Cycling after back surgery

Week 29 of physical therapy - 35 weeks post-surgery

Is when I am writing this. I have my commute down now to around an hour each way which is an improvement. Two days a week now is about as much as I can handle now but each ride helps with fitness. My plan is to spend the next month getting back to doing 3 days a week. If I can do that for a month then I’ll go back to 5 days a week. After that I can drop a tooth on the rear cog and raise my Gear Inches back to the upper 60s. I think that it will be another 3 months before I can do that. I’m in no rush. I’m just happy to be riding again.

I have noticed a change in my bike setup though. My old commuting bike seems a little off, less comfortable than it used to be. Strangely my custom made frame, built for the pre-surgical me, is still the most comfortable bike I can ride. I will get another bike fit and positioning assessment but I want to get more miles before I do that. I can feel my glutes starting to develop now and I am more barrel chested than I used to be. I’m noticing small physical changes, mostly in the way that my clothes fit, tighter here, looser there, different drape. I have put on some weight with the time off the bike but I’ll get my body used to the new shape and muscular structure before I try worry too much about the unflattering characteristics of some of my cycling wardrobe.

As of today my goal is simple: ride as much as I am able to in 2012. Any and all physical improvements that come as a result of that are a bonus.

tl;dr

amazing!

wow! keep on rolling Aroogah!

Inspiring stuff, Chris. Well done.

Thanks guys.

Great story to read - Although I did find myself making a concerted effort to sit up properly, and those x-rays of the scaffolding and mechano in your spine are a little sphincter-tightening.

Don't worry Tiswas - they cut open your back to do the work. They're surgeons, not space aliens.

"Dont lean" :)

Great to hear you're back on the horse, roogs.

Great read, sounds like an epic journey.

I'll see you on the road for some of those mile Chris.

Can't believe I missed this. Very inspiring and keep at it :)

Orthopods aren't surgeons - they're carpenters and mechanics.

15 years of medical and surgical training to be let loose on someone's back with a black & decker drill :)

Yes, Chris, I had no idea all this had happened. Well done and keep getting stronger! It certainly makes my back problems look very minor.

So, to follow this up, five years later how are you doing @Aroogah?

Ooh. A much longer post is required on that. I will need a day or two to ponder.

The brief version is I've done over 1000miles this year commuting without any real issues. I've overhauled my bike collection and went for a first ride together with my 3 1/2 year old son.

It took a fair bit more to get there but the longer term has been pretty good. I can ride and I do ride. It's not anywhere near the miles I have wanted to do but, meh. I'm not in my 30s with minimal responsibilities. Much of the changes have been life changes, but the back has not held me back from the life changes. Overall, that's a win.

Wow, that was a lot to read through! Well impressed that you can get back on a MTB after all that.

Do do that post! Encouraging bottom line, and i think i might be in need of positivity for what's to come. MRI looks very similar to yours, and i am hearing the options next week. Bracing myself for all possibilities now.

Sincerest thanks for taking the time to build your informative post. Personally now 9 months post-L4-L5-S1 posterior fusion. In the very early days, I looked for information like this without success; today I finally used a useful search string to find this.

My surgeon is a highly skilled doctor who performed his work as well as one might hope. He has been unsympathetic about my cycling vacuum, and advised me from the outset to expect to ride a bike or motorcycle only after 12-18 months post-surgery. Not what anyone wants to hear, particularly without explanation as to why such a long recovery period is required. I subsequently leaned from my physical therapist that it mostly has to do with pain induced by vibration being transmitted from the frame straight to one's a**.

When it was time to commence physical therapy, I was most fortunate to work with two ladies that specialized in spinal surgery rehab. They taught me after some weeks how to get down to the floor and back up - yes - relearning everything. After two months of them stretching me and leading me through workouts on weight machines that specifically avoid stress-loading the lumber spine, I informed the head gal that I was not gaining much from my visits, and that I was going to check myself out of rehab. She asked me what my plan was? I replied, what do you mean? She said well, I cannot let you out of here unless you have a personal plan. I answered that I planned to work out at a gym three times weekly using the same exercises she taught me. Presto, I was free.

And I have been faithful to the plan with the result that I am more fit today (including specifically core strength) than I have been in years. I am still limited in my ability to walk any distance to speak of, and I am confident that the issue is hip flexors demanding a ruthless frequency of stretching.

No one could have prepared me for the excruciatingly slow pace at which I have recovered from the fusion. My mind would have been incapable of grasping the reality of it all, because I have never been so impacted in my entire life. Very happy to finally have days when I feel absolutely ebullient for a change.

When we get to the point of needing such a procedure to be done, we simply do it rather than be crippled for the rest of our lives. Now, 9 months out, I am feeling glad I did it.

Lumber fusion isn't for sissies :-)

Awesome! The point of this whole thread was to be a resource of information. I'm glad that my particular perspective has been useful to you. Stick with it! You will feel better at 18 months than you do now at 9 months. It only gets better.

This far on I often forget that I have had the surgery. I still have the permanent nerve damage in my right leg but that's become normal. Occasionally my hamstrings will remind me, but other than that it doesn't take up a huge amount of mental space. I am more than capable of keeping up with my 5 year old son, which pretty much all that matters these days.

I miss sharing my completely awesome x-rays with people and watching their reaction. I don't miss the endless questions about setting off airport metal detectors.

Lumber fusion isn't for sissies :-)

A-freaking-men!

Phil from cycle fit has had some fairly serious back surgery too. I haven't caught up with his blog for a while, but it was a tough (brilliant) read.

Right, thanks for all the information above, gives me some hope of making a full recovery.
After riding 10k kms this year, I managed to have a spill on the way into work on Tuesday, landed on my back and fractured my T12 vertebrae pretty badly. No one else involved. Currently still in hospital in Whitechapel. Still have use of everything so that's a massive bonus but on a mix of Codeine and Morphine as the pain is fairly bad. Wearing some fetching socks and getting injections of blood thinner. Haven't had a poo in 3 days.
Could have been far far worse, I can feel and move everything except my bowels.
They've given me the option of surgery or a brace. I've opted for the brace as there wasn't really much of an upside to the surgery which I may have to ultimately have anyway.
Sounds like a longish road to recovery.
My emotions are all over the place. Up one minute, so far down the next. Just want to be at home with my partner and children.
Hopefully, if you don't mind, will document my recovery here.
Jesus, I feel so fucking down.

That sounds tough.
I only briefly know you from the odd conversation and following you on TCR but a mini inspiration none the less.
It’ll be a tough path I’m sure but I’ve been amazed at what you’ve juggled and the commitment shown, so have no doubt you can do it with the support of your loved ones.
I work part time and I’m relatively local so if I can be of help or just some one to hang out with now and then just let me know.

You will make a full recovery - I had a smashed up femur once, it took a long time to recover but I got there. The most difficult thing was not crapping for about a week. I remember spending about an hour trying to evacuate in the normal way with no luck. Ended up ramming my fingers up where the sun doesnt shine and dragging out these little brown pebbles one by one.
Happy memories.

Very sorry to hear that. Yes there is a future to all of this. Keeping a longer term view is really, really important. Find a thing that keeps you motivated. Feel free to write it all down here.

A top tip is to get some bio live yogurt / kefir / yakult. That will keep your guts happy.

The morphine and codeine will destroy the functioning of your digestive system. I didn't eat for 5 days after my surgery as my post operative meal shut everything down and I was given anti-emetics injections every few hours. One yakult and I felt human again.

Another TCR dotwatcher here. That sounds a thoroughly horrible situation to end up in. Hope you can find a way to deal with it and stay positive.