How long before I recover from surgery?

[Alastair]

Well we all heal at different rates because we are all different people and our bodies are different.

After six weeks you should be fairly mobile, and starting to get out of any pain from the incision whatsoever, and probably getting back to work.

At six months you should see significant improvement you might still have a certain amount of pain, may be referred pain which radiates down to your hips or other spinal areas, and at 12 months you will be looking at a very good recovery. At two years, they think that this is as good as things will get, and no further significant improvement will be made.

I keep on saying to people do the Achilles tendons and hamstring exercises which I have put in the FAQ `s and I found those absolutely invaluable -- -- -- especially in the early months. You need to keep on doing gentle exercises, all the people that I look at on the board, who are doing squats with weights five or six months after ADR are simply looking for trouble. ADR is very major surgery to your entire spine, and your spine is like a tower, and when one of those sections of the tower is disturbed the whole thing goes haywire -- -- -- and you've got to give it time to recover.

It has got to be recognised, that for the healing to occur after ADR, this is totally different to something like a broken leg, whilst the healing is going on your spine is moving all the time. There are lots of stretched muscles, nerves, and blood vessels, which have got to recover from this major surgery.

My personal experience was that I wore my corset for the first 12 weeks following surgery, gradually discarding the layers as I improved. I did continue to wear it for any heavy work for up to six months. Your corset is there to stop you doing any quick and inadvertent movements, there is no benefit in discarding it at an early date.

The important thing about your recovery, and you must remember this, is that you are putting foundation stones down for the rest of your life.