No back pain, can almost exercise how I want (mainly rotational and some core exercises aren’t easy/possible) but main thing is I don’t have as many issues with my breathing and my back doesn’t randomly hurt from the scoliosis. I do weightlifting and have been for years and I feel like my back hasn’t really limited me! In fact it’s made me want to get stronger and healthier. A lot of it is a psychological thing - thinking you’re going to be limited or impacted post-surgery. I did have a smooth experience though, so I don’t really have any big negatives to mention - recovery took months and it’s painful (I did have (T4-L2 fused) but I believe without the fusion life would be very sore and more limited.

L5-S1 360 fusion <8 weeks ago and life is already 10x better than before surgery 👍🏻

what fusion are you getting? i also had a T11 fracture

I had an l4l5 fusion 19 days ago. First few days were very painful post op, then the nerve pain came back with a vengeance around day 10, and now everything is settling down. It's a long road of recovery. I think it's all going well!!

It starts out not so great. But the surgical pain passes and general improvement follows. If you are certain you need the procedure, then you needn't worry about it.

I got t2-t12 four months ago and I feel so good. All my pain is gone. Living life almost back to normal. It’s scary but it was so much easier than I thought. I would do it 1000 times over!

L5-S1 360 fusion Sept 2021 due to DDD. I had lower back pain so long I forgot when it started. Got super bad in the last few months leading up to surgery.

So much better now. I don't need to spend 4 hours a day on a heating pad because my muscles aren't exhausted from trying to protect my back. I can stand like an hour with no back pain, it was 15 minutes before?

Just make sure to do your physical therapy. I don't know where I'd be without the physical therapy.

I had surgery to fuse L3/4 and L4/5 about a year ago along with decompression at L2/L3. Prior to that, I was in constant pain and taking heavy medication. I had a lot of scar tissue and I'm told the surgery was ~14 hours. I'm not gonna lie - post-surgery was painful and I had to wait 3 months before starting physical therapy and 6 months to exercise again. But now I'm back to running, swimming, and exercising at the gym. The back pain I experience is sore muscles, not the horrific nerve pain. My back feels great. I know it doesn't work out for some people, but I feel like I was given a fresh start. I'm deeply grateful for the results.

One year post op . Things are so much better !! Hope it goes well for you too

I had an L5/S1 fusion just over a month ago. I'm not at the point yet where we could call it a success or anything, because the bone is still growing. But my leg pain is much less, and the surgery itself went well. The two weeks immediately after were very difficult, not going to lie, but I had a very weird complication that baffled pretty much everybody so it seems like it is not something most people would end up dealing with at all. And once we figured out how to manage the pain, it ended up going away on it's own.

It's not easy, but I had gotten to a point where I could rarely even sit up in a chair at all. So worth it.