6 Months Post OP ACDF - Bone Growth

Because I can see how many people have viewed blogs...I know ones with ACDF in title have been viewed more. So I know some have found these when worried / researching what to expect or if what they're currently going thru is "normal". So I wanted to just jump on with a 6 month post op update. I was fully cleared from Spinal Surgeon two days ago. Since I started smoking again at 6 weeks post op I was very fearful I would not have signs of bone growth. I researched the hell out of Red Light therapy and did 8x a month from late Jan to present in hopes of helping with bone growth. When I specifically asked, he pointed at the xray and said bone growth looked "great. One solid unit" going from above fusion area to below. Said I had no worsening of areas above and below (AKA adjacent disc disease), my stenosis, arthritis etc all looked just as they were prior to surgery! Yay! Celebrated that night with a rare piece of cheese cake bought at store. Still get slight zapping nerve pain in left if bending over or leaning on left arm but 95% normal is so much better than constant pain so if this is life now, I'll take it. Sitting up straighter than I have my entire life LOL who knew moms were so right about sitting up straight? But laying down, I can sleep on either side as much as I want. I do get muscle spasms here and there but they only last mere seconds. And they are anywhere from neck side to upper back to upper arms. Maybe 3ish times a week? So I'll be sitting at work or at home and suddenly back of right upper arm twiches for 30 seconds. Just long enough to think, huh that's twitchy, then it stops. A few days later it will be a total different spot but same thing. In the past 3 months I've only had 4 days where muscles felt sore enough for a muscle relaxer at night. End of March, I did stop icing neck/upper back 3x a week because we went on vacation and I felt fine when we got back that I thought - oh, maybe I don't actually need it anymore and was doing it out of habit. But last two weeks I've felt a bit more sore that I'm back to icing here and there. Again- if this is life from now on...it's better than the alternative and not that much a burden on life. Otherwise life is totally back to normal (see earlier post today on all things vacation planning and hiking LOL to know I'm back to old me). Hope anyone that has read thru all the posts post-op can see there were times I was sure life would never be normal again. And while some recover quick, some a few months like me and yes some I have read some said it took a full 18 months (And the rare horror stories of never feeling better) that you can hit low points and work your way up. Try to stay positive.

Ever Evolving Travel Plans

So two blogs ago I said two things that have now changed. I said no planned nature side trips for Oct 2026 and that I didn't know if Great Basin National Park was worth it. Fairly soon after that posting, we decided to do it. The fall plan now is so packed, we're crazy! We will pick up car and head the 4 hours north to GBNP, stopping along the way for a gift shop at the edge of the Extraterrestrial Highway and hiking for 90 mins or so at Cathedral Gorge State Park before a few short (I'm talking .5 to one mile each) at the NP. I've reserved a little cabin nearby on AirB&B. The area is supposed to have some of the darkest skies of the lower 48 and we will be there a day before a new moon so only 2% moon lit; should be amazing. Next morning, we will do 3 mile Alpine Loop Trail and then Lehman Caves Tour. Then possibly drive thru Cedar Breaks National Monument area before the Kolob Canyons area of Zion we missed last fall for sunset. Final morning before Vegas, awake and arrive at Snow Canyon State Park for 1-2 hours of hiking at sunrise. Like I said, we're crazy. The other change, is we'll put off doing Banff for another time. Why? It's a bucket list wish I've had for a few years now? Because Mr. Juice threw out another idea that we just had to jump on because of our Diamond status with CET. We have now booked.... AN ALASKAN CRUISE! It is booked for mid May 2027. We're doing Haven on NCL again; because once you go bougie you cannot go back. Jeff's one request is a Helicopter ride to a glacier and mushing huskie sled dogs in Juneau. OK! So one day/night in Seattle and then 7 days aboard the NCL Encore (fitting name for our second cruise). How I will handle a full year day dreaming and researching this when in the two weeks since booking I feel I have already spent a third of my free time looking at stuff? I'll be so overloaded with all things Alaskan ports by then I may make my head implode.

Two women have questioned him on if I really want to do this. Why are so many ladies beach girls that they can't imagine that others are not? You give me the combo of water, mountains and pine trees and it's my idea of heaven. This is why Banff is so high on my list, Lake Tahoe is my favorite spot in the US and we talk about when we'll return to Yosemite someday. Beaches and sand barely peak any interest in me. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed our trip to the Bahamas, but I do not daydream about future trips to a beach at all. Give me hikes among the trees looking over a rocky shore vista anyday!

JTNP / DVNP / Vegas Spring 2026

We did a day in Joshua Tree and a day in Death Valley before heading to Las Vegas this trip. Having never been to either I can say our impression of JTNP was meh but we were pleasantly surprised by DVNP.

The issue with JTNP was two fold. First, I changed my mind at 3am before hoping in car to airport to wear black shit kicker boots instead of my tried and true hiking boots. why? Because they matched my outfit. ugh. Started getting blisters because my feet were sliding around in them not wearing thick winter socks. By the time we hiked the Arch Rock/ Heart Rock trail I had four blister, one on each heel they size of a lime and one on each top covering from big toe to almost pinkie toe. So in other words, all but my toes and the center of my foot. I couldn't walk anymore after just 2 of six miles in. So we just went to viewpoints afterward. Secondly everything looks the same. Rocks and Joshua trees. We like more variety in our parks. Mountains, valleys, waterfalls, Spires, look this way WOW! Look that way OMG! IDK, it just didn't seem as grand or WOW packed as other parks. So after only 4 hrs we were fine to leave. a disappointing dinner followed. Not the restaurants fault, I just made poor choices.

Awoke really early so we headed out towards Death Valley over an hour before sunrise. First hour on the road we only saw maybe 5 cars bu the time we stopped at iconic Rt 66 Roy's Cafe for a smoke break at day break. Drove to Baker before stopping again for more coffee and bathroom where we encountered signs saying "special event, expect delays" on the road between Baker and Shashone. Stopped in Shashone for breakfast (great stop) and asked waitress what was going on? (Though clearly a race as port-o-johns and water stations every 10 miles or so made that evident) She said annual Baker to Vegas Relay. 120 miles run by teams of Law Enforcement. 🤯 We got ahead of it 30 mins before start apparently. It takes them all day and overnight!

Arriving into DVNP and around a curve - there was the super bloom I had been hoping for! A sea of yellow. What a sight! went around another bend and it looked as if people were walking on water (wish I had a picture). As it was people out in Lake Manly. We stopped, walked about 15 mins out to waters edge. Did a few more views; Devils golf course, artists pallete etc but my feet were still a disaster and it was now over 100 degrees (before noon last weekend in March!) so we headed to The Inn for drinks. Beautiful but pretentious AF.

Then over to The Ranch to check in and grab a nap. Back out and over to Inn for dinner followed by cocktails at Ranch's Last Kind Word Saloon. Night sky viewing from our rooms patio and off to sleep.

Awoke with enough time to catch sunrise at Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes and hit Zabriskie point before we headed off to Vegas, happy to have visited DVNP.

We got to Vegas, dropped off car and in Paris at 1030am Sunday. Shockingly Paris already had our room. Just a regular Burgundy King in main tower this time (Mr Juice has new host so a little disappointed no suite this time but it's fine). We each had our biggest wins of the trip in the first day, each just over $1300. We were pleased with new handpay limits meaning no taxes removed. Mine was on Buffalo Chief Platinum in Paris, Mr Juice's was in Cosmo on a Buffalo Revolution. Lunch at Beer Park. Dinner going to bed was grabbing Bobby's and eating half the burger & fries saving the other half. Table games were unkind this trip, but at least $5 Miss stud Sun/Mon/Tues. We only played $10 once on Wednesday before giving up. Only twice did we have time at them, others it was a fairly steady draining of our buy in. Once Mr Juice left table up ever so slightly in time it took me to lose $200.

We stayed hopping between PH, Cosmo, Bellagio, Horseshoe & Paris everyday except Tuesday when we did north end; RW, Encore/Wynn and southward. Some decent wins here and there between everywhere so that we didn't have any huge losing days but nothing as big as that first day. The funnys of the trip...on Monday after two or three Mimosas Mr Juice got me laughing so hard after an unlady like burp escaped my lips at the Cosmo and his jokes mocking me that I started crying I was laughing so much. But I think Cosmo only saw the aftermath of me wiping my eyes from crying that a slot attendant came over asking if I was OK all compassionate and caring looking. So then I was giving him a hard time they think he mistreats me.

Second funny was Tuesday morning. I came down in khaki capris at 6am and was playing a game when a security guard came over and was looking at me kind of funny. He then told me my pants blended with my skin color enough on camera that they thought I wasn't wearing pants! And he was sent to check it out. What?! LOL, that's a first! I thought I looked nice that day. Told him it's a hazard I guess for pasty white chicks. As a midwest girl coming out of winter, my skins is the color of uncooked chicken. So then we made jokes the rest of the trip about me Winnie the Poohing around the casino in my shirt no pants combo. Only meals of note were lunch per usual at Delmonico for the lobster bisque on Tuesday and dinner at Cheri Rooftop at Paris. I fear this will close soon as it didn't appear crowded at all and they text me an hour before reservation time saying our table was ready. We walked over to make sure there wasn't an issue with the reservation timing and her response was "no, we're just bored so thought if you wanted to eat early we'd let you know you could." And it turns out it's not one for my celebration dinner so oh well, we'll have to have two meals in October to use both Mr Juice & mine.

Final observations, there were so many families this trip with young kids for Spring Break. And I'm talking a bunch of under 10 yr olds out at 1130pm. Was a bit annoying as they were a lot being told to get out of casino area as parents played slots. Paris had about 25% of slots off changing them out Mon-Wed which was annoying during a 5x week but we did get to play new games Thursday before we left. We left town with about one day (20%) of gambling budget and each close or made Diamond Plus again. Town felt down still (aka 2025 levels, not 2023 busy but not dead). But after being in severe pain on October trip from needing (unbeknownst to me) urgent spinal surgery it was nice to have this trip where my biggest pain was blisters from hiking. When I went into my ACDF spinal surgery in November I was unsure if life would be "normal" afterwards. This was blissfully normal, and I wouldn't want it any other way.