Anyone have a bad back or has had back surgery..I have questions about rides?

[edk35]

Our 19 year old son had back surgery on June 5th. He has screws and rods in his back now. We are going to Disney on Aug. 10th. We know and he knows he can't ride all the rides like normal...but he still wanted us to plan this trip and go because we will spend down time at OKW and the house we are renting has a pool. Plus his girlfriend is coming...so that makes everything better. Doctor said no roller coasters for 6 months. His doctor said he could do all the "boring kiddie rides". LOL Well they are not boring to us. WE also know that AK rides are a BIG NO NO. NO Test Track or TOT. So...how about these rides:

Soarin
Pirates
People Mover
Toy Story
Haunted Mansion

 

[CitrusStorm]

Soarin', HM, People Mover and Toy Story should be fine. Not sure about Pirates; the drop and the rumblings from that might be a bit too rough, depending on his recovery condition.

 

[Disney_Fanatic25]

Soarin should be Ok as well as the peoplemover but toy story does jerk you around a little but should be ok depending but maybe you can go on and judge if it is too much. Pirates I would say no only because of the drop and the possibility of getting bumped by other boats. I would say anything that has a sign that says not good for anyone with back problems you should stay clear of. There is still a lot to do even with not being able to ride the big ticket ride.

 

[mrsaunders]

I would say all except Toy Story, which has too many quick twists. I've had back surgery twice, but once it was fixed and had time to heal, I was good as new and can now go on everything. Just have to give it time.

 

[pieface]

Use common sense no your limitations.

 

[tndisneyfan]

I've had back surgery but nothing as bad as you're son's surgery. I would think all those rides would be OK except for Toy Story Mania. It does whip you around some and that could be bad for a healing back.

 

[kaybird]

Tell him to hang in there, I have the full Herrington rod system, and now I ride everything. Agree that the turn of TSM might be a little much for him this early, but I would guess he'd be ok on pirate's. Tell him once he heals fully later, should be good to go, the only thing I avoid now is SM, just too rough for the fused spine. GOOD LUCK!!!

 

[edk35]

Tell him to hang in there, I have the full Herrington rod system, and now I ride everything. Agree that the turn of TSM might be a little much for him this early, but I would guess he'd be ok on pirate's. Tell him once he heals fully later, should be good to go, the only thing I avoid now is SM, just too rough for the fused spine. GOOD LUCK!!!

SM is horrible on a NON FUSED SPINE. LOL

Yes he has 19 screws and 2 rods. Yeah TSM would probably not work either. I forgot about the quick turns.

 

[kirby428]

Our 19 year old son had back surgery on June 5th. He has screws and rods in his back now. We are going to Disney on Aug. 10th. We know and he knows he can't ride all the rides like normal...but he still wanted us to plan this trip and go because we will spend down time at OKW and the house we are renting has a pool. Plus his girlfriend is coming...so that makes everything better. Doctor said no roller coasters for 6 months. His doctor said he could do all the "boring kiddie rides". LOL Well they are not boring to us. WE also know that AK rides are a BIG NO NO. NO Test Track or TOT. So...how about these rides:

Soarin
Pirates
People Mover
Toy Story
Haunted Mansion

Not much help from the DOC who seems not to have the time nor care to run down the list of rides with a yes no check list. I have been on boring kiddie rides that spun and gave a hefty kick and jerk. Anything mechanical or hydraulic can have the potential for kicks and jerks. Bring along those potent Rx pills...the big ones...just in case an otherwise smooth boring kiddie ride like Small World decides to turn into a Snow White Scary Adventure. Hope you like Philharmagic and Captn EO and Impressions de France stuff. No one nixed HM because it is on a continuously moving track, but when I rode it 2010 it would jerk to a halt, stall for a few minutes so the same scene could be memorized and then jerk back into motion. Of course they blamed it on the ghosts.

 

[starshine19]

I had major back surgery at 14, I had a rod put in my back too. I was told to stay at home for 3 months for recovery. Pirates would be hard on his back with the drop and toy story mania would be really hard on his back with the whipping around. I would be very cautious and get him a wheel chair walking that much can be very difficult and painful! I couldn't even imagine doing Disney world after my back surgery.

 

[edk35]

I had major back surgery at 14, I had a rod put in my back too. I was told to stay at home for 3 months for recovery. Pirates would be hard on his back with the drop and toy story mania would be really hard on his back with the whipping around. I would be very cautious and get him a wheel chair walking that much can be very difficult and painful! I couldn't even imagine doing Disney world after my back surgery.

He is a little over three weeks post surgery. His surgery was 9 hours. He was in the hospital 9 days. He is doing great even with all of that. His surgeon told him he could drive once off the pain meds. Well we are not allowing that for a few more weeks. He has to minimize bending lifting and twisting for 6 weeks. He has less than 3 weeks to go for that. He has been out and about the past few days with friends to their house and grabbing food. He knows he has to take it easy. We will definitely get a wheel chair if he wants and needs it. We are not doing commando days by any means. We know he won't be fully healed for up to a year. He is young and a very fit athlete... He has that in his favor..

 

[Brian_WDW74]

I've moved this thread to the disABILITIES! board.

 

[Bete]

I would try to look up the rides on u-tube and get a full version of each ride. Watch it very carefully. I would perhaps take anything looking borderline to the doctor and see if he will watch the video and give you his opinion. I would think he will be on the side of caution. You may not be able to find full versions of each ride; so, this may make it harder to decide. There are other websites that might have Disney rides; so, do a search. I believe some rides have warnings and I would read each one very carefully.

Also, I think I would be on the side of caution. One Disney trip is not worth the possible headaches later on.

Try to see Disney in a different way this time. Go see more shows and enjoy the live street entertainment. Maybe, the girlfriend is willing to stay back at the resort more with him.

 

[SueM in MN]

I would try to look up the rides on u-tube and get a full version of each ride. Watch it very carefully. I would perhaps take anything looking borderline to the doctor and see if he will watch the video and give you his opinion. I would think he will be on the side of caution. You may not be able to find full versions of each ride; so, this may make it harder to decide. There are other websites that might have Disney rides; so, do a search. I believe some rides have warnings and I would read each one very carefully.

Also, I think I would be on the side of caution. One Disney trip is not worth the possible headaches later on.

Try to see Disney in a different way this time. Go see more shows and enjoy the live street entertainment. Maybe, the girlfriend is willing to stay back at the resort more with him.

There is a list of rides with warnings, plus a little more about WHY it may have a warning in a post on page 2 of the disABILITIES FAQs thread.

For the ones the OP listed, (because I don't have time to write a lot more right now):
Soarin' is gentle, easy to get into and should be no problem. The only warnings are for fear of heights and motion sickness.

Pirates has no warning, but as was pointed out, there is a drop in the dark which can be a problem. The seats have low backs, so not much support.

People Mover is not a problem, but to get up and down from the second floor 'station' guests need to use a steep moving ramp. The position you are in ( with feet sharply flexed) may cause issues for some people.

Toy Story - I agree with the other posters.

Haunted Mansion usually does not jerk to a stop; it usually slows to let guests with disabilities to get on. If it needs to stop, they will slow it and then slow to a crawl before stopping. The only time it should 'jerk' stop is in an emergency.
There are no WDW warnings for Haunted Mansion, but there is one place where the doom buggy goes down a hill backwards. Since the rider's weight is on their back against the hard plastic doom buggy, some people find that portion uncomfortable.
Spaceship Earth has a similar backwards section, but it is much longer than the one in Haunted Mansion.

Also, in post 3 of the disABILITIES FAQs thread, there is a link to a 'ride through'
Video of WDW. It is an interactive video showing a guest walking around each park and when you get to n attraction, the guest allows you to choose o go on it, which links to a video of the ride. You can also choose to not go on, which continues the walk to the next attraction.

You can find the isABILITIES FAQs thread near the top of this board or follow the link in my signature. Post one of that thread is an index to the information in the rest of the thread. You may also want to look at posts 18-22 on page 2 of the thread. They are about navigating the parks with an ECV or wheelchair, but also have information about the step in or out for the attractions.

 

[WheeledTraveler]

I would highly recommend he get an ECV from offsite (assuming he is cleared to drive by that point). Even though he's clear to travel, that soon after major back surgery he's going to still get very tired easily. Not going commando will help, but he's still going to be walking at least 5 miles a day when you're in the parks because of how spaced out things are. He could always use the ECV to get between areas in the parks and then walk the queues. There are also some shows he may find it better to have a wheelchair or ECV for because some don't have backs to their seats. I don't have as large a set of hardware as he does, but I have a couple lumbar vertebrae fused and C2-> my skull fused (with rods and screws). There's no way that 2 1/2 months post-surgery I could have sat through a show without back support. Could he make it through without an ECV or wheelchair? Maybe, but using one will help him conserve his energy so that he can do more with less pain. He will not be the only person around his age who probably looks "fine" on the outside using a mobility aid at WDW. Also, most lines at WDW are mainstreamed so if he does use a mobility aid, he'd go through the regular line with the rest of the family.

I would be careful with Haunted Mansion and Spaceship Earth because of the time spent backwards. I was last at WDW pre-surgery and I swore I'd never go on Spaceship Earth again because of the bit where you go backwards. Spaceship Earth is also does stop sometimes and because the bit there is backward is so long, you can get stopped on it (I was). Haunted Mansion isn't nearly as bad because the backwards part is so short, but it was leaning against a hard back during the backwards bit.

I know you said he was going to avoid all rides at AK, but I just want to really point out that he really needs to avoid the Safari. Most people don't realize how bumpy it is until they're on it and don't expect it to be that bumpy. AK paths are also landscaped to be bumpy so you may even want to consider skipping it as a park if he has any trouble with non-smooth surfaces. If you do go, luckily, it has plenty of things you can do without going on a ride

Soarin' shouldn't be a problem. It's one of my favourite rides because of how smooth it is and how much it uses illusion rather than doing things that would actually impact my body.

Along with the Pirates bump, it is a ride that can be harder to get in and out of. While it's usually more of a problem for people with knee, hip, and leg problems, I could see how it might be hard on his back to get out of, at least.

 

[edk35]

Thank you so much for the great advice and tips!!