Edward’s Support and Communication

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ContributorEdward, 50Read Full Bio

Biography

Edward, 50, is married with two kids in college. He works in the Spanish Language Media. Besides playing football, rugby, and volleyball in high school and college, Edward’s family had a history of back pain. He had episodes of debilitating back spasms which started to happen more and more frequently. At age 29, Edward’s doctor discovered a significant herniation in his L4, L5 region. He had a microdiscectomy and felt immediate relief. When his back pain returned his social life and basic mobility was not what it used to be. You must ask yourself whether or not you are willing to live with this pain, Edward advises. He told his friends that if, hypothetically, he were in a building on fire he would not be able to make it down the stairs in time.

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ContributorEdward, 50Read Full Bio

Biography

Edward, 50, is married with two kids in college. He works in the Spanish Language Media. Besides playing football, rugby, and volleyball in high school and college, Edward’s family had a history of back pain. He had episodes of debilitating back spasms which started to happen more and more frequently. At age 29, Edward’s doctor discovered a significant herniation in his L4, L5 region. He had a microdiscectomy and felt immediate relief. When his back pain returned his social life and basic mobility was not what it used to be. You must ask yourself whether or not you are willing to live with this pain, Edward advises. He told his friends that if, hypothetically, he were in a building on fire he would not be able to make it down the stairs in time.

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Since Edward had already been through two surgeries, he felt that his family needed to be a part of the decision making process for his lumbar fusion. It would affect of all their lives. Edward is lucky in that he has had the same physician for 20 years, and a friend who is a back surgeon. The more he knew about his surgeries, the better he felt. Going back to work is an intimidating decision and he recommends starting slowly. Edward looks forward to playing all the sports he once was able to, but he knows there are no shortcuts to getting there.

Communication with all the doctors was really key. I've had the same physician for 20 years so she knows my whole history, she knows what I've been through. So keeping her involved and in the loop was really important. We bounced a lot of things off of her. I also have a friend I went to high school with who was a back surgeon in the Midwest.

He was great to bounce things off of as well. I think you feel better being informed at all levels whether it be your primary care physician, you know, all the way up to a second opinions, but, the more you know the-the better you'll feel. About two months after my surgery, still trying to get my arms wrapped around, you know, what's next. I know that it-there's a lot of heavy lifting. I know what I want to be able to do, I want to get back to playing golf and we've kind of set a time line, its late summer; nine months after my surgery which we-we all feel is manageable. You know, I wanna get back to mountain bike riding, I want to get back to doing boot camp; I wanna get back into playing basketball.

I know it's gonna take some work to get there. You don't automatically get back there-there's no shortcuts, so regardless of whether you go for surgery or you go another method, there's work that needs to be done and I think that it's the first step. I'm ready and excited to jump into physical therapy and do even more than the doctors are asking of me and try to get ahead of schedule but I think that all of us that have been through the pains and the agonies, we're anxious to do that once we’re physically able to do it. A few months ago, even if I wanted to I could not get into physical therapy. I wouldn't be-be able to do the things I'm doing right now to try and get myself back to being on a scale of one to 10, back to a seven or eight. Which is what I'm hoping for at this point.

Yeah, going back to work is a-is a really big decision. I think most people that I've spoken to that have had similar surgeries go back too early because we just feel better, you know, I think we just-all of us then say finally I feel like I'm back to normal and we get a little ahead of ourselves. Your body's still healing there's still a lot of swelling, there's still a lot of things that are going on that we'd probably be best to stay out another week or two. I think there's kind of a rush to get back to a life of normalcy and a-for a lot of us that means getting aback to the office. The big thing that I would recommend for people is to take as much time as you can, and even when you get back, try to do it on a part time basis.

It's been eight weeks since surgery and I'm still on part time. I've set up a-a standing desk so that I'm not sitting for long periods of time and overall I would say that's worked out great for me. Being the patient, you know, being looked after at home was not an easy thing. I'm not accustomed to that, but the kids were both home for holidays, so it was great having them, uh, and it was great having them help. My mom was actually in town so we actually had a great scenario, but it's hard for me because that's kind of a different type of role to take on but after a few days I learned to just kind of sit back and I dunno if enjoy it’s the right term-

But to let it happen cause they were very willing, and they wanted to help and be a part of the process after a while I guess I got a little used to it. But that goes away quick so you gotta just enjoy it cause it doesn't happen too long. You wanna get out, you wanna start walking, you wanna start doing things on your own. And frankly I think that's part of the-the healing process is to be able to get back to where you can do things for yourself. I'm turning 50, you know, next week and I don't wanna do another back surgery, so I'm really gonna take this physical therapy and this whole process of-of healing serious. I wanna make sure.

And not do things too quickly cause I really want to get back to some of the things that I really love to do. I think we've set some pretty good guidelines, you know, I wanna get back to, um, doing boot camp with my son and I wanna get back to playing golf with my friends on the weekends, and-and getting back to what I consider a normal active lifestyle. And I think all that's now possible after this fusion that I went through, it certainly would not have been had I not gone on to the surgery, and that's the way I look at it is it's given me a chance. Ance-ance-ance-ance.

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