Well, I had my follow up with my neurosurgeon yesterday the 14th. He said I am good to return to aerobic exercises but still wants me to hold off on weight training for a couple months yet. He did tell me I was good to go back to work on the 20th, as long as I stayed away from the Hazardous Materials. Overall, he seemed very pleased with my recovery. He told me that I won't need to do any physical therapy as "physical therapy for someone as young as me is to go out and do stuff." My next appt with him is in February. I'll have a MRI of both my Cervical and Thoracic spine a week before the appt so they can take a look at the syrinxs. He seemed to think that the syrinxs should be significantly smaller, if not gone completely by that time. We shall see.
Overall, I'd say I do feel somewhat healthier than I did before the surgery. My back doesn't seem to hurt as much or as often, I have had very few headaches since the surgery healing was done, and I'm curious to see how exercising goes. I do have a fitness test next month, but I'm assuming based on my profile that it will be either a waist and walk, or a waist measurement only. At least I don't have to worry about building up my pushups and situps again, since I haven't done anything with my arms or abs for two months.
So, I will be headed back to work on Monday, back to the grind. It's so odd, after being gone for 2, and basically gone for 3 months, I'm not sure what I'll be walking into. I'm sure things will be fine, but there are quite a few new folks in the office, some that have left, and some that are getting ready to leave. The wife and I still haven't decided if we are going to try and get a change of duty station. The scary part for me with that is that I will need to reestablish a neurosurgeon wherever I go from here. That may be a challenge in some locations. Only time will tell.
Overall, I'm very happy with the decision to go ahead with the surgery and am very fortunate that the recovery has gone as well as it has. The best part of this doctor's visit.....I can pick up my children again :)
