I had an L4/L5 posterior decompression and fusion with instrumentation procedure on Friday and am now home. The problem I have is that the pain I had previously - which the surgery is meant to cure - is now much worse.
I told the surgeon about this and he arranged for a swift CT scan which he told me showed that everything is fine and all the bits are where they are meant to be! I have little or no pain from the site of the operation - I am on a cocktail of drugs (paracetamol, codeine, diazepam and gabapentin) - but the original nerve pain itself is bad. All is well when I am sitting or lying down but when I stand and walk it is excruciating at first and then lessens as I move about more.
I know from reading elsewhere that this can occur, but I still find it very worrying, annoying and upsetting. I have an appointment to see the surgeon in two weeks, so let's hope things have eased off by then. I'd love to know if anyone else has had this issue and how it resolved. Many thanks in advance for your help and comments.
I certainly wish you well and success in your surgery. But beings you asked I will tell you that for me none of my back surgeries relieved any of my pain. L4 L5 (twice) and L3 L4 have been fused and the pain remains. I have tried countless remedies , therapies etc and my only relief is terrible , controled pain medications. Now I have plans for an implanted pain device this month. The one thing I can say is that mechanically the fusion needed to happen. Good luck to you and I pray that you are not on the path that I have been on for many many years. Kilee
Sorry to hear you are in worse pain than before, did you say you had your surgery 1 week ago. ??
I had a double level spinal fusion, l4 l5/s1 and decompression in September 14, I felt fairly good after surgery and for the days after but looking back I am sure this was more to doing with the cocktail of opiates I was put on, I came home after 4 days, like you I had no pain around the scar except for every now and then catching my staples on something, I think I had about 60 staples in each side the surgeon said the scars where longer than normal as they had problems inserting the last bolts. About 2 weeks after my operation I started getting large amounts of pain on both legs it was hard to describe as I had feeling in either feet and legs from knee down and had like a a numbness from waist down, but I had massive pain on standing up straight, my surgeon described the back pain was just a healing process and that I probably had swelling which was causing the pain and also part of the leg pain. It was at this stage where he told me where they had left the original pain for over 4 yrs ( typicall of the NHS) that it had I fact caused major damage to the nerves and I was unlikely to get my feeling back. I am now 18 months post op and sadly for me nothing got better, I have been diagnosed with failed back surgery, they have told me that I have 2 large bulges under the metal work and they have said unless it compresses the spinal cord further then they won't do operation as it will de stabilise the frame work, I have also for major pain in legs still and next week I am going to have a spinal cord stimulator inserted.
My journey has been traumatic but I have met a lot of people while in and out of hoapital that the surgery has worked for, you do have to let things settle down for at least 6 months to get better but it might take up to 2 years. Please have faith in the operation, you might benefit from seeing a pain team. They helped me massively and gave me a lot of different pain medication that took a lot of the edge of things.
Many thanks everyone. The surgery was only a week ago, so it's early days yet. I'm quite prepared for a lengthy recovery period but I guess I was hoping that things would have improved sooner. My surgery site is pretty much pain-free - it's the legs that are bad, worse than they were before. Still, I'll persevere with medication and hope things improve. I'm seeing my surgeon in just under two weeks anyway, so will report back then. Thanks again for your input.
Sounds like you and I are very similar,!i on massive amounts of a drug called targinact it's an amazing drug but has lots of side effect, re the scs that's a very good question and I haven't asked as they just said a lot of medical terms which I didn't understand,! I have a last appointment next Tuesday so I can have any questions answered and they run some last tests, so will find out. Where are you having yours done?? I do hope it works for you / us even if it just talks some of the pain.
Hi Ian, just thinking out loud but part of your leg pain could be the anaesthesia wearing off, I didn't have it for mine but in the pain sessions I go to I have heard lots of people saying the same as your self and they all had a long term epidural like the give to women giving birth, but this one works for 7-14 days depending on your body. I would suggest that 1 you do lots of movement and don't stay in pace for too long and 2 try to eat healthy and eat lots of protein meals, I put on about 20 kg over the last 18 months because I made excuses I can't do that because of pain. Keep my fingers crossed.
I'll certainly try to do some walking and exercise. It's not easy when the pain is so bad, but I can push through it. I'm way overweight as I haven't been able to do any because of (as you say) pain, and also I had a hip replacement this time last year which made walking difficult. Thanks for the tips.
Thanks for website details I will be sure to get Info on types and do my study, I have told that good results have been met and about 70% get better 20 % feel no difference and 10% get worse.
It breaks my heart to imagine the pain and suffering you all - patients carrying spinal problems are going through and for the long time it takes to get at least some of the positive results hoped for!!!
I will keep your names in my thoughts and in my daily prayers, and this is not just an expression, this is what I started already doing!
Oh gosh Ian, so sorry. I had 3 fusions over a 2 day period, and one of them was a lateral fusion with cages and stuff. The surgeon damaged my femoral nerve, so now I have burning aching pain in my left leg. I think your doctor may have accidentally damaged a nerve. You should go to a pain management center or a neurologist and they should be able to help. I''m getting sympathetic nerve blocks now to see if they will help. I've had very little relief, but a little bit, which means we're on the right path. It seems like a surgeon won't admit when they have screwed up, so I think you should go see someone else. SOrry this is happening with you. Good luck!
Just try your best to healing and don't do to much, the more you worry and do to much you can actually put stress on you and more pain. Let's wait and see in a few weeks how you are doing before jumping the gun and everything and start you worrying. So relax and heal and let us know in a few weeks how you are doing and I will be happy to give you support to than!! No worries no stress just good thoughts and heal up!
I will check in a few weeks unless I see something from you that I can do my best to answer, been there!!
Yes, Buggsy, as I told here quite sometime ago, we had a couple of friends and he had a non stop spinal problem and after several surgeries he was told he had to stop with them.
He had to live with the pain and his spinal problems whatever it was- and he did.
He survived his wife and got married a second time.