I'm new, here's my story...
 

I'm 66 years old and have been living with chronic back pain and fibromyalgia for 30 years. Back pain is lumbar, along with nerve pain that has come and gone down one leg or the other and at times both at the same time. Last year it became more than I could handle; I really felt my quality of life was really low, causing me serious depression and anxiety. I did my research/homework and found a top notch neurosurgeon, who then recommended an orthopedic surgeon and they together performed laminectomy and fusion L3/4, L4/5 in December 2016. Since then, the nerve pain down both my legs has worsened. I've gone through phys therapy on 3 separate occasions and have been seeing a pain mngmnt doc who keeps wanting to do nerve injections which I continue to refuse, having had way more than I ever should have had over the course of 30 years. Yesterday I had a nerve/muscle test, EMG/NCV which showed moderate/severe nerve damage from L2 through S1 on the right and the same on the left, L5/S1. No reflex in right knee or ankle. So, where do I go from here? Ortho surgeon recommends I go back to pain doc and see what he recommends. I cannot take gabapentin or Lyrica, or any steroid medication. Not sure what's left? And, what's really upsetting me is I went ahead with the surgery because of the nerve compression; I was told I had severe spinal stenosis and spondylolisthesis and after surgery, the neurosurgeon told me he decompressed the nerves, but they were much worse than he anticipated, that was 11 months ago. And now I'm told I have compressed/damaged nerves at that location? I'm at a complete loss.

I know someone that had spinal stenosis and spondylolisthesis pinching nerves and it took 2 tries for surgeon to "clean out" the right amount.. he was conservative the first time, but a year or so later the paint came back, the second surgery worked much better..

We also have a Spinal forum - you can post there also & if you have a MRI report you can share it there - sometimes the written report wording can help with getting better info. https://www.neurotalk.org/forum22/

Did your therapy try TENS, IF stim, low level/soft laser, ultrasound, traction, anything like those?

Maybe a SCS might be something to look into since some meds are an issue.
We have a SCS sub forum also..

most of the things I mentioned can be found with a site search - in past threads or posts..
https://www.neurotalk.org/search.php

thanks so much! PT tried fascia release, traction, and all kinds of stretches. Ortho surgeon won't ok any more therapy. Told me to take what I've learned and do it at home. I'll check out the spinal forum. thanks again