A bit about the blog and why I,m writing it

The main reason for creating the site was to give an opinion on the procedure of Translumbar Interbody Fusion (TLIF) after being told this was the surgery I required in Dec 2007. Before consenting to the operation I wanted to know the facts but found there was very little information on the Internet and most of it was medical based. What I wanted to read was other peoples opinions,how they found the recovery,the issues with the limitations whilst recovering from the operation.

Before the injury I was an active 32 year old who enjoyed martial arts, weight training, surfing and generally keeping active. Never had back pain in my life yet January 2006 whilst trying to move something I stood up and lost all feeling in my legs and was unable to walk.

What unveiled after that was 6 weeks off work and endless appointments with my Doctor and over those 22 months I did everything I could to prevent the operation. I underwent extensive physio, traction, acupuncture, chiropractioner, lumbar faucet injections, discography.

I was told I had degenerative disease of the L5 disk and despite the acute pain I proceeded to try and live a normal life and continued to do light weight training as long gone are the days were specialists encourage you to lie in bed all day!

At the point of writing this I,m 3 weeks out of my operation and recovery is well on the road. It has not been all easy but like any operation remaining positive afterwards is a must.

During the course of adding posts to the blog I,ll describe the different treatments I had. Maybe some will contain links to information I sourced or just my own opinions of it.

I hope the blog will be of some use and just give you another view of someone who has undergone the operation and giving an honest account of it all.