B
brendaks1
Guest
For the past year I have been going through living hell. Last April I somehow injured my back, went out of work shortly thereafter, had L4/L5 laminectomy/discectomy surgery in August followed by another surgery 2 weeks later for a massive hematoma and infection. I knew the day after my first surgery that I was not fixed, but my surgeon wouldn't listen and kept telling me nerves take a long time to heal and I probably had some inflammation from the surgery. I told him again and again that something was wrong and that I was still having severe left leg sciatica, especially when I sit. After ordering an MRI he said there were only minimal problems that wouldn't be causing my problems.
I then went on multiple medical goose chases with various other doctors telling me I had MS, ALS, piriformis sydrome, that the pain is psychological, etc. All of the testing they were doing (MRI's, myelogram, EMG, EEG, CT scans, etc.) was coming back normal and they all said they could not explain my pain. This entire time I have been out of work and the doctors were recently trying to send me back to work - I have no idea how I could have made it through even one day. I've never been so frustrated before in my life!
In comes a wonderful pain management doctor who actually listened to me (finally!) and ordered an upright MRI. It showed significant nerve root compression and tethering at L4/L5 from a reherniation of the disc. This morning I had a discogram that further confirmed the disc reherniation at L4/L5 is causing my problem and pain. It's been almost 9 months since I had surgery and it has taken this long to finally get the answers! My pain is along the S1 nerve root distribution which is unusual from the L4/L5 disc, but it happened in my case - this is part of what was throwing the doctors off track.
I am now most likely heading back to a different spine surgeon (hopefully one that will listen to me) for a third back surgery, very possibly a fusion. Will they do a one-level fusion at L4/L5 or will they also do L5/S1 since that will likely go in a few years with the level above it fused? My L3/L4 disc is also bulging but the discogram showed it is not herniated.
I am just so relieved that there is finally some medical evidence of my problem so I can go about getting it fixed. I think the not knowing what was wrong was as bad or worse as dealing with the severe sciatic pain! Something tells me that finding out what's wrong just shouldn't be this complicated.
I then went on multiple medical goose chases with various other doctors telling me I had MS, ALS, piriformis sydrome, that the pain is psychological, etc. All of the testing they were doing (MRI's, myelogram, EMG, EEG, CT scans, etc.) was coming back normal and they all said they could not explain my pain. This entire time I have been out of work and the doctors were recently trying to send me back to work - I have no idea how I could have made it through even one day. I've never been so frustrated before in my life!
In comes a wonderful pain management doctor who actually listened to me (finally!) and ordered an upright MRI. It showed significant nerve root compression and tethering at L4/L5 from a reherniation of the disc. This morning I had a discogram that further confirmed the disc reherniation at L4/L5 is causing my problem and pain. It's been almost 9 months since I had surgery and it has taken this long to finally get the answers! My pain is along the S1 nerve root distribution which is unusual from the L4/L5 disc, but it happened in my case - this is part of what was throwing the doctors off track.
I am now most likely heading back to a different spine surgeon (hopefully one that will listen to me) for a third back surgery, very possibly a fusion. Will they do a one-level fusion at L4/L5 or will they also do L5/S1 since that will likely go in a few years with the level above it fused? My L3/L4 disc is also bulging but the discogram showed it is not herniated.
I am just so relieved that there is finally some medical evidence of my problem so I can go about getting it fixed. I think the not knowing what was wrong was as bad or worse as dealing with the severe sciatic pain! Something tells me that finding out what's wrong just shouldn't be this complicated.