Which does cause my leg pain? Disk pinch or adhesion ?

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efang622

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I had severe right hip and leg pain 12 months ago, I did a MRI which found I had spine disk herniation, the pain calmed down after treating for 20 days. But since then I have been in constant pain on right leg ( a small area in calf), I usually get more pain when I wake up in the morning or if I walk or drive more . I did another MRI 6 months ago, which shows the interval reduction in size of the L5-S1.but my leg pain almost has no change ( no better and no worse) and sometimes my hip still in pain also.
Now my question here is , if my pain is causes by disk pressing down on my nerve when I stand up, why do I feel more pain when I sleep or wake up in the morning? I believe my body is horizontal at that time , the disk doesn’t get more pressure than when I stand or sit. So I don’t think my disk can pinch my nerve when I lay down. but when I asked this question to my Orthopedic or Nero Surgery who I saw, no one gave to me an answer that let me satisfied and looks like my question doesn’t make sense. I guess maybe my nerve or muscle have adhered to each other in somewhere and it causes my pain. but I don’t know what kind of exam I can require to do to find out it. The reason I have to make sure this question because one Chiropractor I saw who suggested me to do stretching therapy or use an “ inversion table” to relax the pressure in my disk, but what if my pain is caused by adhering instead of disk herniation ? All these procedure could be useless.




Thanks!
 
I repost my question here,
If my leg pain can be caused by nerve's or muscle's adhesion even I have had no surgery yet?
 
In theory adhesions can occur. whenever the body has an injury - when it heals it can cause some adhesions (even without surgery). Some people with disc problems feel better when laying down - but some do not - and some may feel better upright rather than laying down. Have you consulted with an Orthopedic Spine Surgeon and/or Neurosurgeon?
 
SpineAZ, How are you?
Yes, I saw one Neurosurgeon in March. actually I already saw several Ortho and Neurosurgens during this year.He told me he can do surgery for me, but when I asked him if this pain is caused by old adhesions or the disk is still pinching my nerve now? because I did another MRI in Deceraber 2008 which shows my extruded disk already reduced it’s size a lot, but why my pain is same? He said he can understand my concern but can’t directly answer this question even he checked my MRI image. I think he is not very sure if the surgery can help me or not. Now I will do my best to find out if I still have a chance to try non- surgery method such as stretching . if no method can help me, I have to do the surgery regardless how big the success rate I will get.

Thank you very much for your many times help!
 
So , if I am right, you did two micro-surgeries in you neck, the one is in 2006 and the another is in2008. Do you feel the second one is successful?
Your doctor said they don’t know your neck’s some details before the surgery but they had enough skills to deal with the problem during the surgery.
I don’t know why the spine surgery’s success rate is not pretty high, all doctors who I saw told me the success rate should be 80%-85%, but it is said this rate didn’t count those cases that symptoms come back after sometimes late, So the one statistic article said the real success rate is about only 50 %-55%. I don’t know if this statistic is correct or not.
Thanks!
 
Neither of my surgeries were micro. The first, in 2006, was an C5-C7 ACDF (anterior cervical discectomy) with an couple inch incision on the front of my neck. The second was in 2008 through the back of my neck with about a 1 inch incision.

The doctor I use is a top orthopedic spine surgeon so he could deal with whatever he found once he got in there. He always said "the plan may need to change depending what I see when we open you up"
 
I will tell you that all the tests in the world may not lead them to know exactly what is going on.

After my neck surgery in 2006 I had really bad pain return. My OSS agreed to go in and do what they call a foraminotomy in 2008 as the nerve root may be slightly impinged from his views of the MRI. His first comment after the procedure...."Wow, we had no idea the stenosis and impingement was that bad, you just can't get that level of detail on an MRI. That explains the amount of pain you were experiencing".

So, by going in, they may find some surprises but a good NS or OSS will be ready to deal with whatever shows up.
 
you need to have an emg done it sounRAB like some nerve damage...I have the same problem. I herniated 2 disks in my lower back and ended up with a fusion from L3 to L5 to S1 and then got the spinal cord stim implanted for the nerve damage(and only got 30% from it) but go ask your dr for one of those and see what he/she says...good luck
 
I posted this message on May 2009, but so far I still suspect this question, if my calf pain is coursed by L5-S1 spine disc impress my nerve to cause my calf pain, why there is no pain from my buttocks to the Leg and the pain only happens in calf area about 4-5 inches square region? I talked to several
surgeons this questions but they just said
 
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