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More about how long fusion flare-up pain lasts
Something that’s been on my mind a lot lately is—what I call—the duration of spinal fusion flare-ups.
By that I mean that, in my experience, I got the fusion and after about ten weeks was basically feeling pretty good. But, every once in a bit, the pain (ouchies) will flare-up in the lumbar region and linger for around one to three weeks.
I’d be very curious about how prevalent this experience is with post-spinal fusion surgery people. I suspect that this is a common pattern, but I don’t know that for sure!
Fear of pain returning
So, for me after this operation there’s been plenty of fear. The fear’s always centered around a single concept: Did something go wrong with the fusion?
I’m not sure if/when I get beyond this fear. From what I’ve read, after some years, the person tends to sort of forget about the whole surgery.
Always on my mind
Sometimes I can picture that being the case. Sometimes I have a hard time thinking that I’m ever going to get this fusion out from the very forefront of my mind and thoughts.
If I’m being fully honest with you: I live in constant fear of something going wrong with this fusion. The pain-level—prior to surgery—was so unbearable that it’s not something that can be forgotten.
I don’t think it’s abnormal that returning to that is a terrifying prospect.
Bad sleeping posture?
One thing that I think might be exacerbating my lumbar ouchies is the position I sleep in…due to my sleep apnea, I’ve discovered that by sleeping on my side with my head and shoulder propped-up on a couple pillows, I wake-up gasping less.
My sleep apnea strategy
That’s basically my sleep apnea strategy. And, it works! And, it’ll be nice when I FINALLY get the sleep apnea CPAP machine because then I can take this variable off the table.
But, I’m not sure if maybe this sleep posture is having a bad effect.
I don’t know.