Diving post neck / back surgery

[JCGoodwin]

Great news from my doctor guess I get a six week vacation from diving this season.
My question is for those out there who are diving after surgery what are some struggles and or adaptations that would be helpful.
I understand that it is case specific on an individual basis but what helped you or your buddy?

I will have two discs repaired thus fused, the surgeon is positive of a complete recovery with some therapy and a desire to get back into my active life style.
Any and All suggestions would be great, avoiding surgery is no longer an option with the condition of my one disc it is critical to repair and do it before any worse issues arise.

Thank you for your comments.
JCG

[gschaut]

Two stainless steel shoulder replacements. One in 2005 for shrapnel, the other in 2011 for arthritis. Can no longer dive back mount. Not just difficulty lifting 100+lb. But lack of range of motion. Can no longer do valve drills fast and reliably.

So now I'm on side mount. I get the usual complaints about my lack of speed. It does take longer to get suited up in side mount. But in the water it's very comfortable. And I've got the trim dialed in.

As far as back injuries, all I've had is muscle strains. LOTS of physical therapy!!!

[JerseyJersey]

Not sure about the incision part of it. But being in the water was the only exercise I could do when I fractured my back. It took all the pressure and weight off of my spine. Having good dive buddies that were willing to carry my tanks and lower them into the water and drag them back out made a bad time bearable.

[fno]

Think Nitrox. It will help with the healing as long as you can cajole your dive buddy into carrying your gear to the water.

[rjack]

Which disks are you having fused? Have you gotten a 2nd opinion about the fusion? The reason I'm concerned is that fusions just end up stressing the adjacent disks. Arching your back and neck while being in trim diving is thus having to be accomplished by fewer disks and with more strain on those were the flexion is occuring.

I have had 2 microdiskectomies, one at C5-6 the second at L4-5. The lumbar surgery is taking ALOT longer to recover from than the cervical. The cervical recovery took roughly 3 months before I could dive at all, a year before I was as normal as that area ever will be. The lumber took 4 months before I could dive. I will tell you later when I am "fully recovered".

Be aware that post cervical surgery I need more deco time than before to avoid neurologic pain. And I can't do more than one trimix dive per day (unless they are really short). I guess you could say I bend easily, although it seems to be poorlr perfused scar tissue not offgassing fast and causing the neurologic pain - its identical to what I experienced when I herniated C5-6 just vastly less intense.

[Kelly Jessop]

Think Nitrox. It will help with the healing as long as you can cajole your dive buddy into carrying your gear to the water.

Not sure about nitrox,but a good reason to go diving. I would think aerobic type exercise ie walking and bicycling,research shows this will increase blood flow for healing


Another thing,is sidemount really isn't the savior that people want to think it is when it comes to back problems. Carrying a tank,and then bending over to lower the tank to the ground/water probably exerts more stress at the intradisc space than we think. I constantly see terrible mechanics,and often unavoided due the nature of the site,and in reality these people are really stressing their back greater than if the tank are on their back. Talk to your surgeon,and explain things specifically,before returning to diving. Good luck.

[gschaut]

Another thing,is sidemount really isn't the savior that people want to think it is when it comes to back problems. Carrying a tank,and then bending over to lower the tank to the ground/water probably exerts more stress at the intradisc space than we think.

Absolutely. But you bend with your knees, not your back. I keep my spine perfectly upright when lifting/carrying sidemount cylinders. And with a bit of pre-planning, I rarely have to lift/lower them to the ground. Back of the car to picnic table, then carry into the water and tie off to jon lines on the steps while standing in waist deep water.. Reverse on exit.

[Kelly Jessop]

Absolutely. But you bend with your knees, not your back. I keep my spine perfectly upright when lifting/carrying sidemount cylinders. And with a bit of pre-planning, I rarely have to lift/lower them to the ground.

Yep,that is what you want to do. Diving at P1 with the water levels so low,you have to flex beyond your base of support,so a tremendous amount of intradiscal pressure is present to get tanks into the water. In theory bend with your hip and knees,with back straight is great,but looking at so many sites we dive,90% of the places won't allow ability to follow true body mechanics that will off load the back. Professionally I deal with these things on a daily basis,and I have watched many people take their sidemount tanks to the water. Getting tanks out of the vehicle,and carrying a certain distance doesn't cause too much stress,but once the tanks are lowered to the water/ground level,especially on incongruous terrain,body mechanics are no more,and the back is absorbing the load. There are many sidemount falacies-one of which is that it significantly reduces stress to the back. If people are having success,then that is great,I just want to warn others that think it is a panacea.

[TobinGeorge]

Laminectomy L3, L4, L5 after years of shots and PT, at age 47. Now 53. Recovery was ~4 weeks to "pretty good" and 4 months to resume diving. Complete recovery, still diving big steel tanks back mount. Pain free, no deco problems with the surgery area. I wish I'd had the surgery years sooner.

Tobin

[phillip1]

I had an ACL replacement with a meniscus repair at the same time and the most important part of the whole process is the physical therapy.
When I started diving again at first I was super careful of not falling (which you should be anyway) but after a few dives I was back to normal.

The physical therapy I had to do was minimum 6 months and ended up being more like 8 and I stuck to it like clockwork, my advice is do not skimp out on the physical therapy it is the key to getting back to diving and keep focused on your end goal it will motivate you t stick to a strict PT regimen and get back in the water as fast as possible.