Edie's (almost) 6 month update

[Guest guest]

Hello all,

I just got back from my " sorta " 6 month check up with Dr. Bendo at the NYU

Hospital for

Joint Diseases in NYC. My official 6 months is October 9, but he told me to come

see him a

couple of weeks before I thought I was ready to go back to work.

My back is healing beautifully: no loose hardware, fusion taking and he is

pleased as

punch at my progress thus far. I have to say that I am, too. I have residual

aches and

pains, still, but he believes it will all ease up with our friend, time. To be

specific for those

who may be interested: by late afternoon, I can feel the hardware in the left

side of my

lumbar spine, which is pretty uncomfortable, and my energy level is certainly

not where it

was--yet. And my legs simply ache from accomodating my new (and correct)

posture.

However, I believe that with time and patience and continued vigilant water

workouts, I,

too can attain some type of " new normalcy " . The thing that has been really

helpful is

following other members' time lines. And it seems to be pretty universal, many

of the folks

further along seem to feel that it took about 18 months-2years to feel

" recovered " . I am

still on one vicodin in the evening when the aches flare up, but that's it.

I actually took the subway into Manhattan from Brooklyn, stopped off at my gym

to re-

register (I put the membership on hold to my pool in the city and joined one

closer to

home for these months of recovery), took another subway cross town to the

appointment.

To get home I had to take a bus to another subway, and walked 5 blocks home.

Before

surgery, this would have been unthinkable. Although I am tired and sore, I am so

pleased I

was able to cope.

I have emailed my managers at work to let them know I will be returning October

3rd

(gulp). I will be starting back part time until I feel I can move into full

time. It will

undoubtedly be a huge challenge, but the biggest challenge of all for me is the

commute,

not the work itself. I am also concerned at people's responses to my absence and

the fact

that I may still continue to need additional time off. But I'll cross that

bridge when I come

to it. I've decided that I will bring in printouts of my post op XRays and put

them on my

wall. So if anyone has any questions or issues, I can just point to them!

As far as restrictions go, he said I could try to start leaning at the hips if I

want, but don't

push it. As I said above, my legs are suffering a lot from the lack of

flexibility (I'm working

on this in the pool and on land) so I hope that having a little bendability will

help ease

their burden. He told me that my hardware is not going anywhere, so not to worry

about it

breaking or not protecting me! And he would like me to wait until April to go

scuba diving

again, although he said if I promise not to lift any heavy equipment and I feel

ready for it, I

could go sooner.

So, that's about the long and short of it for now. Just wanted to give you all

an update, as I

feel it's important for anyone facing this massive undertaking to get a sense of

our many

experiences and potential timelines.

Best to you all, will continue to update you periodically. For those of you

considering or

facing surgery in the future, I wish you the very best. I, for one, after

fending it off for

many many years, am very glad I took the plunge. The ultimate, long-term payoff

is

becoming more and more evident to me as time goes by. Will be happy to answer

any

questions any of you may have.

Warmly,

Edie