how did everyone wait to start after surgery? I'm still nervous about driving
I was told not to drive until after my one-month post-op appointment, AND after I was no longer taking any meds which mess up driving. This could mean both serious pain medication (which I stopped rather quickly) and muscle relaxants (which I took for longer). Finally, I didn't drive until I felt like I had enough neck mobility to be safe.
All these restrictions meant I did not drive for about six weeks post-op. The biggest bar for me was getting off the muscle relaxants without stopping so soon that I would get tension headaches. (For what it is worth, I also found I had to adjust medication levels very slowly. I would spend almost a week at any given number of pills before I adjusted. I learned from hard experience that if I adjusted after only a few days, I could suffer a minor setback, and then it would take me another week to recover by taking a larger number of pills.)
I have no idea how to generalize, though, from my personal experience.
I am almost 3 mo. post op from the decompressin surgery which i had on march 11. but I am only a month from being home from a second trip to the hospitol from spinal fluid leaking from my patch. I was in there for 15 days. So I am still on pain meds from that major setback. all the fluid had leaked into my neck leaving large lumps and severe pain. I think that was worse than the surgery. Anyways I think I can drive but my very over protective husband does not. He thinks I will have to jerk my neck if something happens and reinjure it. I also had a c1c2 lamenectomy. my kids will be out of school soon and I WANT TO DRIVE. he thinks im being stubborn and of course over doing it. Even said he would steal my keys when he went to work. LOL im hiding a set. well just want to see how long everyelse waited.
I waited six weeks. I wanted to be sure I had full mobility in my neck first and that I was off all meds! Good luck! :)
I was wondering this myself…just 2.5 weeks post op. My NS just emailed me back that I could drive as soon as I felt comfortable. I don’t think I’m there yet.