Hi GHGut, thanks for showing an interest, greatly appreciated. So I had neck fusion in April, walked out of the hospital the next day on my own legs without support, but man has it been a battle for feeling like I did just a few short years ago (~7 years now of very noticeable degenerative disk disease). The neurosurgeon said my spine is the equivalent of a freaking 60 yr olds, but I am 37 yrs old. I was a martial artist as a kid, experienced a lot of wear and tear and contortion like training from that, and played basketball, and after that just turned to lots of walking/hiking/weight and resistance training in my later 20s. I started to lift very light weight after the surgery, around 4-5 weeks after I started to mess with 15/20lb weights and now I am back up to curling and moving about 30-35lbs. I wasn't even able to hang from a bar to stretch my arms/shoulders/lower back for 6+ weeks after this ordeal. I can't push it much heavier because my right arm starts to spaz out and I experience a nerve blast down my right bicep as it starts to shake (this is tied to my C6 cervical being pinched still, and they are suggesting foraminotomy to shave some bone and clear way for the nerve). If I try to bench, 35s on each side is my limit, 45 and the right arms starts to do the jitter. I am 6ft tall and weigh about 173lbs, so kinda svelt and thin. I am naturally athletic, very flexible, and my energy and self motivation is there, but my freakin spine and back bones and disks are eroding, so everything is a battle to me, the resistance to do move easy weight is way more difficult than it should be once the inflammation kicks in, range of motion is lessened, and those nerve blasts/sciatica start firing, it's game over for the day, even if my mind wants to go and the espresso is still kicking. I have been doing some light squats with kettle bells/bars, working to strengthen my legs more in preparation. All I've been using is grass fed whey isolate from Levels/Jacked Factory and creatine mono to keep it together after my surgery. I've never used any gear, no TRT, no HGH but am open to a short term run if something can heal me at an incredible rate and give me that edge when I return to the gym after this upcoming lower back 1 level fusion. I'm not trying to inject though, so am open to suggestions if something paired with the BPC 157+TB500 spray I just ordered today complements the recovery process. I will have another scar on my back that needs to seal and heal, plus all the internal muscle, disks, ligament that needs to recover. It was about 3+ months until I started to feel somewhat useful after the first surgery, so I am assuming a similar path here. I try to walk about 1-2 hours a day and just move as much as I can to keep fit, but running/eliptical and anything that involves me moving the lower back and hips is too painful at this point, so I wanted to move forward with this fusion as it's a chronic pain that radiates down the lower back/butt/right leg and is messing with my quality of life. It's super embarrassing to say, but even being with a girl and that motion of the hips is unbearable nowadays and causes so much pain cause of the disk collapse I have.
As for diet, it is SUPER clean ever since 2 months before the first procedure, so around Feb of this year. I have been on very low carb, high protein, fairly high fat. Kind of bouncing between paleo/keto style diet. Lots of chicken, steak, fish, eggs, bacon, whey shakes with bananas 2x a day, 2 scoops, with a filler serving of veggies/salad in between usually something like sweet potato/yams, carrots, greens, cauliflower. Sometimes I will have brown rice or legumes/beans when I feel depleted and weak and want to feel more satiated. Been pretty much skipping all grains/breads/rice/noodles. (again, open to diet tweaks after surgery)
So right now, all I have ordered is the 15mg+15mg of BPC-157/TB 500 peptide combo spray from Umbrella as I heard a lot of guys on here suggest their products are legit, but open to hearing what else may help me piece my life back together, given they are safe for a certain period, don't mess up my joints, and don't make me want to off myself or others. I also absolutely had the typical evil physician prescribed meds like muscle relaxers and opiates etc.. that stuff is total poison and also messes with my brain chemistry which I don't like.
Thanks for your help fellas,
