Recovery - Week 2Well, I have now completed 3 weeks since the operation. In general I feel much better. I am still wearing the neck brace about 95% of the time while I am awake and 100% of the time while I sleep.
I have been getting more and more exercise each day. I started walking about a week and a half ago and am now up to about 45 minutes around the neighborhood park. I have not tried running yet, but I think I could if not for the worry that I could slip. i will wait to push my exercise routine till after the fusion is more solid.
In terms of pain, most of the neck pain is gone now, however the hip pain remains as a dull, mostly constant ache. It feels like a side ache deep in my hip bone. That said, it is very bearable. Like I said, I am up to 45 minutes walking and the limitation is mostly me getting bored of walking rather than the hip causing me to stop. Swallowing is still a bit...incomplete...but my doctor thinks that this will get better eventually.
Sleep is still really only possible with sleeping pills though since the neck brace is highly annoying.
This week, I went in for a follow up to last week's distrurbing appointment. Although it was sooner than the doctor had recommended, I had felt stressed about further slippage.
Happily, the X-Ray was quite positive. No further slippage had occured and the bone fusion was clearly visable. i also had a chance to ask several more questions.....
Q: Is it ok for me to work from home? I mean, so long as I wear the neck brace and stop when I feel tired, can I start working again now from home?
A: Yes. Basically, my doctor is fine with me working and traveling provided that I "Feel" okay about it. I guess the general sense is that I should just listen to my body and not push things. At this point, the fusion has already taken place so there is not much I can do to dammage the progress while sitting in front of a keyboard.
Obviously I shoud wear the brace when at all possible just to be on the safe side.
Q: I was told that left/right rotation (like saying no) is ok but that up/down rotation (like saying yes) is bad. What about side/side motion (as if the head is bouncing from one shoulder to another) or front/back motion? Or walk like an Egyptian motion? The side/side question is important because if I sleep on my side, with a pillow, there is a tendency to end up with my head tilted all night.
A: Apparently, the only really bad motion is up down. All the other motions are OK.
Q: My neck muscles have been really tight (as they were before the operation). I have been trying to relax them with tiger balm, but the other day I was not thinking and I cracked my neck by tilting it and contracting my neck muscles (a bit habitual). Anyway, I was wearing the collar AND I did not crack my neck with my hands AND there was no pain (in fact it was a relieving feeling).
But I was deeply concerned that this was bad for the fusion. Is this something where I should do another X-Ray to check to make sure I have not worsened the slippage of the hip bone implant? A: No problem.
Q: I did not get a chance to ask why the hip bone implant would have slipped. Was it something I did? Could it have been caused when the CT Scan people let my head drop backwards in the hospital the day after the surgery? Or is it just something that happens naturally sometimes?
A: I did not really get an answer to this...I guess the doctor is careful not to implicate the X-Ray physicains. However, I got the impression that this may have been the cause.
Q: One of the reasons that I decided to do the surgery was a recognition that I am the type of person that leads a very active lifestyle and it would be unrealistic to have the weakness in the spine and not expect an accident at some point.
Considering that the hip bone implant has slipped forward, will there be an ongoing weakness in my spine such that I need to live a reduced-activity lifestyle? This won't be very feasible long-term. Should I consider another operation to try again?
A: The doctor said that the slippage was acceptable. He said that by one year the protrusio in front should wear down and that the empty space in the back will fill in. At any rate, the slippage shoudl cause no long-term issue.
Second opinions seem to back this up.
The next stage in the process of recovery will be physio. I have my first physio appointment next week. I will write a report on that afterwards.
Pre Op Journal | Post Op Journal | Recovery - Week One | Recovery - Week Two | Photos
Selena's Home | Creations | Seleves | Photo Gallery | Resume