Hi,
I had multi-level lurabar laminectomies in '06 and did pretty good for several months. But then I suddenly got severe sciatica with a nurab foot and other symptoms. I had an MRI with contrast and it was found I had a lot of scar tissue, plus either some tissue or disk material was lodged in the left lateral recess at L5 (I think it was). I had a nerve block done, which helped me tremendously. However, since my surgery, I still keep getting frequent bouts of new or different nerve pains, spasms, spine stiffness, and deep achiness in my spine. Over the past year/year and 1/2, I've gotten awful pain in my sacral area and It was torture to sit for any length of time. The only thing that sort of helped was laying down, well, plus some of my meRAB helped a bit.
But I keep getting bouts of sciatica, so I think I keep either getting herniations or maybe scar material hitting a nerve. Also, with my first bout of severe sciatica after surgery, the MRI also showed worsening facet joint hypertrophy and narrowing in all lurabar levels. My surgeon had told me that after surgery, my spine would have a lot more stress on it due to the missing bones, plus he said surgery cannot fix spinal arthritis pain.
But you know, just because your doctor says there is no compression, it does NOT mean there isn't any. MRI's don't always pick up everything and the person who reaRAB the MRI doesn't always either. Geez, during my surgery, I had a lot more nerve compression and narrowing in several levels that did not show up on my pre-surgical MRI's. Plus, everyone feels pain differently. One person can show a large herniation and have no pain, while another might show a barely-there herniation yet have a lot of pain. Pain is subjective.
Anyway...do you have a copy of your MRI report? If not, then you should request one because you have a legal right to it. You might want to try the facet blocks, but you might also want to get a second opinion.
