FEELING FANTASTIC - 2 MONTHS POST-OP

Okay, So I am feeling great. I woke up a week ago and my lower back pain is gone. The extreme lower back pain I have had since May 2009 is no longer. Yippee!!! I am so happy. I started saying a Miracle Prayer the night before. This was from a prayer card that I lost last summer that was given to me by a man at my church. Anyway, I am about 95% pain free and just have a little lingering pain to the right of my incision that I feel every once in a while. So, I am decided to get on with my life - organizing my house is first on the agenda. There have been so many things I have neglected over the last 8 months. I go for my next MRI on March 15th. I prayer that this healing success continues.

7 weeks post op

Here it is 7 weeks since I have had my spinal surgery. My pain levels have increased lately. Some days are horrible, others not too terrible. I think this is the rollercoaster of pain that I have heard about so much. I start to feel better and want to do things and this sets me back. The worse part of the day is the morning. I am so sore, achy, stiff when I wake up and this decreases as the day goes on. I still have the constant lower back pain that hopefully one day will decrease. I am told that people that suffer with this disease will probably never be 100% back to their old self, I will have to learn what I can and can't do that will aggrevate my symptoms. It is depressing at times, but I feel like I am so much better than pre-surgery so far. My nerve pain is still gone and the only pain I have is the constant lower back pain. I am going to try to take some NSAIDS to see if that will help with inflammation from surgery. I am told that this is a very long healing process and I have to be more patient. I am looking forward to Spring with chirping birds and windows open with the fresh spring smell and flowers in the air. I can't wait. I am on the path to a brighter future, I must realize that it will take longer than 7 weeks to get there. I am so grateful for the people that call me just to see how I am feeling or the emails I get from people telling me that they have learned something from my blog. Tarlov Cyst Disease is so relatively unknown by most of the medical community and I am so thankful that there is research on-going. I hope by the time I am old that this will be a well-known disease and there will be a cure, that people will get to 100% of their old self. I wish the Doctors would have a more open mind about this disease and that yes, they can cause pain and cause other issues. It is my understanding that there are 4 doctors that treat these in the United States. I am lucky to live so near the one that has done the most procedures and has had relatively good outcomes.