[Nmel]

Hi Folks, I am new to this forum. I am an Aussie, 1 week today post-op ADR l4/5. My misery started 6 years ago when I fell off my horse and landed on my back on a rock wall. I dislocated both vertebrae adjacent to the 4/5 disc and spent three months in bed on narcotics. Over the following five years my condition degenerated up to the point last year when I could not survive other than on big doses of narcotics. I have tried everything - nothing worked (not even the narcs) Being a busy mother of four and knowing I had to get my life back (I'm 37) I made the decision to go ahead and have ADR. Doctors attitudes in Australia are a bit of a mixed bag - some are dead against it, some swear by it (for people like me who have a dead disc but no other problems). My doc has been doing them for a while but stopped using the old generation discs a while ago and has been using the m6 on liability insurance and private paying customers as not approved by health funds here. I was ready to fork out and voila the EP-ESP was approved literally days before my surgery. Anyways my bank account is $9000 happier and I am feeling pretty good but I do have a couple of questions. I wish I had found this site before my surgery. Anyway hopefully someone who has had lumbar ADR can a answer the following:
1. Is it normal to look six months pregnant a week out from surgery? I am so swollen it's not funny.
2. I woke up with zero pain in my back but over the last few days I am getting twinges if I move too sudden and what feels like muscle pain around the implant, is that normal?

I should add that when they opened me up the disc was so bad and the segment so unstable the doc put in the larger disc which he says increased the disk space by a whole centimetre. He came very close to doing a fusion because of the instability but said the bigger disc looked sound and he knew I was really against fusion (one day I would like to ride again - just gentle and only on sand)