skydiving with injured back

[TheBigdogg 0]

I'm an aff graduate with 12 jumps who had to take a break from jumping in 2006 because of a back injury. I've had 3 surgeries on it, with the last surgery in december of 2007. It was a fusion of my L4-L5, L5-S1 vertabrae. I've had a succesful recovery and am wanting to get back to skydiving. Are there any others that have had fusions that continue to jump? My doc says defintly NO but I think he just doesn't understand skydiving. Should I just give it up or should I just jump and see what happens? My main issue would be the opening but I really never experienced a hard opening thanks to some awesome packers. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[riggerrob 558]

Has your surgeon given you permission to play rugby, judo, etc?
Bad landings feel like being on the bottom of a rugby scrum.
There is nothing to be gained by re-injuring your spine.
If not then give up on skydiving.

[jrcolo 0]

im a newbie to skydiving but know alot about back surgery. all i can say is give time you got your whole life to skydive dont rush it if you dont have to. just my $0.02.

[BillyVance 34]

No two back injuries are the same. Some can skydive safely, others can't. Some jump with pain, some don't. You should get with your doctor or spine specialist before you do anything.

I have a slipped disc between my L5 and S1 vertebrae and it's been giving me problems intermittently the last 6 or 7 years. When it first manifested, half my left leg went numb. Scared the fuck out of me, and I had 3 steroid shots, each 2 weeks apart, injected into the spinal cavity near that location to shrink the disc off the main leg nerve.

I have been able to jump without any problems in my back. However, I have been having a harder and harder time these days getting out of bed or doing certain things around the house, especially picking up my 2 year old girl as my back has been seizing up more often with shooting pain in that location.

I am probably going to have to see a specialist soon to see if I can get any relief.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[mnealtx 0]

Don't borrow trouble - the sky will still be there once you're back, certified 100%.

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[jwynne 0]

I have an L1-3 fusion. It was a traumatic fracture and it took me a year to get back in good enough shape to be jumping. Not getting hurt again is pretty high priority for me. I would ask can you run, do a parachure landing fall and other fairly vigorous activities without your back giving you trouble? If not, do you need to work on getting in better shape? Dec 07 was only 4 months ago. I know a fair number of jumpers with back fusions. I think this has been discussed in a few previous threads.

[CSpenceFLY 1]

I don't have a fusion but I do have a pretty serious spinal injury that I got at about 150 jumps. I had a Doc tell me never to jump again. 1700 jumps later, here I am.

This is a very personal decision that you need to make. I recommend lots of research. Only you can decide if you can live with the consequences of your next jump.

PM me if you would like to talk about this.

[Reginald 0]

There are a lot of skydivers with fusions. Including some world champions. Personally, I have a fused C6 C7. My surgeon recommended a minimum of 6 months off before jumping again and a CT scan to assure the bones were fusing properly. He cleared me to jump again. This surgeon works on some professional athletes including professional
US football players and is understanding of the desire and reality of these things. His comment to me was, “you may break your neck skydiving but not where I fused it”

All that said my injury and yours may be totally different, you could be risking your life or paralysis by jumping again. My recommendation is that you not jump against Dr.’s advice. However, some Dr.’s are more educated on “sports medicine” that others. Have a realistic talk with your Dr.’ and understand why he doesn’t want you to jump. Get a second opinion with a Dr that works with professional athletes also and seek his opinion. If they both agree than don’t jump. If the Dr that works with athletes thinks you are safe and can explain why than you have a choice to make.

BTW: 3 surgeries is a lot. Your Dr. may be perfectly correct in that you should not be jumping again. Find out WHY he doesn’t want you to jump.

"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

[skybytch 259]

I had the same vertebrae fused in 2001. Waited six months then did one jump and figured out it was too soon. Waited six more months, jumped a year to the day after surgery and went on to do 200 jumps that year. My surgeon wasn't at all surprised when I told him that I intended to jump again; he only wanted to see evidence that the fusion had taken well before giving the okay.

I jump Spectres due to their reputation for opening slow and soft (current main has Dacron lines which I highly recommend if you care more about soft openings than canopy performance/pack volume). I've accepted the fact that should I have a terminal reserve opening I'm probably going to be hurting for a few days (or worse).

The only issue I had was pain after jumping, probably from arching. Be religious about stretching and work hard at strengthening your core and you might not have that problem.

Don't be in a big hurry. Skydiving will still be there when your body is ready for it.

[TheBigdogg 0]

Quote

I have an L1-3 fusion. It was a traumatic fracture and it took me a year to get back in good enough shape to be jumping. Not getting hurt again is pretty high priority for me. I would ask can you run, do a parachure landing fall and other fairly vigorous activities without your back giving you trouble? If not, do you need to work on getting in better shape? Dec 07 was only 4 months ago. I know a fair number of jumpers with back fusions. I think this has been discussed in a few previous threads.

Actually my surgery was dec of '06. It's been 1 year and 5 months in which time I've gotten in pretty good shape other than a noticeable limp in my left leg due to nerve damage. Hopefully that will heal in time but I run 4 days a week and do exercises to keep my back loose so a PLF wouldn't be a problem. I sure don't want to get hurt again but I wanted some advice from skydivers instead of just taking a doctors word who knows nothing about skydiving

[peregrinerose 0]

Quote

I sure don't want to get hurt again but I wanted some advice from skydivers instead of just taking a doctors word who knows nothing about skydiving

So you'd rather take a bunch of skydivers' words that know nothing about medicine/your individual spinal injury? Sounds like you're shopping for someone that will tell you what you want to hear.

Find out WHY your doc thinks you shouldn't jump. There may be a very good medical reason for it, and that's what matters.

Do or do not, there is no try -Yoda

[billvon 2,384]

>So you'd rather take a bunch of skydivers' words that know nothing
>about medicine/your individual spinal injury?

I see this all the time. That's one reason why the skydiving doctors I know will often refuse to look at anyone who's injured (unless it's a critical injury) because it always goes something like this:

"You should get that Xrayed."
"But is it broken?"
"It might be."
"Well - but it might not be? Can you wrap it up? I REALLY have to make this last jump."

After a while it starts to seem sorta futile.

[TheBigdogg 0]

This is just to follow up, I actually made two jumps on june 31st. My doctor had finally given me the go-ahead to jump so I didn't think twice after that. I made the jumps with no problems and now feel great, even better than before in fact, since I can now skydive again. Thanks for all the advice and I'm stoked about being a skydiver again!