6 months after spine surgery - L5-S1 fusion as a dancer

It's been a few weeks since I last posted as I have been very busy with the end of term, but I've now broken up for summer so I have a bit more time to write some more posts!

In my last post, I talked about my recovery in the first few weeks after my spinal surgery, how it affected me immediately post op and a little bit about my initial recovery. In this post, I want to focus more on how my body has specifically been affected now that I'm at the 6 month recovery mark, and how this has impacted both my training and my work life. 

Like I said in my most recent post, I am astonished at how well my body has recovered from the surgery. While the first few weeks were very very hard, with even just trying to walk normally being a real struggle, over time things got much easier and my improvement was getting more and more obvious as days went by. 

At the 6 week mark I was allowed by my surgeon to start carefully exercising again, meaning a small amount of cardio and stretching when I felt like it. I was so excited as this meant that I could start to participate again in small amounts in my dance classes, and I honestly couldn't wait to get training properly again! Unfortunately though, I only managed to take part in one class before my college had to shut because of the Coronavirus. This was quite frustrating for me, however it also meant that I did have a few more weeks to rest my back before taking part in classes again once my school got online classes running, so I tried to look on the positive side. 

While my college was preparing an online course for us, I went back to work which was harder than I imagined it would be as you don't actually realise how much of a role your spine plays in your day to day life, so there would often be times where my back would twinge from doing something that in the past I wouldn't have struggled with. I found this quite difficult because I really couldn't get used to having to take things easier as I'm the kind of person who really likes to get stuck into things. My back often ached at the ends of shifts which was something I never really experienced pre surgery, and I got tired much more easily. I eventually realised that I might have been pushing myself a bit too much too soon, so in the past month or so I've backed off and made sure to ask for help when I need it, and recently I've felt so much better for it! 

Eventually, my college released an online timetable for us over Zoom, and I could finally get back to dancing properly again. It was a bit of a shock to the system, but by this point I'd had even longer to recover, so I really felt ready to be active again. At first, getting back to dancing again was really hard work, and for a little while it almost felt like starting from scratch which was quite disheartening. I really had to get used to how my body now moves, as it does feel different from before the surgery. My lower back is really stiff now, and I actually hadn't been aware of how much movement my lower back had had before. This can make certain movements quite difficult, but it doesn't mean that they're impossible! It just means that I can't go as far in some movements as I could before, and I have lost a little bit of flexibility. Honestly, I can't complain though, because the lack of pain now compared to how I felt before my surgery is a really wonderful feeling. 

I think that the main way that my body has been affected is, interestingly, in my ham strings. Beforehand, I used to have fairly loose ham strings, and I definitely took these for granted!!! For some reason after the surgery, my ham strings have become incredibly tight. In the first month to month and a half after my operation, I could hardly straighten my left leg above 45 degrees without it being agony. It almost felt like it tugged on my lower back, and I couldn't even bend forward to touch the floor anymore, and this was a real worry for me because having loose ham strings is definitely something that can aid you when you're a dancer. I explained my worries to my surgeon, and he reminded me that my lower back had been through quite a lot during the surgery so there was a lot of internal healing that was still happening. I had to remember to be patient, as I definitely was trying to run before I could walk! 

With this in mind, I started very gently stretching after my classes, and eventually over time my ham strings have started to loosen again. There is still a long way to go in terms of improving their flexibility, but I can finally touch the floor again so I've come quite far from where I was post surgery, which I am really relieved about as I'm now confident that I can get back to where I was at before. I'm also really happy because I've also been able to participate in my whole dance classes without breaks, and I do feel like I'm getting back to normal again, which a few months ago I didn't think was possible! I also workout without restrictions now which is amazing, so overall I'm so excited with how well my recovery has gone. 

There are definitely still times where I struggle, and I do know when to stop if things are getting too much, but those moments are just becoming less and less frequent which is a great feeling. I just want to say that if anyone reading this is worried about anything at all with recovering from any sort of injury, I think my best advice would be to just take it steady, and try and be positive. At times it can feel like you're not getting anywhere, but I can promise you that you are. There's always going to be ups and downs after an injury, but the human body is a crazy thing, and I am constantly amazed at how my body has recovered. I can finally dance pain free, and while there is still further to go, I am so positive that I can get there :)

Thank you for reading! :)