L5-S1 ADR scheduled, hoping to get tips and advice!

[Busted Discgolfer]

Short history expanding on sig:

Summer 2017 - Injured L5-S1 moving a freezer up a staircase, pain started that day and got worse over following weeks. Could not sit for any period of time, but most exercise was ok.

Fall-Winter 2017 - Tried Chiropractor, disastrous painful results. Got an MRI which found disc bulge, got steroid shots and PT. Mostly resolved pain.

Summer 2022 - Pain slowly came back over prior year, played a rough game of disc golf and tweaked back. 2 days later full back spasms required a 2 day stay in the hospital to stabilize.

Summer/Fall 2022 - steroid shots and PT. Mostly resolved issues again.

Fall/winter 2023 - Pain came back over spring/summer 2023 in spite of daily exercises and stretches. Tried PT to be proactive, then steroids shots. No Relief. Hospitalized from putting pants on to go to work. Scans showed further disc degeneration of L5-S1. In hospital, surgeon suggested fusion, but I refused since I still wanted to retain motion, and my other drs were previously discussing more conservative approaches.

Late Spring 2024 - discogram CT (finally after insurance shenanigans) shows grade 5 annular tear. Surgeon recommends ADR with Prodisc-L
Oct 30 2024 - scheduled surgery date.



With that out of the way, I've read a number of testimonies on this site and I'm feeling really hopeful about my procedure giving me my life back! I've been hobbling around for the last year with little relief and it's stopped me from doing many of the activities I enjoyed before. Chores around the house are painful and I have to seriously pace myself. Even then, I pay for them the next day or three.

I am extremely lucky, however that I work a programming job fully remotely, and have a sit/stand desk that I can adjust any time, and if need be I can even lay on the floor with my keyboard in my lap.

All that said, I'm hoping some people who have gotten a lumbar ADR can give me some tips and advice that I may not get from the drs and education course I'll need to take prior to my surgery. An example I read is 'get 2 extended grabbers so if you drop one you're not SoL!'.

Additionally, I'd love to hear some conjecture on how long I should expect to be out of work given that I can effectively work from a bed part time if need be, and I have no commute to worry about.


Thanks all in advance.

[annapurna]

First recovery advice: rework your house ahead of the surgery. You'll have an extended time when bending over and lifting will be restricted. Look at all of your daily and weekly tasks and make sure you can access what you need with limited bending. You will likely need to move things around but you might also need to kit smaller portions of things in that easy to grab zone, that can later be restocked by a more able-bodied person.

We do almost all our own cooking so preparing and freezing a couple of weeks worth of easy to reheat food is important as well.

The general advice about recovery is that everyone over-does it at some point. While it's important to not over do it, it's even more important to be able to quickly listen to your body when you do push too fast and scale back. My experience with surgeries is that you regain enough energy to be bored and antsy well before you regain enough health to really be up and doing. Sounds like your work situation is well set up for this but be careful about scheduling too many must-dos as you begin to feel like you can take them on. Being unable to scale back when you realize you've over-done can really hurt your recovery.