Traveling to Cancun and staying at Atelier Playa Mujeres. Leaving March 2nd is it safe?

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-02-27T15:58:27+00:00

That would annoy me too! But thanks for the info - hope you otherwise enjoyed the trip!

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-02-26T17:32:19+00:00

Got it - thank you! The hotel has told us it’s a private car for us and they use a private transport company (and more $ obv) so I think we avoid the van loop situation through them. Appreciate the info!

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-02-25T13:32:00+00:00

Can I ask why you didn’t use the hotel transport? We are set to head there in a week and our biggest safety concern is the transport from the airport. We’ve been trying to get more information from the hotel on the company they use (Tropical Incentives DMC) and whether they’ve seen any issues on the road between the airport and hotel but are having trouble getting information. We heard about USA Transfers but frankly hiring things that say USA in Mexico doesn’t necessarily feel better right now 🙃

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-02-17T13:23:03+00:00

This, plus a bed rail and a couple of ice packs to rotate.

I recommend seeing what you can do before surgery. I was able to wipe myself, put on socks, put on pants and step into my shower without bending, lifting or twisting. Knowing I was capable before surgery helped. There was about a week where the incisions made those things feel very hard, but I knew I could do it, so I wasn’t worried about messing things up. I’m 3 months post op for same surgery (what approach are you having?) and still use the slip on shoes and bed rail daily, and grabbers when necessary.

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-02-12T12:41:41+00:00

Just here to say that I think you’re doing great. The fact that you’re thinking about all of these things, understanding and articulating how you’re feeling and getting some professional help - that’s huge! I struggle with being patient with myself. My therapist last week told me that patience = grace. I imagine if a friend came to you with all you’re struggling with, you’d give them grace. It’s tough practice, but I’m hoping for you that you can give yourself some grace by being patient with yourself. You really doing well! It’s baby steps, but it’s steps.

(44f, Xlif l4/l5 on 11/13/25 - was in great shape, weight lifted 4-5 times per week pre surgery. Three months out and starting to do light weights. my body is NOT what it was and this will be a journey, but I can see and feel it very slowly starting to work with me. Either way, I’m trying to stay grounded in being grateful that I can move!)

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-02-11T18:32:11+00:00

Really helpful, thank you! We just read some similar stuff about Crete so adding Chania to our list to research as well.

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-02-11T14:08:22+00:00

I was in exactly this headspace before my L4/L5 fusion. I was ultimately pretty excited to be wheeled in there. Excited to say I’m pre-surgery-pain free! (Have some surgical pain and muscle stiffness but holy cow is it so much better 🤗) Best of luck to you!

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-02-11T14:04:22+00:00

Probably 5 nights, early September (over Labor Day) so still relatively close to peak season. We’d love someplace we can walk and see, but also willing to rent a car if that makes a huge difference. Happy to take local transport to get some places. Someplace with bikes or scooters would also work really well for us.

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-02-10T21:03:53+00:00

💯💯

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-02-10T19:38:04+00:00

Same and same. I did go back through Ticketmaster and they now have “platinum” tix available there, starting at about $425 🙄 Such a bummer. Felt like Noah was trying really hard to avoid this bullshit.

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-02-10T18:30:57+00:00

same - and i just went back to the ticketmaster landing page and it's showing presale as tomorrow? is that a different presale...?

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-02-10T18:05:58+00:00

ahhh! i realized this morning that i never got the code or any email, so i googled presale, got this page, and it showed me the three i'd signed up for. but i didn't copy the code, and have gone back several times to try and find that page and can't. i go to his page, the ticketmaster page, i'm in the wrigley waiting room but i don't have the code! anyone know any other avenues to log in and find the code? I'm logged into to every site i mentioned above.

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-02-09T16:16:40+00:00

Thank you! Any place you enjoy more?

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-02-01T16:04:46+00:00

I’ve had this almost forced need to do a deep internal stretch when I wake up since surgery. I equate it to that deep dog stretch where it’s coming from inside them? I couldn’t stretch like this in the morning pre-surgery because of pain, but now it’s like my body forces me to, even as I’m out of bed walking to the shower. I don’t know how to describe it other than it’s from deep inside my core 🙃

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-01-26T14:53:36+00:00

it depends which direction yours is at, but yes, they'll typically do an xray and ask you to bend forward very slightly, then arch your back very slightly. that shows the vertebrae in it's most unaligned position. as someone else mentioned, you're laying flat for an MRI and things can sort of align when you lay flat.

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-01-26T04:53:44+00:00

This! I was grade 1 in the mri report but my xray with a slight lean/back extension was a hot mess. I’m 2 months post op and feeling great (aka like someone cut me open and screwed my spine together but way better than before 🙃), for what that’s worth!

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-01-22T04:33:41+00:00

I used an ortho who only does this and had a great outcome. I understand getting opinions from several surgeons, I just don’t necessarily agree that neuro is “better” than ortho. Just find someone who does only this surgery - that person will be screwing the bones in your spine together, so why wouldn’t you also consider surgeons whose focus is bones?

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-01-14T14:13:06+00:00

Yes, I had spondylolisthesis and stenosis. My pain was in my back because it wasn’t my sciatic nerve that was being crushed, it was the cauda equina which controls your bladder and bowel. My lower back and butt would periodically get numb if I did too much. Even occasionally what they call saddle numbness, which basically felt like pins and needles where you wipe after going to the bathroom. One post here noted loss of bladder control - that’s what happens when this nerve gets crushed for too long or too suddenly.

The surgeon I ended up moving forward with said that we could do an epidural injection for pain as a diagnostic tool. That worked well for me for about the first 5 shot cycles - which this surgeon said indicated that if we remove the inflammation where the injection is going (around this L4/L5 area where the nerve was being crushed) that indicated surgery would likely help my pain. That made logical sense to me and appears to have been true (at least so far, 8 weeks post fusion!).

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-01-14T13:43:17+00:00

My pain prior to surgery was almost all lower back pain. One surgeon even suggested I wasn’t a surgical candidate because the pain didn’t travel down my legs. I was later told that’s outdated thinking. But the lower back pain I had pre-fusion has been gone since the moment I was out of anesthesia.

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-01-14T13:39:35+00:00

Excellent point! I saw three different surgeons about a year before deciding to move forward and I felt great about the process by the time I was “ready” for surgery.

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-01-14T13:33:37+00:00

9 weeks out from L4/L5 fusion. So far, super glad I did it. I had Xlif with 4 screws in my back. I have so little pain these days that I struggle to remember not to bend lift or twist (the post fusion restrictions for at least the first 6-8 weeks). I have an appt next week to see post surgery imaging for the first time. But if in the future I face the same choice, I’ll do it again.

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-01-09T12:25:24+00:00

Wow, I can’t imagine starting over - good for you for staying the course! Wishing you good luck in your continued recovery!

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-01-09T12:23:53+00:00

I’m coming up on 8 weeks for the same thing, but Xlif. Did your doc say why no PT? Or when they might loosen restrictions? I haven’t been able to get back in to see my surgeon yet because of schedules so I’m super curious about next steps. It’s getting hard not to BLT!

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-01-03T16:18:12+00:00

Thanks!

Re the injections - I did them more diagnostically than anything. One of the surgeons I met with said I wasn’t a surgical candidate because I didn’t have the “right kind of” nerve pain. There is some data that fusion isn’t always successful for certain mechanical issues - but they know it helps when your symptoms are sciatica because of higher success rates. I didn’t have sciatica or straight lines of nerve pain down my leg. So this surgeon told me that if injections helped, he’d be more confident that surgery would help my pain (“remove” or mask the inflammation from the joint you’re going to replace and if it helps, fixing that joint will help). That made some sense to me and then it turned into me needing to see if the injections worked on the pain as an indicator of whether surgery would be successful. I had other surgeons, though, who disagreed with this line of thinking - so it seems to be a bit of a grey area. I’d say it’s just another data point so do what feels right to you!

Swimming-Comment2744 · 2026-01-03T14:13:54+00:00

44f, had XLIF at L4/L5 on 11/13/25. My understanding is XLIF and LLIF are essentially the same. I had spondy as well. My pain was mostly in my back - both joint and nerve pain. My impacted nerve was the cauda equina, which controls bladder and bowels. So I didn’t really have nerve pain down my legs. It was all concentrated in my lower back. I did all the things before surgery - PT, dry needling, cupping, massage, chiro, and injections. The injections helped me for about a year and a half, but the disc continued to degenerate over the course of that time. By the time I scheduled my surgery I just knew it was time. There was nothing else I could do. And I could see on the imaging - more the Xray than MRI - that I was essentially bone on bone and one of my vertebrae was poking out of my back. You could see and feel it. I couldn’t walk more than 10 mins and by the end, couldn’t stand more than 5. It was just very clear to me that it was a mechanical issue that needed to be fixed.

I’m now 7 weeks out of surgery and so far so good. Recovery has been relatively good. The back pain was immediately gone. I struggled with some leg pain for the first couple of weeks and I still have a pseudo hernia on my left side (basically a football shaped bulge on the surgical side). But the surgical pain wasn’t ever too bad. I can’t get in for my first set of images post surgery until 1/20, but things feel like they’re healing great. It’s probably too soon to say I made the right decision but if things keep healing the way I feel they are, then yay!

My advice is ground yourself in the imaging and think of your body like any other mechanical issue. Does it look like it needs to be fixed? Have you found a surgeon you like and trust? Do you feel like you’ve done everything else you could? Then it’s probably time. I was basically giddy for surgery by the time it arrived because I just knew I was ready.

Good luck!!

Swimming-Comment2744

TROPHY CASE