I'm not sure how many folk from the old board are back here, so I don't know if there are people reading here with this issue...the old board had been quite helpful.

I had a laminectomy and fusion of L3,4,5 in February, because of a spinal synovial cyst. I still have pain.

I was definitely improving until around May, when I developed new pain in my butt, and then radiating down the front of my thigh. It gradually got worse. There's also a "gripping" sort of back pain, and a "catching" when I make a sudden movement.

I had a CT and MRI done which show that everything is healing according to plan. There is no fusion yet, but the bone is forming. Apparently, it's okay to not see fusion at this point. The instruments are all in place and holding me nicely.

My surgeon, seeing there's nothing surgical, is not terribly interested in what to do now. My neurologist says my symptoms are almost all L5, but there's nothing obvious going on there.

He put me on a medrol dosepak to see if that helped, and it did. I ended up on a second dosepak a week later, because my sinuses acted up and my sinus guy wanted me to take them again. (this is complicated--but my adrenals aren't working because of steroids).

I have found physical therapy not useful. I tried Pilates, but ended up with more pain. I found a Feldenkrais practitioner who has been very very helpful. She's helping me learn to move in ways which do not cause pain, and sees her work as re-patterning. It does work.

But I'm still in more pain than I'd want. I'd like to know what people's experience is with healing from this surgery. Is this within the range of expectable? What did you do to help?