What I have learned from back surgery.

1. Take naps. I didn’t until recently and it caused me more pain than I should have had because I stood on my feet for hours at a time, walked and hardly ever sat. This caused my muscles to tighten and created even more pain fro those tight muscles. Naps give your body a chance to heal and your muscles time to relax. I have had pain go away after a one-hour nap.
2. Fish oil has been helpful. It reduces inflammation and is supposedly good for my healing nerves. It may just be in my brain but I am at the point where I barely use Tylenol (the only pain reliever I am allowed). But make sure you take the medicine your doctor gives you as he or she prescribes. I was lucky enough to get off my opioids within a few days. Walking helped that, too — see more about walking in a minute.
3. Muscle relaxers before bedtime are a good thing.
4. Buy a grippy grabber claw. I can do everything from get my pants on to grab things out of the cabinet with it. It has saved my butt.
5. A positive attitude makes a huge difference. I don’t always have one, but I try. If nothing else, it keeps your family from wanting to kill you — and you’re going to need them for a long, long time.
6. Be grateful. That is a byproduct of #5 — but find ways you are grateful about your surgery. Because if you focus on your pain or what you can’t do, it will eat you alive.
7. This is God’s answer for your prayers for patience. And you will need lots of it. You will experience lots of down moments because this is a long, long process.
8. Walk. And then walk some more. I have a lot of metal in my back — and should not have recovered as quickly as I have. But I started in the hospital (I walked a mile the second day) and haven’t looked back. It gets blood flow to your cut muscles and speeds healing.
9. My belt with a built-in icepack is a Godsend. It helps squelch pain. It’s a worthy investment.
10. Be good to your caregivers (you will need them more than you will know) Amy and I only exchanged cross words once one morning at about 2 a.m. We were both exhausted and under stress. I was in godawful pain and we both bit each other’s head off. But I wasn’t mad at her. I was just hurting. But yelling at her wasn’t going to make that pain go away.