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Disc replacement is the surgery of the spinal cord. Your spinal cord consists of small bones called vertebrae stacked one over the other. These vertebrae degenerate as your age increases and deteriorate when you lift heavy weights for an extended period. In such cases, your doctor will advise a disc replacement surgery that involves replacing the natural disc with a disc made of metal or plastic. In this blog, we will discuss recovery from disc replacement in Dayton.
It is a significant surgery that a doctor does under general anesthesia. After the surgery, your doctor will advise a stay of one or two days. Initially, for a week, you might also require a walker. Your doctor will recommend the following things for a quick recovery-
Pain relief
Your doctor will prescribe some over-the-counter painkillers to reduce post-operative pain. He may also give muscle relaxants and narcotic analgesics.
Cold therapy
Your doctor may recommend heat or cold therapy. In the first few days, you can use Cold therapy to reduce pain and inflammation. It will help if you prefer frozen gel packs over regular ice packs because ice packs may leak and prevent healing. For quick recovery, you must keep the site clean and dry.
Heat therapy
After the first two days, your doctor may ask you to do heat therapy to accelerate the healing process. Heat increases blood circulation, thus aids in healing, and it also helps reduce muscle spasms and relaxes muscle tension.
Physical therapy and physical activities
- Posture maintenance while sitting and sleeping: Lumbar rolls correct your sitting posture. Use lumbar rolls while sitting and change your posture frequently while sleeping.
- Walking program: Walk for 10 minutes once or twice a day. Gradually increase the distance as tolerated.
- Stretchings: You can do light stretchings and aerobic exercises for your back.
Back bracing
Your doctor might recommend back bracing for 4 to 6 weeks to prevent overstretching of the back muscles or restrict movement of the spinal cord.
Nutritional supplements
Your doctor may also advise some nutritional supplements like zinc, vitamin C, essential amino acids to speed up the recovery.
Conclusion
Full recovery from the surgery can take upto three months. Some people may recover earlier or later than this. The activities mentioned above will help you get back to routine fast, but consult your doctor if the pain aggravates.
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