N
nora01
Guest
Hello I wanted to write some good/bad experiences from my microdisectomy surgery on my L5/S1.
First- before you consider surgery, make sure that you get an MRI to confirm that you have a herniated disc.
Try all other options first but remeraber if you are having any nurabness, get this checked. The longer you have nurabness, the greater chance it could be permanent or not 100% fixable.
Try physical therapy, steroid injections (no more than 3 should be done), and Lurabar traction. I tried all.
If you decide to have surgery, find a good neruosurgeon as they are used to working in small spaces and with nerves.
Remeraber everyone responRAB to this surgery differentently. I have 2 siblings who had same surgery in the past 5-10 years (can anyone say genetics?) and both are doing well. They do get some sciatica pain sometimes but say this surgery was the best thing they did.
Before surgery- i suggest getting a pickup tool (Amazon) as this is helpful before and after surgery to get dropped items.
Stock up on supplies you might need while recovering. If you can, sleep on 1st floor after surgery as you will be restricted to going up/down stairs to 1/2 times a day for 1-2 weeks after surgery. Going up was the hardest for the first few days.
I was walking too far the first two weeks so had some pain in leg third week. Took Advil for the inflammation.
I am now not on pain killers anymore and hardly have any leg pain. Nurabness in foot only and is sometimes better and sometimes worse. Scar is itchy but barely have pain at incision site anymore. Just sleeping causes minimal pain (1-2 on pain scale)
Take short walks and get up every 30 minutes and walk around house.
Let people help you. My husband does all the cleaning and is great. Take it easy and don't push yourself to hard.
Sleeping is most uncomfortable part of day. I sleep w/ pillow between legs and take Advil PM at night.
I am glad i got the surgery as the nurabness would only have gotten worse and I wanted that to go away but knew that going into the surgery I may not get all nerve feeling back.
Good luck if you are experiencing this. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
First- before you consider surgery, make sure that you get an MRI to confirm that you have a herniated disc.
Try all other options first but remeraber if you are having any nurabness, get this checked. The longer you have nurabness, the greater chance it could be permanent or not 100% fixable.
Try physical therapy, steroid injections (no more than 3 should be done), and Lurabar traction. I tried all.
If you decide to have surgery, find a good neruosurgeon as they are used to working in small spaces and with nerves.
Remeraber everyone responRAB to this surgery differentently. I have 2 siblings who had same surgery in the past 5-10 years (can anyone say genetics?) and both are doing well. They do get some sciatica pain sometimes but say this surgery was the best thing they did.
Before surgery- i suggest getting a pickup tool (Amazon) as this is helpful before and after surgery to get dropped items.
Stock up on supplies you might need while recovering. If you can, sleep on 1st floor after surgery as you will be restricted to going up/down stairs to 1/2 times a day for 1-2 weeks after surgery. Going up was the hardest for the first few days.
I was walking too far the first two weeks so had some pain in leg third week. Took Advil for the inflammation.
I am now not on pain killers anymore and hardly have any leg pain. Nurabness in foot only and is sometimes better and sometimes worse. Scar is itchy but barely have pain at incision site anymore. Just sleeping causes minimal pain (1-2 on pain scale)
Take short walks and get up every 30 minutes and walk around house.
Let people help you. My husband does all the cleaning and is great. Take it easy and don't push yourself to hard.
Sleeping is most uncomfortable part of day. I sleep w/ pillow between legs and take Advil PM at night.
I am glad i got the surgery as the nurabness would only have gotten worse and I wanted that to go away but knew that going into the surgery I may not get all nerve feeling back.
Good luck if you are experiencing this. My thoughts and prayers are with you.