3 weeks post surgery, and 1 week back at work, and I’m starting to learn how to navigate the new world of a long term recovery. I’ve been finding it better to compare week to week rather than day to day. It’s been hard to notice changes when it’s such a short period of time, but when I compare myself to 1 week before, I feel like I’ve made huge strides in my recovery.

Officially hitting two weeks meant I had my follow up appointment with my doctor and I had my first day back at work. Week two had a dramatic improvement from week one; however, I’m still experiencing some mild sciatic pain and numbness.

Officially one week post op and overall I’m still very happy I got the surgery. I have not experienced any severe nerve pain like I had before, but I’m experiencing so many new post surgery symptoms I wasn’t mentally prepared for.

My experience on surgery day for my L5/S1 Laminectomy Microdiscectomy.

My journey to surgery was such a windy road of my mistakes, having to fight for my care, ups and downs (mostly downs) of my mental and physical health. In the end, I’m happy with my decision to get surgery. With my headspace early on, I don’t think any one could have changed my mind from the mistakes I made, and I’m now happy looking back at what I’ve learned about myself and my body. I tried to graph a tldr of my pain and experiences here and will continue this graph throughout my recovery.

Hi! I’m Betty. I’m in my late 20s, incredibly active, and about 6 months ago I found my self in a lot more pain than I’m used to and unable to do a lot of things I love. My official injury diagnosis is that I herniated my L5/S1 and have a bulging disc at L4/L5.