What Is Spinal Surgery Recovery?
Factors enhancing recovery:
- Better nutrition
- Appropriate timing of rest and rehabilitation
- Behavioral modification
- Reducing toxins (i.e. tobacco, alcohol or non-essential pharmaceuticals)
- Conditioning and re-building program
Recovery occurs when the injury trend improves. At times, recovery can be interrupted at different times and places by structural damage, and we want to minimize this at all costs. The concept of understanding the need for surgery is best understood by understanding the process of recovery and all of the elements of a stagnant or failed recovery.
We believe that coordinating all of these factors is essential to the best possible recovery, whether surgery is ultimately necessary or not.
The "excellent result patient" can embrace all of these factors, couple them with a successful surgery, and maintain these factors during the recuperation and rebuilding phases following successful minimally invasive or disruptive surgery.
What does the "excellent result patient" look like?
They have the right attitude (not meaning that they have behaved perfectly preinjury) but that they have the capability of changing their bad habits, enhancing their good habits, and adding new habits where appropriate and when encouraged.
- They form objective and realistic goals.
- They are honest with themselves and with their treating health care provider about the cause of their injury; what made it better or worse; their goals, needs, and lifestyle; and their participation in the establishment of their future goals in a structured and disciplined way.
- They understand their symptoms and take time to analyze and describe them so that their treatment (non-surgical or otherwise) is guided towards the most precise situation possible.
- They have a plan that makes sense for their time of life, their goals, and their spine injury.
