Hi guys

It's been a long time since I posted here. To be fair it's been a long time since I saw a specialist (pain clinic tell my GP they see me every 6 months but it has been 2.5 years!).

My GP finally swung me a neurosurgery referral and I had nerve root block injections in February as a diagnostic tool (I have a reherniated L5/S1 that I had an unsuccessful microdiscectomy on in 2010). My CRPS has spread recently, it is now waist to feet, bilateral, everywhere in between (and I mean everywhere).

So the nerve root injection seemed to strengthen my legs a little for around a week and a half. My disc isn't reherniated enough to be causing as many problems as I have, so this set of injections was done to basically decide whether my problems warrant surgery. The neurosurgeon rang yesterday after cancelling our face to face appointment to say he believes I do need surgery as the only other alternative is for me to keep having nerve root injections for the rest of my life and he thinks I'm too young to resort to that. He says he thinks scar tissue is more to blame than the disc and he wants to "go in and clean up". It made total sense until I realised I didn't ask him how or whether the protruding disc material will likewise be dealt with in another microdiscectomy.

Anyway, if anyone knows a surgical term for this kind of surgery so I can do more research that would be great. I have been put on a cancellation list which means I could be called at any time.

Many thanks

Kathy
xx