About 8 years ago, I had a PLIF with instrumentation at L4-5. And from what I remember, a lot of it is a blur, the recovery was pretty rough, some of that was my fault. I waited too long to have surgery and it got to the point were I could hardly walk. The first 3 months after surgery were rough for me and during that time I had to take pain meds continuously. It also seemed like where the hardware was hurt real badly, but the burning and stabbing pains in my leg were the worst. I tried PT at 8 weeks, but it hurt too much, I couldn’t stand or sit for more than 10 – 15 minutes at a time and I was real worried I’d never get better.
After about 3 months, I slowly began to feel better and started to regain my strength. I started walking and spent almost 4 months in PT learning how to use my leg again. At six months, I felt pretty good and after a year I was pretty much pain free. My leg is still a little weak and I have some numbness and tingling, but that’s never going to go away. And in all these years, I haven’t had a single problem with my low back, no adjacent segment disease or nothing. Your not alone, It can take a long time to recover from one of these.Have you had any x-rays yet. Tell your doctor you need an increase in your pain medication. They can't fire you because your to sick to work, can they?
Take Care and Hope You Feel Better
Unfortunately, you're going to have to really take it easy until you heal. You have gone through a big Surgery and your body need time to heal. I was in your position a few years ago and the only thing that helped was total rest for months. I was finally back to normal about 4 months after the initial surgery.
Good luck,
Mollyrae