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.

[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

[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.

[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.

[a64pilot]

Biggest saving grace back wise for side mount is you get to deal with the tanks one at a time, wherever possible I use a hand truck AND my 16 yr. old tank Shepa, I knew he was good for something.

[JCGoodwin]

Thanks for the replies and pms.
I have two areas of concern C5-6 and L4-5.
We are dealing with C5-6 right now and there really is not an option of waiting unless I want more paralysis and recovery.
I am not excited about it especially the decompression issues that can accompany post surgery dives.
I try to roll extremely conservative plans already in FL deco time is not to bad in Great Lakes another 15 minutes is freezing.

I have been SMing for about 3yrs now on and off just recently finished my Full in BM.
I am just ready to get it going and start the recovery phase.
Thanks again to all that have posted I really appreciate the words of advice from those who have been there and done that.

JCG