Spine surgery recovery, rehab and returning to sport | Backbones Podcast

What happens when a spinal surgeon becomes a spinal surgery patient himself? In this episode of Backbones, Carol (‪@SpinalSurgerySurvivalist‬) and I sit down with Mr Gordan Grahovac ( https://www.gordangrahovac.com/), a complex spinal surgeon and neurosurgeon who has also been through spinal surgery and rehabilitation himself. We talk about why rehab is a lifestyle change rather than a programme, and why it has to be built around the individual. Recovery was lonely for all three of us, and we get into the patience it takes and why healing runs far longer than people expect. It cannot be rushed. Pain after surgery is the other thread running through this one: why pain relief is so individual, how nerve pain and muscle pain feed into each other, and why telling the two apart is rarely straightforward. Gordan is open about his own timeline too. Six months of back pain before he decided to operate, and a year before he was deadlifting again. 0:00 Introduction 1:20 Respecting your new spine 1:45 Surgery gives you a window of opportunity 2:41 Gordan's own back pain and the decision to operate 3:32 Rebuilding after surgery, one baby step at a time 5:43 Why the foundations start below the spine 7:18 What happens when patients don't change their habits 8:51 Why rehab has to be built around the individual 12:02 The loneliness of the rehab process 15:32 Why individual sport builds the resilience for rehab 18:02 Setbacks are normal, watch the trend 19:33 Why the size of the scar is not the point 20:36 When open surgery beats minimally invasive 21:22 What being a patient taught him as a surgeon 23:59 When is pain worth paying attention to? 29:22 A normal MRI, and still in pain They cover: Why an operation buys you a window to change how you live, not a cure Six months of pain, then a year before he was deadlifting again Rebuilding starts with the glutes and hamstrings, not the spine Patients who never change their habits, and where they are five and ten years on How age, hormones and flexibility change what rehab should look like When a straightforward open operation beats minimally invasive Telling nerve pain from muscle pain, and why the treatments are nothing alike Having a normal MRI and real pain at the same time Like, subscribe, and leave a comment with any topics you'd like us to cover. ----- Joel Proskewitz is the founder of Vertera, a mobile app built to support spine surgery patients through every stage of their journey. Mr Gordan Grahovac is a consultant complex spinal surgeon and consultant neurosurgeon. He works at King's College Hospital, where he trains senior spinal fellows, and in private practice at The London Clinic, OneWelbeck and Fortius Clinic. He took his medical degree and PhD in Biological Sciences at the University of Zagreb, then a paediatric neurosurgical fellowship at Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago and a complex spinal fellowship at King's. His work centres on minimally invasive and robotic-assisted spinal surgery, cervical disc replacement, and complex degenerative and traumatic spinal conditions, and he has published more than 60 peer-reviewed papers. This video is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for diagnosis and treatment.