tool. As for socks? LOL. Who really needs them, at least around the house, yard or on your birding trips? I have lately taken to sticking bare feet into permanently laced sneakers and going out for quickie type short jaunts even when there is snow on the ground. No need to worry about wet socks when I come in and feet dry much faster than fabric. 😉😁

    • “I don’t understand your antipathy toward this so useful tool”

      It’s a love/hate relationship, Granny Pat. I’m very glad I had it but at this point I’d love to be able to get rid of it.

      I have neuropathy in my feet so I haven’t worn regular shoes for several years. I wear my Birkenstocks instead. Sandals without socks in winter – no thanks, not around here.

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