Anybody have this done? How did it work out?

Having it done in Flagstaff, traveled there today...finally getting some snow in northern AZ.

Nope, but best of luck to you!

No report I can give but best wishes and recovery to you.

I had a "360" done a year ago last week L3-L4-L5. Get up and walk ASAP and keep doing so at every opportunity Make sure your gut wakes up well after surgery as this is sometimes a real problem. Keep walking until you are healed enough to do physical therapy. get off the pain meds as soon as possible. Good luck with this. I was able to return to full work after about 5-6 months hopefully yours won't be as extensive....

Good luck.If you don't follow Dr. orders, 30-50 % of patients are back under the knife in less than 10 years. Learn to squat instead of bending, limit twisting, limit load lifting to what they tell you. Mine is is 40 pounds. Walk every a day even after returning to normal life.Do back exercises the rest of your life. I am looking at my third back surgery now.

Okie is spot on.
I had mine done last year November.
Wasn't awake 30 minutes, and I was up walking.
No pain meds til you go.
Took me over a day...
The pain was unbelievable!
Doing fine now. Was off for 4 months.

Dang.That looks just like mine, only I have double the number of screws.Ditto on the pain

good luck

Best wishes on the surgery. Recovery time and discomfort depend on how much had to be done.

Best wishes - hope the work goes as well as possible and that you have a great recovery - and can really enjoy some benefits. Wish we had snow snow - or any form of moisture - down here.

Dude, hope you can recover without too much discomfort. I have many friends in the construction trades go through this. Thankfully, I am not one of em , yet! Hang tough!

My son had exactly this done 13 months ago at 27. It was his second surgery. Still struggles.

I feel for you guys who all have to go through it. Better than the alternative...but still very tough road.

I had L4, L5, and S1 fused in 2014. I wouldn't be working and enjoying life today if I hadn't gotten it done.

Be patient on the healing process, it takes a long time, I bet it was 4-5 years before I was completely healed.

I'll give you 3 pieces of advice.

1. be sure of your doctor, if your not don't let him cut

2. Don't be an idiot and over do it, it will stay with you for the rest of your life.

3. Do exactly what your doctor says, listen to every word or it will stay with you for the rest of your life.

Best of luck! I’ve always had a strong back and a weak mind.

This is the best advice you will get.

Been there done that.

Little over 3 years ago for me now. Some good advice given here. Walk as soon, and as much, as possible until you heal good enough for therapy. Get off the meds asap and follow your doctors advise/recommendations. This has slowed me down a little, but getting there, and no more excruciating pain anymore! Have done 2 AZ OTC bowhunts since all this. Not as fast as I used to be, but I got everywhere I wanted to go. Best to you and hoping/praying for a speedy recovery for you.

AZmark,
Had to have mine done 2-3 years ago. Pain after was nothing compared to the pain prior. I hope you have researched your cutter extensively. The first thing I asked Doc, was how many of these have you done. He replied "over 1,000". I checked with some other folks who'd had the same procedure, with any number of drs, and some of them had real horror stories, including almost complete immobility. This doc seemed to have a lot of good reports.

Your first year will be rough and you will experience some pretty bad days. I used OTC painkillers instead of the Rx crap. I see you are semi-retired. Let your family take care of you and don't try to be a hero. Lift carefully and do your PT exercises. Not hard - just constant stuff.

I had two rods installed along side of the spine. The part with the fusion never bothers me but the attachment points of the rods get cranky once in a while. Couple of weeks ago I took a load of ceramic tile into my gunroom to re-do the gun room. Slipped on some snow/ice and twisted my hips. Been paying for it ever since. Stupid stuff like that will cost you - don't do it.

Best of luck to you and keep us informed about your progress.

I,m 2 months out on back surgery, Laminectomy ,facetomy and foraminotomy on 2/ 3 lombar. ( no hardware installed)
Everything you need to do for a good recovery has been cover in previous posts.
Best of luck to you !!

Thanks for all the input.....seems the rehab is probably the most important and I plan on doing it right as I want to hunt with my sons/DiLs/Gkids for years to come if thats in the cards.

First day after surgery was not too bad for the pain but today has been real painful at the incision site....the constant pain shooting down my legs has already gone away. I went real light on the pain meds to start so my guts would start back up and thats probably why I hurt so much today. Wife drove us home from Flagstaff today.

Good luck. Miralax!!!

Just give it some time and things will loosen up.

Glad things went well.

Hoping for a good recovery and rehab.

Good luck. Had a T13-L1 laminectomy done when I was 21. I am pretty happy with how it turned out and after 38 years of abusing it, it is holding up well. Dave

Best Wishes for a speedy recovery.

Had l2-l5 in 2011. Terrible for two weeks. Playing golf five months later. Pain, about on par with total knee replacement(2019). Do the rehab.

good you got out of town today, supposed to get best two storms in a year in next 4 days. You ought to get plenty out home too.

I had the lamb. Done on L4 L5 in 1996, doc told me in 2 years I'd probably have to have it fussed, as I still wanted to work and be active. Well I do back stretches every morning, every now and then I do something I shouldn't and it hurts for a couple of weeks. I fell on the dam ice here last winter, and was missed up for 2 months, if it wasn't for the C19 I'd have gone to the ER, but didn't, still stretches and made my self walk, doing good so far this winter. Wishing you Luck!

I’ve had 3. Just have the fuse it and be done.

The advise that it can take years to fully recover sounds true.

The trouble is, they don’t last. I went 10 years, then 5 years. Fusion has done the job now for over 15 well 17 years now. No complaints.

During those first 15 years I was always caustic down anything. I loved sports but couldn’t play, After the fusion I was born again.

Best luck Mark ! ! ! !

Don't get behind on the pain meds because it's gonna get bad, take the pain meds like they tell you to for at least the first 3 weeks, take lots of miralax and lots of water and you'll be fine.

Remember take it easy and do exactly as the docs say you don't want this messed up at all because it'll be with you until the day you die. You have a long road ahead of you, walk don't run.

I have a friend who had the same surgery and being the stubborn man that he is he did as he choose and now the only thing he can do that doesn't hurt is sit.