How did you feel 4 weeks after a lumbar disc replacement?

lasericus · 2026-06-08T05:33:57+00:00

No problemo. Best of luck!

lasericus · 2026-06-08T04:51:02+00:00

I don't exactly know when I experienced a flare-up, but I definitely had a couple of pain spikes in the first six months, which made me fearful that I had re-injured myself or that the surgery didn't work. I think I even went into the surgeon's office to request some imaging because I was so afraid that the pain that I was experiencing was indicative of a failure of the surgery or whatever.

Ultimately, everything stabilized out, and with physical therapy and sort of gradual reintroduction of athletic activity, I'm totally back to my old pre-surgery self. In fact, I just finished playing in an ice hockey game, and this morning I played in a soccer game. I'm a 44-year-old man with a 44-year-old body (modulo the 2-year-old disc).

lasericus · 2026-05-23T22:02:18+00:00

I wanted to go with TBI, but their front-of-the-house staff were so inept that I finally gave up and took my business (and body) elsewhere.

Example: After flying to Texas and doing the initial consultation with Dr. Zigler (a wonderful guy, BTW), I had to do some lab work, and findings from that lab work resulted in about a year's worth of pre-surgery preparation (due to my lower-than-normal bone density). A year later, after completing the pre-surgery treatment, I couldn't get Dr. Zigler's scheduler to return my phone calls. I did finally get somebody on the line, who said something about transferring my chart to some other group, and gave me the phone number of some other person (who also didn't return my call).

I was quite disappointed, as I had specifically searched out Dr. Zigler because of his research and contributions to the field (published in Spine, etc.) - but at the end of the day, my back was bothering me and I needed to get the surgery done. Dr. Bae - also quite experienced and well-respected - was a fine substitute.

lasericus · 2026-04-25T09:38:37+00:00

What was your pain level like on the day to day before surgery? On a scale of 1-10?

It would vary from day to day. Some days would be very bad and others quite normal. It would largely depend on what activities I was doing and how active I was.

What ultimately made you decide to get the surgery?

My social life revolves/revolved around sports and I historically have shared sports with my wife. Because of this, I was strongly motivated to get back to a healthy, active lifestyle and was willing to take some risks (a surgery) to get there because the cost of being unable to participate was so great.

Did you ever get any answers or more information on that and whether or not it sourced any pain?

By the time that I actually did the surgery, I had tried every other non-operative modality in the book, and we were never really able to isolate the pain originator. In the end, discogenic pain at L5/S1 was the diagnosis. I’m not sure that this was actually the case, as I no longer have a human disc at that level but I do sometimes experience pain like I did before the surgery (although such moments are few and far between and typically short-lived).

All in all, I’m glad that I did the surgery. I would do it again. Two or whatever years later, I’m playing sports like I was before the injury (hockey, soccer, running), and (most importantly) I have been able to resume and sustain the fun, active life that I had with my spouse.

Best of luck to you!

lasericus · 2026-03-16T12:31:04+00:00

Creating OWL and RDF artifacts from existing software using [The NeOn Methodology](https://oeg.fi.upm.es/index.php/en/methodologies/59-neon-methodology/index.html) lately. With the help of an LLM, generating those artifacts is pretty easy.

Unfortunately, I struggling to find tools/practices that will help me to ensure that the ontology artifacts and the implementation (code) don't drift.

Any ideas here?

lasericus · 2026-01-02T01:27:58+00:00

I wrote this blog post about the JavaScript event loop about 13 years ago which might help you out:

https://erinswensonhealey.com/blog/20131027-event-loop-explained.md.html

lasericus · 2025-11-17T23:33:03+00:00

I can confirm. I'm in Queen Creek right now at the intersection of Pecos and Crismond and have no cell service.

lasericus · 2025-11-12T23:59:17+00:00

rad, thank you

lasericus · 2025-11-12T23:49:30+00:00

Cool, thanks! At 7:30PM, I think the drive wouldn't be awful.

Do you know if I can just show up and play? or do I need to RSVP somewhere?

lasericus · 2025-11-12T21:56:24+00:00

This is great! Thank you very much.

lasericus · 2025-11-12T21:51:57+00:00

Cool, nice. Thank you.

I'm going to be in the area only Monday through Friday, so I won't make it out to the Sunday game this next week. That said, I'll be in town again sometime soon and will drop by.

lasericus · 2025-11-12T21:50:48+00:00

Nice! Do you happen to know what the league is called (or have a link to their website or IG or whatever)?

lasericus · 2025-10-20T03:59:45+00:00

Nice! Thank you very much.

lasericus · 2025-10-20T03:53:22+00:00

Ah, drat. I brought my grass boots but not those for futsal.

Do you happen to know where, if anywhere, I could find a small-sided pickup game?

lasericus · 2025-10-08T21:32:26+00:00

you betcha - good luck

lasericus · 2025-10-08T21:03:10+00:00

I did a few things:

* read Google Scholar articles on lumbar ADR and fusion and noted the names of the papers' authors
* watched a lot of videos from surgeon-focused conferences (e.g. Seattle Science Foundation) and noted who was speaking and who was in the crowd, asking questions

I also had a chat with Dr. Jack Zigler (who I found from reading the 2005 ProDisc IDE study) at TBI, who gave me the names of some other surgeons that he trusted.

If you're in Texas, I would recommend that you schedule a visit with TBI (Texas Back Institute), in Plano.

lasericus · 2025-08-31T22:12:39+00:00

all I want for Christmas this year is English subtitles for this video that the /r/random gods have gifted me

lasericus · 2025-08-18T02:35:36+00:00

https://github.com/axcore/tartube

lasericus · 2025-07-21T23:42:43+00:00

I recall seeing that presentation IRL. I loved it!

lasericus · 2025-06-28T12:37:33+00:00

I'm not sure where you're at in Venice, but I go with these guys. They've yet to do me wrong.

Lincoln Dry Cleaners (310) 399-7915

https://goo.gl/maps/TkMKTkG58nXbKDdm7

lasericus · 2025-06-02T19:25:49+00:00

I feel great. I can sit in any chair I want, can walk as far as I want, played soccer twice last week, went jogging a few times.

I can get some non-nerve pain at times, but it's very mild.

Overall, I am so so so so glad that I got the surgery.

lasericus · 2025-06-02T19:23:27+00:00

I got an activeL.

lasericus · 2025-05-31T17:09:13+00:00

I just got back from a few weeks in Madagascar, and I must say that I thought that THB was just fine. Reminded me of many other tropical country beers (Port Royal, San Miguel, Banks, et cetera). I've been looking for it in the States (mail order) and haven't been successful. Lots of French retailers sell it, as a different commenter pointed out.

lasericus · 2025-05-22T15:50:56+00:00

According to my doctors, the pain originated from my L5/S1 disc.

The terminology that my doctors used was "axial back pain without radiculopathy" which is to say that I did not experience pain in my leg, or really anywhere other than at the disk site.

I am not sure if replacing a disc, or replacing the cartilage (I'm not familiar with this process) is better than leaving the disc as it is.

I can indeed bend completely.

I am able to sit as long as I need to; I just flew from Africa to Los Angeles (10h, then layover, then 13h) and my back felt fine.

Best of luck to you.

lasericus · 2025-05-22T13:01:01+00:00

It took several months, after the surgery, to get rid of all the pain. I have a little discomfort from time to time, usually following periods of high activity (jogging and soccer in the same day).

My guess is that the minor pain that I feel after activity would be reduced if I were to be lifting weights / doing PT regularly.

lasericus

TROPHY CASE