Recovering from laminectomy and L4/L5 Microdiscectomy: Leg pain and drainage?

[nycindyloo]

On Friday (12/10/10) I had a laminectomy and L4/L5 microdiscectomy. My sciatic pain and nerve pain that went down my left leg went away until yesterday. Now I have some pain that is scarily familiar to what I had for the past year. My first question is: is this normal or does this mean the discectomy didn't work?

Secondly, I was instructed to not change the dressing until today. From the outside of the bandage/tegaderm I couldn't see any blood/drainage. Once we took it off, it was more soaked than I thought it would be. Pale red in color and not smelly. We put a new wad of gauze and tegaderm on and this filled up during the day. We put another new one on this evening and after a few hours, I can already see discoloration appearing on the gauze. Everywhere I read online it says to be aware of bleeding/discharge. What is normal? When should I be concerned?

Thanks in advance!

 

[tetonteri66]

Please call your surgeon's office to discuss the drainage. The last thing you want or need is to end up with an infection. It is probably nothing, but just to be sure, check with your doctor. Also, take your temperature to determine whether you are running a fever, or not. That would be a sign of possible infection.

Regarding the pain, it is very normal to have some recurrence of symptoms, depressing though it is when it happens. You are bound to still have some swelling and inflammation internally. You probably had some nurabing agent poured in around the surgical area as the surgeon was closing. As this wears off, it is normal to have an increase in pain, but as the swelling goes down, the pain should gradually go away. Remeraber, the nerves have been irritated and it can take awhile for them to return to "normal."

Be sure to walk several times each day. This helps with the prevention of scar tissue adhering to the nerves and also helps to get freshly oxygenated blood to the surgical site, which doesn't have lots of blood vessels running through it.

It is better to walk shorter distances several times per day than taking one long walk. At the beginning distance isn't all that important.

Just try to be patient and follow your doctor's instructions for after-care...and I think you'll see the pain will eventually fade away. Good luck in recovery!