Any type of surgery can cause discomfort and unease- particularly when it comes to spine fusion surgery. It’s a major surgery that aid to join two or multiple vertebrae into one single structure.
Well, after the surgery, you will not have a regular back, which will require several changes in your lifestyle. Wondering what things you can do, and What can you not do after spinal fusion surgery?
After spinal fusion, you can’t lift any heavyweight, bend over, twist, and do many more things. Twisting, bending, or lifting hefty weight can significantly impact the surgery by putting a lot of pressure. Learn more about what you can and cannot do after spinal fusion throughout this article.
What is Spinal Fusion?
Spinal fusion is a form of surgery that helps to eliminate movement between the affected vertebra. It’s performed on the spine to join two or more vertebrae together. Spinal fusion requires bone graft material and surgical hardware, which is done by a pathologist.
Lumbar spinal surgery decreases pain from the spine and aids in making the spine more stage and stable. After a certain period of time, the spinal fusion heals. Therefore, you can do low-impact exercises to keep yourself fit, active and improve your immune system.
Some health professionals may suggest, you can only perform low-impact exercises for spinal stenosis. However, you can’t do all low-impact with spine surgery. You can only perform brisk walking, biking, and swimming. Proper exercise can be handy to keep the lower back healthy and stable.
What Can You Not Do After Spinal Fusion?
Your physical therapist or surgeon will specifically tell you about dos and don’ts after surgery. Although you’ll get all the necessary guidance from your health professional, here we’ve included some of the basic activity restrictions. Some of the general activity restrictions are described below-
1. No bending
Bending down after surgery should be avoided strictly. The surgery will approximately take 12 weeks to heal fully, and after that, you can bend but not repeatedly. Instead of bend your back, bend your knees because bending down can damage the success of the surgery. Moreover, during bending after recovery from the surgery, always keep your back straight and upright.
2. No lifting
Lifting heavyweights in the first few weeks after surgery can shrink the success of your fusion surgery. You can only lift 5 to 10 pounds and lifting more than that can have a significant impact on your surgery. Lift up heavyweight will put a lot of pressure on your spine which will Interrupt your recovery process.
3. No twisting
Alongside avoiding heavy lifting weight and bending your back, you also need to avoid twisting your back after spinal surgery. Twisting will impact the result of the surgery by putting a lot of pressure or stress. And the pressure will exacerbate the back pain and have an impact on the recovery process.
4. Avoid Exercise
After spinal surgery, the surgery requires a good amount of time to recover. During the recovery, you need to strictly avoid all types of exercise except any exercise recommended by your medical professional. If your doctor or therapist recommends any exercise, follow the rules to strengthen your back and promote recovery.
You Need to Avoid All Type of Work Activities: You must take leave from your work for at least one and a half weeks after spinal fusion surgery. Remember, you also need to keep your mental health stress-free and avoid all types of aerobic exercises. After surgery doesn’t practice activities like- jogging, running, mopping, sweeping, and many more things. Any kind of moving activity can put unnecessary stress on the fusion site.
Tips To Care For Yourself After Spinal Fusion Surgery
Improper care of your lumbar spine can lead to discomfort and make back pain even worse after fusion surgery. If you want to know how to take care of yourself after spinal surgery, follow the below section:
- After surgery getting enough sleep is essential because proper sleep will promote a faster recovery process.
- Do not bend at the waist, bend the knees and sit while lifting something.
- Don’t lift anything heavier than 5-10 pounds as it will affect the surgery.
- Never practice any sort of aerobic exercise, riding, weight lifting, and jogging without asking your doctor.
- Change your position every 30 minutes while sitting or standing to reduce back pain.
- Maintain your normal and healthy diet and try to drink plenty of water.
- Practice exercise by consulting your medical professional. Exercise will improve flexibility and improve the strength of your back.
- Always take directed medicines and visit your physical therapist to speed up the healing process.
- Avoid driving in the first two weeks after surgery, and you can after two or three weeks if your spinal condition is good enough.
Final Words
After any kind of operation, including spinal fusion, the hospital provides you with everything you need. But after being released from the hospital you have to take proper care of yourself. You have to maintain a different lifestyle to keep the back impact and stress less.
Since now you know what you can do, and What you can not do after spinal fusion, you can keep your spinal cord in good condition. Now you don’t have to suffer from back pain and maintain proper restrictions for a back pain-free life.