I'm a newbie, but not new to back pain
 

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 appreciate any input/advice/information.

Welcome to NT, a few of us Lumbar pain folks hang out on the chronic pain forum or SCS forum threads. But that said, we pop up all over the place as our issues are no longer just Lumbar pain. Look forward to you joining in on our various chats. Heads up, I'm a prolific chatterer ... apologies in advance.

Had L4-5 fusion/laminectomy done a over ten year ago. Still dealt with pain. The surgeon that performed my surgery said I had more stenosis but only did this area since it was the worst.

I continued to have pain; eventually was recommended to see a Pain Management doctor. Went the Lyrica, /Cymbalta route for a short time which did not do well with the side effects. In the meantime developed Peripheral Neuropathy (PN).

Eventually saw another PM doctor did the Epidurals, failed SCS trial as well as pain medication. The opioid pain medication has helped the most to deal with the pain. I was put on a fairly high dose which I am in the process of tyrating to a lower dose; mostly because of the constipation side effect. I may eventually look into Tramadol in the future which is a much lesser opioid than Oxycontin.

Saw a well recommended spinal orthopedic surgeon a while back. After having a myleogram, he did say the stenosis etc.,was a problem. He did not recommend additional surgery but rather stay with Pain Management.

Wish I had better advice to give you. I know how frustrating you must be feeling. So many of us on NT deal with chronic pain.

Thanks so much!!

I really appreciate your response and I'm sorry I didn't see it sooner. Yes, I'm very frustrated and depressed and feeling stupid. I actually thought I was going to be over this God awful pain. I sat there while the neurosurgeon looked me right in the eyes and said "we have a 90-95% success rate!" Well I guess I'm part of the 5-10%. Funny, how once the surgery is over, and yet the pain doesn't go away, but actually worsens, it becomes nearly impossible to reach the surgeons. I'm beginning to realize that really, there is no reason for me to talk to them. They won't admit if they screwed up and if they did, then what? I'm really not prepared to go through another surgery, at least not now.

I'm on opioids, Norco, and have been on them for quite a while. Once I began seeing the PM Dr, he added MS Contin, 15 mg at night, which was a God send because I couldn't lie down without ridiculous pain. I was sitting up sleeping in a chair with pillows stuffed around me. The morphine helped. I'm going to have to get back to that pain Dr and discuss meds with him. Yes, I tried Cymbalta, Lyrica and Pristique, all three made me really really sick with other side effects I'm not willing to live with.

The way things are here in the US with the opioid crisis, I'm concerned what will happen to those of us that depend on them for our quality of life?