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I have a feeling as though we would be comparing apples to oranges, but for what it's worth, I have had a Lumbar Fusion; L3-L5 with a femoral allograft bridge, a pair of rods with screws fixating the site posteriorly, and a cage that was ultimately packed with the ground-up bone chips of what was left of my L4 vertebrae anteriorly. As you would imagine after all that, YES, there was one hell of a recovery...however, I attribute more of that to a number of other factors, including but not limited to: 1) The need to have the fusion was initiated by a traumatic injury just 5 days before the surgery. I broke my back in a total of 7 places between L1-L5, with the worst of it being confined to a "sunburst fracture" of L4 into >25 recoverable pieces. 2) There existed a concomitant spinal cord injury due to the severity of the compression, contusion and subsequent swelling of the spinal cord over such a large area. As a matter of fact, immediately upon impact, I had no feeling or use of either lower extremity. Feeling slowly returned over the first 72 hours to the point that I could feel sensations (hot/cold, sharp/dull), but nearly two years later, I still have improving autonomic (temperature, moisture, etc...) symptoms on just my foot on the most affected side. 3) To perform the procedure described above, it required 3 separate incsions: a 4 inch linear incision right along my spine; a small incision to place a drainage port to control and monitor my cerebrospinal fluid during and after the surgery; and the biggie--a 13-14" incision that curves up and back from the front corner of my hip bone to just under my rib cage. Basically, they then proceeded to cut through each and every layer of my "core" muscles on this side until they could access the portion of my spinal cord that is normally just behind my internal organs. To this day, I still have weakness, quickly fatigue if sitting/standing too long, and pain if I try to perform activities or exercises that require "core stabilization", as I cannot do this on one entire side. The spinal cord injury, in both my professional opinion as a physician as well as my personal opinion as the patient in question, was the most difficult complicating factor in my recovery. My Surgeon expected me to be up and ambulating within 24 hours after surgery, as that is standard protocol following a Lumbar Fusion; 7 Days after my surgery, and I still wasn't even able to stand/walk with the assistance of a walker 10 feet back and forth to the bathroom in my hospital room. At this point, it was decided that I would need to be sent to a rehabilitation facility, where I spent the next 3 weeks learning to get in and out of bed, how to transfer to and from a wheelchair, eventually walking with a walker, and they discharged me once I could ambulate safely with just a cane in one hand. Fast forward through 4 months of wearing a TLSO (the turtle-shell looking back brace), 5 days/week Physical Therapy, Elephant-Sedating doses of pain killers and muscle relaxants and still having constant pain, and I was finally released by my surgeon to discontinue the back brace, and I could resume walking, unassisted, on a treadmill. The goal was to get me back to walking 2 miles by the 6 month anniversary of my surgery. Today, 23 months to the day later, I do still have constant pain. Do I think it is from the lumbar Fusion? No--not in the least. Does the pain keep me from doing anything that I want to do? No, although it may limit the number of times I can do it or the duration for which I can do it. I was off of my pain medications and muscle relaxants at the 6 month mark in my recovery, and I have regained full use and strength of my Left foot and leg--the one most affected by the spinal cord deficit. As previously stated, I do still have some skin changes on the bottom of my heel, but that is the extent of my neurological issues. Practically speaking...I am a full 1.25-1.5 inches shorter than I was before the surgery. WOW! I couldn't believe it, either, but simply comparing pre and post-op films demonstrate why...the allograft should have been larger/longer, but with the already fractured remaining Lumbar vertebrae, they couldn't force something in there that would put much pressure on the "anchoring" sites. On the plus side, I am back to skydiving! I made my first jump 1 day shy of the 3 month anniversary of my accident; I will be the first to admit:THIS WAS THE STUPIDEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE. I spent my entire time in the hospital and rehab and physical therapy facilities staring out the window at the big, blue sky I was missing, and just "needed to get back on the horse", so to speak. So, I showed up at the DZ, wearing my back brace and requring my cane to get over to the plane...made one subterminal hop and pop, and that was all I needed to tide me over for the next six months until the following March when I resumed jumping, even more so than before my injury. I couldn't jump many times in a day, and lying on the ground and trying to move around to pack was more than my back could handle, but by the 18 month mark of my recovery, I was able to make up to 20 jumps in a weekend and pack each time for myself. Sure, my back hurts everyday, most of the time. It reminds me of how close I came to dying, and how grateful I should be for the life I do have. It inspires me to know that I can overcome anything with persistence, hard work and patience. (And sometimes, it even reminds me not to be stupid ) Thank you for the thought-provoking thread that you started that, for the first time in a long time, allowed me to profoundly and succinctly reflect upon my injury, my recovery, and the effects they have had on me as a person. I hope that some of what I have written helps educate you and make a more-informed decision, even though, as I intitiated this reply with, I'm quite certain that many of the circumstances surrounding my surgery will be absent from yours. Regardless, I wish you the best with the ADR that you've already ungone. Be patient, do your physical therapy, and you will be rewarded with a satisfactory outcome. But know, that if I can recover from a Fusion as well as I have in as short a time as I have, you will do fine, too, if and when it comes to that. Feel free to PM me if you ever have any questions/comments that you would like to discuss in a non-public forum. Again, BEST WISHES for a full and speedy recovery!

Team Fastrax from Start Skydiving in Middletown, OH. They have done this particular demo for a number of years now, and have a large number of high-profile demos each and every month during the season.

Tiger Woods drives well on the fairway, but doesn't fair well on the driveway. ...and the winner is: What's the difference between Santa Claus and Tiger Woods? Santa stops after three ho's.

Me, too...Me, too!!! 304E8D42 Thanks! P.S. The Group Barcode is expired and/or no longer working...

Happy, Happy Birthday, Gorgeous! Hope you had a wonderful day and get everything you wish for today and everyday!!!

I had a similar injury on 6/8/08--I broke my back in 7 places between L1 and L5, with L4 being shattered into 23 retrievable pieces. I had surgery on 6/13 with placement of 2 rods and a femoral allograft to essentially fuse L3-L5. I spent a month in the hospital before I was even strong enough to walk with a walker, as I also had a sever spinal cord injury that left me with severe weakness to my entire left lower extremity. I was placed in a TLSO (upper body brace) for 4 months to let the other fractures heal and for the fusion to begin to mend. I was also in physical therapy during those 4 months as well. I progressed from a walker to a cane after about two weeks, and used a cane for about two months. ***WARNING: REALLY STUPID ACT AHEAD*** On Sept. 7, one day short of three months from the original accident, I made a Hop and Pop. I felt as though I needed to get back in the air, so I did it in the most careful way I could--subterminal opening, large canopy, etc...The worst part of the entire experience was the ride to altitude, as sitting in that position with my rig on was excrutiating. The jump went well, and it was all I needed to hold me over for another 6 months--until I was really feeling better. Fast forward to March of this year--I still had pain and weakness in my back, but the lower extremity had healed and gotten stronger as my spinal cord got better. I began jumping regularly again, although I was very nervous and careful about my landings... As the Spring and Summer went by, I made another 100 or so jumps so far, and am still surprised by how much better I am feeling month to month--I never would have anticipated it taking this long to recover from a spine/spinal cord injury. My back doesn't limit my jumping in any way, and I am back to doing all the things I could before strength-wise. I still have constant pain in my back, both from nerves getting compressed as well as the surgical scars from my operation. So, to answer your question, you can completely recover in a reasonable amount of time from this type of injury. You will most likely always have pain--a daily reminder of your accident--but it shouldn't keep you from jumping. You may want to reconsider taking tandems in the future, simply due to the added mass/inertia should another landing accident occur--it will most likely injure your back much worse than the first time. But, all in all, just over a year later, I'm glad that I continue to jump and if you didn't know what I had been through, you'd never guess it by observing me now.

I've got two titanium rods, each with a large screw at each end of them, that span my L3-L5 vertebrae. Where my L4 used to be, I am now the proud owner of a Femoral Allograft (thigh bone from a cadaver), effectively fusing my L3, L4, L5 vertebral segments. I've had them since 6/13/2008 after a landing accident on 6/8 wherein I fractured my back in 7 places. I've travelled through many airports since then, and never once has a metal detector gone off...

Nick--You are comparing apples to oranges here...In New Zealand, there are NO personal injury attorneys. As a matter of fact, New Zealand has essentially combined medical malpractice, worker's compensation, automobile personal injury and other Medicaid all into one--Imagine trying to do that in America!!! "In 1974 New Zealand abolished tort law remedies for all personal accident injuries and replaced it with a no-fault compensation scheme administered by a state monopoly. The scheme was based on five principles from the 1967 Woodhouse Royal Commission Report. They are: 1. community responsibility (the community collectively bore a basic responsibility for the social costs of accidents); 2. comprehensive entitlement (equity required giving assistance to all those disabled by accidents, irrespective of cause, time, or location); 3. complete rehabilitation (accident victims should recover in the shortest possible time); 4. real compensation (compensation should reflect real loss); and 5. administrative efficiency (collecting funds and paying benefits should be conducted as efficiently as possible). Benefits are provided without proof of “fault” no matter how or where the accident occurred, whether at work, home, on the road, or while participating in a recreational or sporting event. In return, the common law right to sue for damages for personal injury (except for punitive or exemplary damages) was abolished. The Accident Compensation Commission (ACC) administers the system. The universal scheme was built on pre-existing funding sources, workers' compensation and compulsory automobile liability insurance. The system now has six accounts: Employers; Earners; Non-Earners; Motor Vehicle; Subsequent Work Injury; Medical Misadventure. When initially set up, the primary focus was on providing compensation and promoting rehabilitation. Increasing costs have led to concerns that the behavioral assumptions underlying the scheme are inadequate. As a result the scheme has been continually reviewed. In 1979, it was decided to review the scheme and assess its overall cost. The review also took into consideration employers' concerns that they were subsidizing the cost of non-work claims. A Cabinet Committee recommended that (1) claimants should meet part of the cost of the first two visits to the doctor and (2) lump-sum awards for minor injuries, pain and suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life be abolished except for serious cosmetic disfigurement. As a result, several amendments were made to the Act in 1982. These included: changing from a fully-funded to a “pay-as-you-go” system: first week compensation paid by employers for work accidents was reduced from 100% of pre-injury earnings (exclusive of overtime) to 80 % (including overtime); the ACC was given the power to refuse to pay compensation to people injured while committing a crime; and compensation for work-related motor vehicle accidents were no longer funded from the Earners Account but from the Motor Vehicle Account. The maximum compensation for the loss or impairment of bodily function was increased from $ 7,000 to $ 17,000. However, the compensation paid for pain and suffering and loss of enjoyment of life remained at the 1974 level of $ 10,000. Employer pressure in 1992 led the government to set up another review committee. The Accident Rehabilitation and Compensation Insurance Act 1992 was aimed at controlling premium costs its objective being: “to establish an insurance-based scheme to rehabilitate and compensate in an equitable and financially affordable manner those persons who suffer personal injury. ” Lump-sum compensation was abolished, and compensation for work-related motor vehicle accidents was transferred from the Earners Fund. " Much of the expense(s) incurred in our health care system are either directly or indirectly caused by lawyers--as is the case with many of the products we enjoy in America. If we could eliminate the fear of being sued for anything some ambulance-chaser has the audacity to bring before a judge, I am certain that we would lower the cost of healthcare and many other services in this country.

You can't go wrong with either place--they are both class acts and both run the type of dropzone most others try to emulate. I wish I had the "problem" of having to choose between these two...I would take that on a regular basis anytime! Blue Skies and ENJOY!!!

I'm not sure how old Olympia is...I'll have to check and get back to you!

You mean like this: http://www.ottawamedicalcenter.com/ This situation elucidates all of the "issues" that have arisen in this thread. A huge part of the "problem" is the ignorance of patients; either they don't know what an EMERGENCY is to begin with, they don't know where else to have subacute illnesses treated or by whom, they don't know how to LOCATE the most appropriate physician or facility to treat their problem, or (and I'm assuming this is REALLY THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM), they don't want to wait until the appropriate time to be treated for said problem--they hurt and they want to feel better NOW. This sense of entitlement is most pronounced in the younger generations--I implore you to stake out an ER for a sustained period of time and see who you think is abusing it for things like fevers, sinus infections, and twisted knees. I'll stop here for fear of being banished to the SC... Secondly, and I can't emphasize this enough, the ER is for Emergencies. Since we patients can't all seem to agree on what constitutes an "Emergency", and by the time we finally see the physician that IS qualified to determine Emergency vs. Non-Emergency the abuse has already occurred, I propose the following simple, succint and elegant rule that shall help us all in knowing whether to go to the ER right now, or wait until we can contact a more appropriate physician or center for treatment: If I don't require an AMBULANCE to bring me to the Emergency Room, then I should contact my PCP or Urgent Care/Walk-in Clinic. Before I start hearing the arguments about "won't that just add an additional ambulance fee to the cost(s) that we're sitting here complaining about, another $150-$400 really is just a drop in the bucket if you're talking about heading to the ER, anyway... Yes, I'm being a bit facetious here, but in my world, anything serious enough to merit a trip to the ER would result in an extended stay in the hospital once the patient was stabilized in the ER, and would likely result in a bill in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, anyway! I apologize in advance for any toes I'm certain to have stepped on with this post. I'm simply trying to, hopefully, be a part of the solution and encourage my fellow DZ.commers to stop being part of the problem.

I'm a U of C alum...Good to have you here! I look forward to jumping with you sometime! Blue Skies, Brian

I'll absolutely be there! My sister is bringing a bunch of her fellow jumpers down from CSC, and they plan on staying here the whole weekend, so there will be a bunch of really cool, fun people to jump with! This is the best Boogie going on 20 years strong--I'll never miss a Richmond Boogie. See you all there! Blue Skies, Brian (Doc)