Pain after discectomy

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tothebeach

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Hi all.

I haven't needed to post in awhile. Everything was moving along for me. I had discectomy on L5/S1 on 1/28/08. Prior to the surgery was having leg weakness and pins in needles in my feet. It was strange I woke up after surgery and I felt like my calf muscles had never been used before! They felt so tight. (They still feel that way...constantly have to stretch them.) Doctor told my husband after surgery that my spine looks very bad for my age...30.

Anyways...the pain got better in my leg for about 3 weeks after surgery. Then one day I hit a wall and haven't been able to get better. My back hurts oh so bad. Back pain is new to me. All my prior pain was in my legs. Mornings are so rough...it's hard to get myself out of bed and standing in an upright position. Slowly through the day it gets better. But it's like a vicious cycle. Went to the doctor last week and he basically said, he's not going to recommend another surgery for at least another year. If he does at all. He said he doesn't recommend doing fusion on the bottom 2 disc. It will only cause more problems down the road. He flat out told me to find a way to live with the pain. The back pain will eventually work itself out.

My question to all of you...I've read many post where people talk about fusions on the bottom 2 disc. This is still relatively new to me. Why would my doctor say he doesn't recommend it. Is Fusion something I even want to consider?

Question # 2. How do you cope with daily pain? He didn't give me any pain medication. I'm doing everything I can to strengthen my back. I walk 3x a week and go to the pool 2x a week. Maybe I'm overdoing it?

Any advise I would really appreciate it!

Best!
 
I had a fusion (both cervical and lurabar) and I think the main benefit of fusion is to stabilize the spine. By fusing it, it prevents motion in the area causing pain. But you'd need to get further testing to see if this is perhaps the problem. I was in my 20's when I had my lurabar fusion and my doctor said "if we fuse, we fix the problem. if we do a discectomy I'm not sure we'll fix the pain problem long term". So I felt being younger it was important to take a more aggressive treatment approach.
 
Hi:

What do you do in the pool? I hope not twisting in any way!

I had a micro-d L5-S1 7 years ago, and actually, I got worse before I got better. But it all did go away. I took longer than the normal person to heal. At about 3-4 months out of surgery, I hurt pretty bad. The doc said I possibly had disc-space collapse. It's hard to wait, but it definitely takes a long time for the back to heal. The doc is right.....I wouldn't do anything (even think of surgery) for at least a year.

Things did get significantly better for me. My surgery was a success, although I still have some "after-surgery things" going on every day, but they are minor. VERY MINOR, compared to pain and weak legs I had.

You COULD be doing too much. Sometimes what the doctors say, and what our bodies are telling us, isn't the same. I would take a rest from the swimming, and I think I still would walk 3x a week, but shorten the walk.

For me, I needed a heck of a lot of time "resting" before I even thought about exercising/walking longer distances. PT made me worse. I quit it. And when I quit it, I was better.

Take care and good luck.

Blue Diamond
 
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