Back Fusion Recovery

Hello all,

I havent been on here in awhile since i havent been climbing due to my back. I have been pretty inactive for nearly 2 years and I had back fusion surgery in January and I am just really starting to get a little active again. Still going relatively slow and in terrible shape but getting in some activity now.

A little background...I tried just about everything twice for my back before going to surgery. I had a heavily deteriorated and herniated L4/L5 disc. The rest of my spine is in good shape. But ran out of options since my back would go out even from a sneeze. So had the disc removed and some shiney hardware put in. The surgeon did a great job from what i can tell. I already feel quite a bit better than i did before surgery.

I have never been great at climbing but was doing 5.9-5.10 trad when i got hurt for the last time a couple years ago. As many here do, I love climbing and being outside so my hopes to climb again are motivating me to get back to it. Im hoping to get back to the gym climbing by the fall and hopefully back outside next year.

Now Im just wondering if anybody on here has had a similar surgery and has had success returning to climbing eventually. I have noticed people have had less serious procedures and returned alright but havent seen anybody on here with a fusion. Well anyway, just looking for a little glimmer of hope to return to my former glory on the rock.

Hi Riggs24 -- very interesting. Without going into the full history of my back issues, I can totally identify with your situation. After several 'smaller' procedures, I was faced with my last option, a fusion from L2 to sacrum. It was done in mid-May, 10 hours under anesthesia, not alot of fun and still have some side issues I'd like to get clear of, but all in all I am greatly improved. I am hiking quite a bit and climbing at the gym regularly... not particularly well but that's just me. Getting in there at all is very uplifting and encouraging, and of course I'm anxious to take it outside. After my next check-up, in early August, I'm hoping that the fusion is stable enough that leading and some outdoor climbing will be next in progression.
I have several friends who've had fusions over the years, with varying levels of success, but all report significant reduction in pain and a return to activities that meant alot to them, including technical climbing.
Of course fusions aren't perfect and have lots of side issues to consider, like all orthopedic 'fixes', but sometimes that's what it comes down to.
So, maybe there's a bright future after all! Like you, I was pretty much couch-bound for the last year and a half. To have regained any semblance of prior levels of activity is a gift. Good luck with it all -- you'll be back, I'm certain.

Good to hear Andrew. That's impressive that you are back at it so soon with surgery in May. I'm 6 months out of my surgery and feel pretty good now but was still very unstable at 2-3 months. Im taking it slow but Ill be heading to climbing gym soon enough. Already been playing around on my hang board and feels pretty good. Thanks for the response. Good to hear that others have returned to technical climbing. Good luck getting back there too.

Follow the advice of your surgeon. There is a very common tendency to damage the discs adjacent to the fusion. I would think bouldering would be forbidden and a scenario where you endured a lot of hard, repetitive falls would be bad (ie: projecting a short climb). I'd also like to hear if others have successfully climbed after a low back fusion.

I had L4/5 fusion about 7 years ago. It took me a couple of years to get back in shape. Climbing was one of the last things I got back into because I was worried about the impact of falling. The only climbing related problems I had, and still have, is when I'm working a route that has hard moves at the start and I drop to the ground. Too many sharp jolts and I'm out of action for a couple of weeks. Work back into climbing slowly and you should be fine.

I've read that the procedure I had has become less invasive in recent years so you may have a quicker recovery. My back still bothers me a lot but it usually not because of climbing.

PM me if you want to talk more.

That the adjacent vertebrae face problems due to the fusion is a noted 'downside' of fusions. I have definitely followed my surgeon's advice -- no more running, probably, even when completely healed -- and a go slow approach just makes sense. For the first month I did very little -- except eat, which I will pay for one of these days -- and became more active as suggested by the doc. But with time, I think you'll be where you want to be or close to it. And thanks for the encouraging words, always welcome since from day to day it doesn't seem like there's any progress at all.

Welcome to the fusion club! In Nov 1012 I underwent a three level cervical fusion (C4-C7. For about a year prior I had been experiencing odd tingling and weakness in my torso. Family doctor to Neurologist to spinal MRI to !!!! At the C5 I was compressed to just a few millimeters, and there was lots of spinal cord damage. ORDERED to NOT do ANYTHING hazardous, like riding a bike etc. The day before I got the news I was taking 30 foot whips on a new route in the South Sierra! Two months later I was at USC getting medial bodies routed, discs ripped out, bone grafts packed in, and a plate screwed on. I appreciate and thank my surgeons immensely.

My first month recovery was horrible, the second was worse. By that time I was feeling better, truly getting cabin fever, but I was still in a hard brace and couldn't (legally) drive, and really shouldn't do anything risky. Month 4 I did my first easy TR's, I was weak as a kitten and I really couldn't move my head. At month 6 my surgeon, who climbs, gave me permission to "go climbing, if you have to, I can't stop you ... but no big whippers!"

A friend of mine, well at the time not a friend yet, was recovering from a ground fall he took about the time of my surgery. He had some fractured vertebrae. Up to the bad news I developing areas and I figured that kind of activity is pretty controllable. So J and I basically spent the summer putting up routes, getting stronger, and basically having a good time. For a while we were pretty compatible on leads but J (young and strong) has bounce back really well and is climbing harder than ever. I'm somewhat diminished from before, but hell, I'm 60 in Oct. Over the last year I've had a ball climbing, mostly putting up new routes but with the occasional "funhog" day throw in. Last week I onsighted the great Woodward/Raker/Hensel route "Are we There Yet?" at The Chicken Ranch in Whitney Portal, and followed J on the first two sections of Green Gecko.

I have other lower back issues which I'll describe another time. I only have 50 percent mobility in my neck. the spine damage is forever it seems. The weakness and tingling gets really weird at times. I suppose I'll have to go under the knife again somewhere down the road for my neck and my lower back. I wished I could still ultra run (Not!), and I wished I could really throw everything at a move or climb like I used to. But, I'm happy to be able to do what I'm doing.

Any spine operation is serious, I hear you. But, they sure seem like they know what they are doing. My ward was full of people like me, pushing their little tube trollies and trying to keep their gowns closed. One odd thing I went through is no one told me (in a way that registered) about the "pump", so I was in a lot of pain for a while. On the next shift I asked the nurse about some meds and she showed me the pump, whoa, that helped. After a few days I went to straight Tylenol as I can't tolerant the heavy stuff for long.

I was under 11 hours general, and I didn't feel right for a couple weeks. I had a nasty reaction to the general - racing heart - which generated a lot of cardiologist attention. Walking me up for blood every hour, lots for stuff taped on me. That cleared up by the morning after, and I was pretty out of it and didn't really feel anything odd that way.

My head felt awfully detached for a while, like 4 months. Just a little toe stub or misstep and I was wondering if I tore the "construct" apart. The docs assured me I wasn't that delicate! I worried about the bone grafts failing, like anyone would. And the screws backing out, etc. I got cervical X-rays every 2 weeks for the first 6 months, a check up with X-rays and full spine MRI at 12 months, and I'll get that again in Nov.

I have learned I can't really throw at a move anymore. It's knocked a couple letter grades off except slab and off vert face. I've always sucked at cracks and that didn't change. Maybe the next post I'll describe my lumbar and T7. Those stop me bouldering a few years ago - like Ken posted - a few drops and I'm wrecked for a couple weeks. I think bouldering into the 50's is pretty risky.

I would suggest finding a good physical therapist. I practice in Westminster and know some good PTs in many parts of town, so PM me and tell in which part of town you live. You very likely won't need intensive PT by any means, but it could be very beneficial to have some intermittent professional guidance on your recovery process. I would also recommend reading 'Your Nerves are Having Back Surgery,' by Adriaan Louw. I loan a copy to every single patient I get before or after spinal surgery. It's fairly cheap and available on amazon.

"Well anyway, just looking for a little glimmer of hope to return to my former glory on the rock."

Rigggs24, I've been spewing along about myself without directly addressing your question. Partly, it's because I had a cervical fusion,and partly I just thought my story indirectly shows you can come back (and get even better!).

I was appalled when I got the call the evening the Neurologist saw my MRI. He was amazed I was even walking around. I ended up conferring with 3 neurologists, one orthopedic surgeon, and two neurosurgeons. They were all amazed at how well I was doing considering the dire state of my spinal cord in the C5 region, and all stressed that this grace wasn't going to last long - I would either deteriorate slowly into a wheelchair, or catastrophically by something like a simple fall or auto accident. This wall of expert opinion, and a prior episode with my lumbar, convince me I had no better other option. What would be on the other side of the fusion I had no idea. While they assured me I'd be pretty robust and could get on with life, the doctors weren't interested in exotic activities like climbing.

In 2008 I was concentrating more on ultra-running then climbing. For the previous few years I had been doing 50K and 50 mile races, and in late 2007 on a whim I attempted the San Diego 100 mile, where I was squashed like a bug, quitting at the 50 mile mark. But I was hooked, there was nothing I wanted to do more than complete a mountain trail 100 ultra. In the meantime my wife through casual trotting along realized she had a talent for ultras and was getting serious, later doing several 100's a year. I trained really hard through 2008 and in October completed the the Angeles Crest 100, a pretty hard 100 race, in the time of 32h20m. As did my wife - 2 hours faster than me. We did a couple more runs that fall like the Grand Canyon Rim to Rim to Rim. I took a couple months off and then signed up for a local 50k - the Calico Ghost Town - a nice local run we usually do to start the spring training off. Without going into all the details (removing a tree, motorcycle tip over) I arrived at the start of the that race with a wrecked lower back. I figured I'd start off and see if I warmed up out of the pain. Back then, I viewed lower back pain as an inconvenience, a muscle thing, not pain from a nerve root. Well that run did not go well. The next morning while squirming in my sleep something happened and I woke up screaming. It took 2 hours to get me in my car and off to the emergency room. Long story short, I lost my right femoral nerve. Like it was cut. An MRI showed the highly thickened sheath with compressed root, but the disc actually looked pretty good. My orthopedic surgeon, who deals with much worse situations, basically didn't know why that happened, and told me to man up and be glad I didn't have something serious wrong!

Not having a femoral makes walking difficult - you are missing half the reflex feedback to make walking and running natural. But the body covers this up pretty quickly and by 6 months I was hiking and walking ok. Going down stairs was still dicey but that faded away too. BTW, my right leg is still pretty dead in the reflex test - chop my knee cap, nothing. After a year I made a feeble attempt to come back and run my nemesis, the SD100. That failed miserably. Chronic back pain in the training convinced me (I now know what causes the pain!) to give up my 100 ambitions. Without that motivation I dwindled to where a 20 mile hike in the Sierras was once again a big day.

I've been bouldering since 1973, pretty much from the start of my climbing. I've dropped to the ground countless times, it's part of the activity. Till the 90's we didn't have pads, spots were more seriously employed. I've splattered many time, and it didn't seem to matter. After 2009 a bunch of young motivated climbers started bouldering out at Wagon Wheel and Black Planets. I tried to keep up, doing all my best problems from the past, and basically trying to hang with them. I quickly ran into that 3 drop issue. The first is nothing, the second there is a hint, the third you feel the ??? whatever that nerve shock is. Within 10 minutes I'm bent over heading for the car, and no bouldering for two weeks. In the spring of 2012 this happened 3 times in a row on 2 week intervals. I was 55, and for the first time in my life I was realizing that an activity I had done essentially forever, I could no longer do.

I'm a climber, not a boulderer, so this wasn't the end of the world. My climbing was basically going along as before - slowly diminishing physical strength being replaced by gradually improving technique. I was a solid 11 leader and getting up the odd 12. I was slowly shifting to steeper sport from the trad and slab of my youth. While I have specific strengths I'm essentially a stiff old man, no flexibility to speak of.

Coming back after the fusion I've had to accept there has been a distinct downward step in my physical prowess. Partially this is the result of the mental caution I have against maximum, not in control, effort. I don't throw for anything that will jerk me - no dynos or even deadpoints. I don't want to hit ANYTHING on a fall. I stick clip the first and second bolts more. I don't go up 30 feet before putting in gear, and I don't run it out like I used to. That means taking more gear, and is one of the reasons I don't do as much trad. I have trouble moving my head enough to have proper situational awareness on a pitch. But between slowly gaining a little more mobility, and just looking around differently, that factor is slowly ebbing away.

I know more about these things now. I don't claim to have any medical knowledge worth a hoot, but I do have my inexpert opinions about what happened to me. I have LOTS of respect for these surgeons that do these things. I can't imagine casting off on these complicated procedures day after day. My experience with PT wasn't good - that was my experience and I only bring it up as what happened to me. One of my therapists is a personal friend that I and others have a world of respect for. She is awesome and I know she helps many people recover from all kinds of things, but I didn't benefit from her treatment.

I've no idea what in my past caused bone spurs to grow in my C5 and C6 vertebrae. I wished I had known about it earlier, I would have saved more of my spinal cord. Getting a Neurologist and later MRI's approved through my plan was like pulling teeth. The plan wanted me to go though PT and other treatments "for pain relief" first. As boneheaded stone-walling as I've ever encountered, I didn't even have "pain". It took 6 months of effort from my family doctor's prescription to MRI results, the doc and specialists having to fight a battle all the way. If the lumbar thing had not happened I would have started the process sooner - that femoral thing was pretty bad and I attributed the new symptoms to it for about a year. Even my family doctor (another climber, and I really wished he hadn't retired since then) could see I had something going on in my cervical spine. Lesson, get expert diagnosis. Advance imaging can show things that aren't creating classic symptoms.

Nothings really helped for my lumbar. I went through a prescription of PT, with a very respected local therapist. I don't think that helped me a bit. Time and gradual return to activity is what happened. I now do some very very mild yoga, concentrating on my lower body. I find doing abdominal conditioning - sowbugs - seems to create a little robustness. I really really pay attention to what my back is telling me (painwise). I absolutely obey my pain now. I get a tickle I get very careful. I've found I can boulder once in a while and take a few drops. Not frequent enough to get any pace or power however. And I have to worry about my neck now.

About 4 months into my fusion recovery I started having a lot of muscle tension and pain in my neck, which seems understandable. I once again went through a prescription of PT starting around month 6. This helped a little but it was the ancillary things - electro-stim, heat, and massage that helped. The exercises? In my opinion, no. After that I started going to a massage therapist on a weekly basis for a 30 minute upper back and neck session. This helped a lot. I continued that up till a couple months ago, when I felt the main benefit had been created. My insurance doesn't cover massage, so this was about $1,000 out of my pocket, a cost so paid back in benefit compared to the other therapy costs. I've been plagued by upper back issues my whole adult life, maybe chronic symptoms of the unlying corruption, maybe the reason straight PT wasn't beneficial.

So I still lead 5.11, but a letter grade or two lower. Tomorrow I will probably attempt leading a pretty hard 11a hand crack, which would have been close to my limits at any time of my life. Having followed it a few weeks ago I think I'll get up it. I don't know what the next year or two will bring, perhaps I'll lose a few more pounds, my degraded nervous systems hangs in, I get my head right. I've always wanted to give the Rostrum a go. I know I can't be the strong one on that climb, but if I puff up a little more I could probably, in theory, with a strong partner, get up it. But even if that doesn't happen I'm having a lot of fun climbing. I know my best days are behind me, and that makes me sad sometimes. I do appreciate climbing more, knowing one day I'll be looking back at the last climb I did, and knowing that was it. I have experience in that - I was a surfer up till I moved away from the ocean at age 20. At the time I never thought that would be it, that my last day (really)surfing had occurred. That is a true regret of mine.

Thanks for the replies guys. I have been doing as the surgeon suggests...last thing I want to do is mess up this brand new shiny hardware in my back. In addition, I actually just finished up a few months of PT and am now working out on my own. Ill be making my way back to the climbing gym within the month. Probably gonna check out the newer gym in Golden since I havent been to that one yet.

I have come to accept the fact that I wont really play anymore high impact sports like basketball or distance running. As long as i can get my climb on, ill be happy enough. I have never been huge into bouldering so I dont mind giving that up too much either.

Did a 4 mile hike in Eldo this weekend and it felt good. Im completely out of shape so it was slow and im sore but its nice getting back out there. I was jealous watching some climbers up on the wall. Hopefully ill be back up within the next couple years. Im still only 31 (unfortunately or fortunately??) so I hopefully still have quite a few good climbing years left.

Ken, good to hear that your climbing since u had surgery on the the same disc as mine. Makes sense to avoid the sharp jolts. I might have to actually invest in a stick clip and might back off trad climbs with tough starts when i get back at it. As far as being less invasive...probably not in my case. They cut my stomach open and went through the front to avoid the nerves and muscles in the back. They had to move all my organs and it was pretty unpleasant for a couple weeks after to say the least. Ill will probably PM you with a few more questions.

Randy, thanks for the detailed background information on returning to climbing. Nice job getting back to climbing 11. Its nice to see that some of you guys are still climbing at a pretty high level despite some serious issues with the back. Thanks for inspiration.