H
hudson07
Guest
Well, it's been 10 months since my L5-S1 partial discectomy/laminectomy. Thought I'd catch everyone up on where I stand since I myself found it very helpful to read other folks experiences.
The first couple of months were pretty difficult pain wise. My sciatic actually hurt worse during that time than before the surgery. Mostly due to the swelling I suppose. It gradually got better over the next few months with a setback here and there. Most of this past summer and early fall I was pain free for the most part. Again, it acted up now and then but never more then a couple of days at a time. This past week has actually been the worse since last May. Just an awful back ache (no sciatic pain). Can't think of anything specific I did; probably just over did it last weekend working around the house.
Hard to say whether it was worthwhile going through the surgery or not. If I'm feeling good like I was a couple of weeks ago I'd say yes. This week not so sure. Before the surgery my back laid me up every 4 mos. or so. Pain was probably an 7 or 8 out of 10. Since the surgery, I generally have a low level ache most of the time that's probably a 1 or 2 out of 10 (maybe 3 this past week). Surgery definitely didn't get me back to the pain free days I had in my younger years and I still curtail many of the activities I used to enjoy for fear of messing up my back further.
Anyhow, that's the last report.
The first couple of months were pretty difficult pain wise. My sciatic actually hurt worse during that time than before the surgery. Mostly due to the swelling I suppose. It gradually got better over the next few months with a setback here and there. Most of this past summer and early fall I was pain free for the most part. Again, it acted up now and then but never more then a couple of days at a time. This past week has actually been the worse since last May. Just an awful back ache (no sciatic pain). Can't think of anything specific I did; probably just over did it last weekend working around the house.
Hard to say whether it was worthwhile going through the surgery or not. If I'm feeling good like I was a couple of weeks ago I'd say yes. This week not so sure. Before the surgery my back laid me up every 4 mos. or so. Pain was probably an 7 or 8 out of 10. Since the surgery, I generally have a low level ache most of the time that's probably a 1 or 2 out of 10 (maybe 3 this past week). Surgery definitely didn't get me back to the pain free days I had in my younger years and I still curtail many of the activities I used to enjoy for fear of messing up my back further.
Anyhow, that's the last report.