24 year old with L5/S1 lumbar disc replacement.
 

Hey everyone,

I'm new to the site so I thought I'd introduce myself. My name is Sam, I'm 24 years old from Australia and I got an L5/S1 lumbar disc replacement on July 10th 2014. I had ongoing pain after a rugby injury when I was 19.

I'm also a physiotherapist/physical therapist. There probably isn't many of them that have also had a disc replacement, so if anyone has anything they'd like to ask, feel free to ask on here or private message me!

Sam

Sam,

Sincerest condolences on having to pursue such drastic therapy as ADR at your age. It sounds like your early recovery is going very well.

Are you planning or hoping to return to rugby one day?

Good luck, Jeff

Thanks Jeff.

After the injury, surgery was always indicated, but the surgeon and I felt it important to exhaust all conservative avenues before going under the knife and see if the passage of time affected my pain, due to my age.

Yes, recovery's going well. I'm at the three week mark. There's still pain but I'm walking for 20 minutes 3 times a day and doing a daily pilates program.

As for the rugby, it's the surgeons recommendation that I don't expose myself to a situation where I subject the prosthesis to sudden, heavy and unpredictable forces, which I would begrudgingly agree with. He is happy for me to return to non-contact sport however.

I'll also make sure to post something a bit more in depth in the surgical outcome forum when I have the time!

Cheers, Sam

Hi Sam, welcome. We have quite a few members from Australia and New Zealand. You can find them with the member search, or advanced member search, in the quick links nav bar on top:

http://www.adrsupport.org/forums/mem....php?do=search

Osteo Rach was in your field, she's from New Zealand. She's pretty cool. Let me know if you can reach her (or not) by PM.

Cheers Harrison,

I've shot her a PM, we'll see if she gets back to me!

Long time since I've been on this forum but Ive replied to your pm. Happy to offer any advice I can after a very successful surgery with return to all activities. six years and counting...