Bob M.
Posts: 20
Joined: 9/2/2004
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I, too, am "enjoying" an extended break from work due to involved back injury that required fusing three of the lumbar vertebrae and installing metal supports because the middle one is now too weak to support the weight placed on it by the spinal column above. Yeah, I suppose you could call it a vacation. I do about.four hours of floor exercises and an hour of balance work daily. Haven't started the out-patient therapy yet due to a doctor's screwup. That'll add another three hours of exercise a week plus the travel time to the site. I can't drive yet , so I'm pretty much stuck in house (Thank heavens for.Matrix). But add in the pain from the non-involved muscles of the exercises with my weakened state and ii's hard to play games. No pain meds, Doctor forgot to prescribe them post operation and is an instructor at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Last paycheck was mid-December. Broke and overdrawn at bank. Worse still, no broad-band internet. "The horror! The horror!" - Kurtz, Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" or Delaurentis' "Apocalypse Now" - a virtually direct rip-off of Conrad's novel and nothing about Vietnam (yup, that's my era).
This may sound like one giant whine and, if so, I am sorry. It's not. It's just another "Job" year for me with cause for much joy. I get to see my grand kids and children frequently. I had been enduring far worse back pain for eight years before the operation. The surgeon operated within two weeks of seeing the MRI's of my back, saying I was on a fast track to becoming a quadriplegic with the nerve damage already experienced and the rate it was increasing.
So I'm very happy with my current position. The surgery provided immediate relief from level 7-8 pain in my back, hip, thigh, calf, and feet. Most of my other physical problems will resolve themselves (if I do the therapy work) in the next year or so. I'm not headed for a wheelchair. I will be able to return to my old job (thank you FMLA). I see a lot of my family, Sometimes I even sneak a few turns of a game in. What's not to like? Would I go back to work if I could? In a heartbeat. This, while not a totally unpleasant experience, is by no stretch of the imagination a "vacation". I told the neurosurgeon my expectations for the surgery: I just wanted to be able to walk reasonable distances normally again. To walk my dog, to be able to shop for myself, to stop getting to the second floor of my townhouse without dragging myself up by the.banister or crawling, even just to walk normally in from the parking lot at work instead of lurching in like Quasimodo .
But recovery from major surgery, while extended, is not as fun as a "sick" day here and there.
V/R
Bob Mercer
Still serving after the. US Army after 38 years: active duty Army and as a Department of the Army employee. (It's looking like it's time for a fourth career. Hope it's not survivor of a US meltdown .)
< Message edited by Bob M. -- 2/5/2014 12:49:53 PM >
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Just As I Suspected - 
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. No lifting for 6 weeks. 
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