Sorry for not getting my blog updated as quickly as I should! My new knee is doing great! There is now nothing I can't do on it and for that I'm so very blessed! Three weeks ago I had to under-go back surgery. I had back surgery in 1994 and they had to fuse my sacrum along with L-5 and L-4, that surgery came about because of hurting my back in the farm accident and a car accident, it was doing fine until last fall. Over the winter months it kept getting worse and worse, this past spring Jill and I bought a new mattress thinking that might be the problem, that didn't help. I started getting some chiropractic help but that also did little good. So about a month ago I went to a orthopedic back doctor here in Austin and they took a x-ray and even I could see what was the matter! The L-3 vertebrae was completely bone on bone, no space at all!
Over the past couple of years they came up with a less invasive surgery called XLIF, instead of going through the front or back to get to the spine, they go through the side. They use small instruments, make two small incisions, and only have to cut through one muscle which makes recovery much quicker. In 1994 I was in the hospital for 12 days, this time I was in overnight! They had me up walking within 2 hours after I woke up in recovery!
My back pain was gone, the muscle they cut through still hurts a bit, but that is healing up nicely and is getting better every day. I'm back running again it feels good! Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I could run a marathon next month, but this new procedure was incredible!
