April 2024

Wow! I can’t quite believe time has gone so quickly since my last update on my back!

I’ve had a lot of time to come to terms with my L4 Grade 1 Spondylolisthesis and the pain and restrictions I feel pretty much daily. In a typical military way – let’s get the short version said first and then the details will be afterwards.

In short, I don’t need fusion surgery in the near future and I’ve been discharged from my excellent surgeon in Coventry. I will undoubtedly continue to get flare ups but they have been, so far, mild and manageable, and nothing like the pain I felt in July 2023. I may need another set of steroid injections but hopefully that won’t be for a couple of years either.

Monthly care

My back is rarely pain free, like many people who have chronic pain its always there in the background and can catch my off guard most dayd but I really try to keep it below a threshold which requires painkillers. Every month I get a gentle and effective sports massage, focusing on the right leg – my ‘nerve pain side’, my lower back, but without pressure pushing straight down on the spine, and bottom, and anywhere else if there’s time. I have also bought some silicone myofscial cups – they’re like clear suction cups, a lesser quality, in my opinion, to what I use in my work but they do the same job. I use a tennis ball and the cups in between my monthly massages when I feel like I’m on the beginning of a flare up and it definitely helps.

Work

In January I did a Thai table massage and stretch course and it reminded me of positioning and posture whilst working. Since then I have lowered my massage couch to the lowest height and sometimes will kneel on the couch if I need to get into a better position when working on the calves / lower legs. I haven’t found since lowering the couch that I get such a sore back when doing a hot stones back massage either which is great news.

On days, like last Thursday, where I worked for 6 hours plus changing the room around, cleaning the floor, doing the laundry and normal home / family life jobs, I knew I had pushed my body too much so I made sure I lay down and rested my back as much as possible over the weekend.

Exercise / strengthening

Last summer I tried to use a fixed bike after my surgeon recommended it over cycling outside where the rotation in the spine isn’t recommended with Spondylolisthesis. Riding the bike was fine but every time I got off the bike I had numbness down my right leg, which isn’t good news! I was given a cross trainer and was using that…but it was really boring and I struggled to maintain a consistent workout when I could ‘just’ stay in bed when my morning alarm went off and read for 30 mins instead!

A couple of weekends ago I walked home across the local hills after dropping a vehicle off at a local garage. It was one of those moments when I had forgotten about my back and afterwards I realised that I had had no problems at all. I had only carried a light bag and the pace was fairly quick as my son ran the majority of the way! It reminded me of a post I saw on Instagram where a medical professional talked about the negative effect an X-ray / MRI image in relation to an injury can have – sometimes I find myself scared to do something from fear of making my back worse or to trigger a flare up, sometimes I put my hand on the small of my back and feel the ‘indent’ when my vertebra isn’t in alignment and wonder if it’s slipped slightly to give reason to why I have an aching back or nerve pain that day. I do believe that I need to slowly strengthen and remind my body how to work as a whole. I have promised myself to make it easy, by printing 5-10 min different exercises as an alternative to going on the cross trainer, to have an accountability partner, and I’d like to try getting back on my road bike. There’s nothing better than cycling to a coffee shop for a cup of coffee and a decent slice of cake or pastry and then cycling home! But the real question will be about my back and how it fares being in a more bent forward position / hinged at the hips, and how that feels when I get off the bike too.

No fusion?

I went to see the surgeon in March and when he called my name I jumped straight out the waiting room chair, his response was that I didn’t need surgery! My appointment was barely 5 minutes long because he’s refreshingly honest and to the point. We discussed that I will continue to get flare ups but at this moment in time I am able to manage the symptoms so do not need to continue to see him every 3-6 months. If I do find myself in severe pain again then I won’t hesitate to get referred back to him.

For the time being I don’t want to have fusion anyway because I have some slight ‘issues’ with the vertebra below my spondylolisthesis and if they did the operation, there’s a chance it could cause pressure on it and I would have further issues and require more surgery. I’m also not 100% sure I could continue with massage or reflexology and I love every modality of my job and am not ready to give that up!

I’m going to keep hoping that all is well with my back for years to come. So for now, this will be my last post on the blog about Spondylolisthesis. If you’d like to ask me any questions then please do below, or send me a message.

Take care, Hannah