28 years old, and I have just undergone back surgery from a car accident I had 3 years ago. A drunk driver tboned me at highway speeds blowing a red light. Lived with the pain for 3 years until I finally went for an MRI in November and just got my surgery on Christmas Eve.
has anyone undergone lumbar back surgery and continued to operate heavy equipment? My main two pieces of equipment are motor grader, and large crawler loaders.
I operate 55-66 hours a week during the summers. My surgery was minimal right now, as a discectomy, but the alternative surgery was a 3 stage fusion. So I opted to try my luck on not losing 30% of my lumbar range of motion first.
Hi mate, all these replies are spot on, I have metalwork looking like Truck Shop around L4-L5+ the one above from ~1996. I was 23, and after a bad year and a half recovering I felt pretty good- I tried to carry on running heavy equip and run business and run myself ragged, bouncing tractors over rough fields all day including D8H. But the long hours and the usual pressure of running business combined with the back ache that was a killer, so I couldn't continue in the same way. I took some time off again, and without planning it I met my future wife who was a professional massage therapist in Japan...
I picked up my business again, but left out the 18 HR days sitting on my backside bouncing across bounders. I have specialised in the forestry side, the right amount of anything is good for you and this includes chainsaw work, which is good because it keeps you moving about. Excavators are good for me as long as I don't lock myself away in the cab for too many days on end without getting out much. Maintenance and repairs are ok, as said above though- heavy stuff laying under the machine, especially cold concrete floors, is not so good. Let someone else do the clutch on your pickup truck if it involves removing the transmission downwards with you under it!
Think the key is to manage yourself to suit your body. After several years of repeat visits to therapist, I finally found a simple exercise that really helps, it's just curls where I lay on back and pull my crossed legs up to my chest (using my arms, not difficult), do about 100 of them and I guess it pumps the blood around your stiff back and this frees it up and gets ride of some of the ache. Then stretch and rest for couple of minutes before racing out the door.
Hernias are something to try and avoid, I on number 3 currently but living with it as a fuse. I let my core muscles weaken with all the sitting in machines when younger, then first hernia came after undoing angle grinder wheel on a cold morning! The exercise for strengthening that is the muscle that you'd use if you were peeing against a tree and then a woman walked past with her dog, the muscle that cuts the flow of pee- if you can hold that on while doing anything, and your outer stomach muscles stay relaxed and breathing normally- that is the weak little core muscle in there and it fades after trying to hold it on. 20-30 seconds and it tires out. That there is a key muscle.
Enough of my waffle, if you love a job and can keep weight off your stomach, just watch your hours sitting and find a simple exercise that helps relieve the daily dull backache. And hang out with a massage therapist is the most important thing!
All the best.