It took me almost a year to get back to full duty....but my job description included wearing 20-30# of gear, much of it around my waist, and occasionally fighting with people. When would I have felt comfortable doing your stuff (I assume you are a nurse)? About 6 months, maybe less (I'm thinking 4). It's the lifting of patients (dead weight) that is really hard to do while focusing on stability of your back. I would avoid that whenever possible for the rest of your life.
As for the deads and squats....there's also the issue of my post-surgical ruptured quad tendon (that automatically killed the squats right there), and when the back issues came up, that killed the squatting for me.
Thing is when you are a police officer in California, if you're going to have a career-ending injury, you damned well better do it on duty. Medical retirement = 50% of your base salary tax free every year. Last thing I wanted was to have a career ending injury due to being too aggressive in the gym, which would have just meant regular retirement which is taxed as income. So the possibility of being stupid in the gym and ending my career was a real concern.
As it was, post traumatic stress took me out, and that is/was far worse than any ortho injury I ever had.
Could I squat these days? No. The ruptured quad tendon (also on-duty) was a horrific injury I wouldn't wish on anyone, and it still hurts and limits leg work. The back issues (also on-duty) are secondary, but since I haven't even tried squatting, it's hard for me to say with certainty.
Could I deadlift with lighter weight? I suppose, but you gotta remember.....fusion on two levels.....laminectomy on an additional 3. At some point you have to balance desire to be huge with age, reason and the ability to continue on with your decent paying career. Although the back surgery level of inconvenience and pain was only about 10% of what the ruptured quad was, it's not something I'd like to repeat, because with each successive back surgery your results will be worse.
My attitude is why risk it? My legs and glutes aren't anything I'm thrilled about, but they're good enough. My back is fine, lots of work arounds. For a guy my age I'm still bigger and better than 99.9% of my contemporaries. My low back certainly speaks to me every time I fool myself into thinking I can do intensive low back stuff....not so much when I'm doing it, but for about a week afterward.
You're in the industry. Have you not heard the term "three time loser" with respect to back surgeries? It's a thing, trust me. Best not to even get up to #2.
Bottom line is a good surgeon is gonna get you back to where you need to be for work and life, but you have to be careful. The recovery process for my back was not very painful or lengthy. Gaining confidence back can be hard. During your recovery process, you need to have extensive discussions with your surgeon as well as your physical therapist about what you can/should be doing in the gym on your own, and what you can't/shouldn't be doing. Discuss specific exercises and weights. It helped that my surgeon was a gym rat who knew his way around a weight room.