Hubby is doing great after spinal surgery yesterday. It lasted six hours and two

[CTyankee]

surgeons worked on him. The surgery was a lumbar L4, L3, L2 fusion. He'll be in the hospital for several days and then to rehab for four weeks. After that home visits by the VNA.

Obviously, no one wants to go thru all of that but there was no choice, his doctor said, otherwise his spine would crumble. The good news is that this surgery has quite a good success rate and New Haven has only a couple of surgeons who do this operation so we are in luck there.

If you or someone you love had this surgery, please let me know your experience. I need to be reassured that he is going to be OK. I've been kind of a nervous wreck...

[gademocrat7]

1. Wishing your husband a speedy recovery.

Take care.

[CTyankee]

3. Thanks.

[elleng]

2. Glad he's doing well, yank.

BEST!

[CTyankee]

5. thanks, ellen.

Hope he is up and running soon. I need him to be fine for the celebration of our wedding day. We are going to renew our vows! I am inviting several of our dearest friends and family (but it's not until New Year's Day and very special to us...

[bettyellen]

4. Have heard of many w good results! The best to you and MrCy

[CTyankee]

6. That is so encouraging! Music to my ears!

[phylny]

7. My younger brother had this done years ago.

He's back to his regular routine, including biking.

Best to you and your husband!

[CTyankee]

8. well, my husband is 76 years old so I just hope he's out of pain and sure of foot...

can't have him fall again...

[mahina]

9. Good luck to both of you!

[Warpy]

10. Out of pain will take a while. Don't expect much for the first couple of weeks.

Just keep telling him that this is the kind of pain that's going to get better. He won't believe it, but it will get better.

I can't give you any sort of other timetable, back surgery has progressed a lot since I last worked in a spinal unit. My guess is that he'll be in a brace of some sort and kicked out of bed before he leaves the hospital and goes to rehab. He won't like it.

[CTyankee]

12. We already got the brace which he took to the hospital. It's like a corset.

Since he didn't have a choice in the first place I think he'll appreciate the fact that he's saving his spine so we can continue to live in our house The rehab center says they won't let him go home without his being able to go up and down stairs. We had our house rehabbed a few years back to make it as handicap accessible as possible.Safety bars and rails and a bench for the tub and no slippery throw rugs. it was all thought thru the first go round of surgery.

[Laffy Kat]

11. Great news.

So lucky he has you for support!

[CTyankee]

13. We take it a day at a time. I keep telling him "you are going to be OK"

[Laffy Kat]

14. The first 48-72 hours will be the hardest.

After the third or fourth day, he'll finally start believing there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

[CTyankee]

15. hoping he'll see the light at the end of the tunnel...