The one thing I heard from everyone was "do not have surgery." Back surgery for disc problems has a low success rate. A large part of that, I think, comes from Degenerative Disc Disease, which I have. Those herniated discs are weak and getting weaker. Surgery will take away the herniation, but it cannot fix the weak disc. Chances are high the walls will deteriorate more and another bulge will occur. Surgery is also expensive and healing is time-consuming. Lastly, and this is entirely my conclusion, surgery is deceptive: it is a quick fix and it is hard to remember that life is different after it.
What do I mean, when I say different? This is my own hypothesis, backed by no medical knowledge, and I want to emphasize that because there are enough uneducated quacks out there peddling cures with no backing. It is dangerous to listen to the internet. Even me. Still, when I spoke to people who knew of others with failed surgeries (and there are a lot--everyone knows someone with back pain), the thing I heard most often was "they went back to normal" and hurt their back again. While a lot of that may be DDD, I kind of wonder how much of "normal" is what hurt me in the first place. Normal for me meant sedentary. It meant poor lifting techniques. It meant being a little overweight. It meant not listening to my body. It meant high-impact sports and activities when I did actually leave my couch.
I will not be resuming my "normal" life, despite that being what the surgeon suggested. I am trying to be more active but I am also choosing to give up certain activities I used to do. I walk now and will never jog or run again. A personal choice, but I feel the constant impact caused by jogging or running create a risk I am not willing to make. I will never sky dive, bungee jump, do high impact martial arts, jump on a trampoline, or lift heavy weights again. Those are choices I've made because despite a high failure rate, I think there is a good chance I don't ever have to suffer that kind of back pain again. I will walk, do careful yoga with the guidance of someone aware of my injury, pilates and gentle aerobics/light weight lifting. My husband and I are cleaning up our diets and trying to shed some pounds. No longer am I concerned about being thin because I want to look good: I just want less weight pressing down on my spine. Normal for me now means not sitting all day. Not twisting to pop my back. Squatting instead of bending when I need something on the ground. I may not be able to avoid another injury, but I sure as hell don't want to find myself in pain and wonder if I could have done something different or better.
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The actual surgery was fast. We were at the hospital less than five hours. My surgeon was a bit fast in explaining things but very kind. When I woke up I felt no pain for the first time in months. Recovery has been a remarkably quick process. The most difficult thing was feeling better but knowing I needed to continue to act injured. That means it felt like I could pick things up and lift things heavier than 10 pounds and jump and skip and I absolutely COULD NOT do these things if I wanted to help heal. You know what? A lot of those stories of failed surgeries involved trying to do "normal" things too early. Listen to your surgeon. You trusted him to cut into your spine, you might as well trust that he knows a thing or two about healing.
