Post surgery: Lumbar fusion in Dubai. Day 22 - Sudden intense pain

Woke up with intense shooting pain at incision site

What a morning! Got woken up with a sudden shot of intense pain on the left side incision site at around 4 am. Could not really get back to sleep, because I kept getting shots of pain – burning, searing, shooting pain that lasted for 5-10 seconds and then abated - almost every half an hour.

Went for a 2 km walk and had a couple of bouts of pain. When I came back, showered and tried to lie on my back, the shots of pain were every 20 minutes, and got aggravated every time I turned or stretched a bit.

I had a physio session scheduled at 1140am, but I also called the clinic and booked a doctor's appointment because I was really afraid of the sudden onset of pain. At the physiotherapy session, my fantastic therapist, immediately pin pointed the pain a s a severe muscle cramp, and treated me to several pain management techniques which included extended sessions of electro-impulse with infrared, laser therapy, and ultrasound. Felt better immediately afterwards when I went in to meet the doctor (my surgeon Dr Shim), and he said not to panic. This was, as the PT had said, a severe muscle spasm.

I tried to figure out, why, suddenly, after three exact weeks I suddenly had a muscle spasm. It was the first time, since my surgery, that I actually sat down on my sofa in the living room (soft cushions, unvomfortable, unsupportive for best of folks, forget spinal patients) and literally fell asleep! I must have slept in that silly sitting (leaning) back position for around an hour, and that, I believe, is what caused the pain and spasm.

Remember No BLT and No sitting beyond 1/2 hour, no real stretching...

How soon  we forget the No BLT rule : No Bending. No Lifting. No Twisting. While I have, as much as possible, tried to adhere to the No BLT rule, I have sometimes forgotten and tried to bend. Or twist. The Lifting I have consciously avoided (easy), but the no bending, no twisting is difficult. And last evening, when I fell asleep on the sofa, I was twisted. And a soft cusihon is the last thing you need. Both bad, both my bad. Avoid this. Learn from the intense pain lesson I had today,