Hi Everyone,

I'm hoping that someone will be able to help me out. 2 weeks ago I had a discectomy L4/5, but as soon as I came round from the anaesthetic I had leg pain which has gotten worse and worse over the days. Instead of being in my lower leg/ankle area where it was before the surgery, it's now at my hip right down to my foot. Is this normal? Has anyone else experienced this?

I'd really appreciate your help or any information you can give me.

Thanks

Hello and welcome to NT!

I'm afraid that I don't have the expertise to answer your question, but I'm sure someone will come along who can.

The link to NT's Spinal Disorders & Back Pain forum is:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum22.html

Cheers

Have you had any luck finding answers to your questions searching the forum?

Cheers

Hi, Yes thanks. From what I've read and by digging about a bit on the internet, it looks like the pain I have now is due to nerve damage. Considering the nerve was crushed for almost a year, it's not surprising really. I was hoping for a quick fix with the surgery, but it seems I still have some way to go. Take care.

I suffered crushed and damaged nerves in an accident so I know it's a long road. In addition to the pain, I have a lot of neuro symptoms like tingles, loss of sensation (I've saved a bundle on oven mitts), spasms and weakness.

Nerve pain is tough to treat. What meds are you taking? Lyrica seems to be the drug of choice. It works for some folks, but I wasn't happy with it.

Cheers

I'm the same - numb toes, weak feeling in leg etc. I can walk better than I did before the surgery, but am disappointed that I didn't get the "instant relief" I was told I would. Know what you mean about the oven mitts though - I have RSD in my left arm/hand which leaves me with "asbestos" fingers. I can pick up anything hot.

I take Gabapentin, Tramadol and Nortriptylene at the moment, all maximum dose, but I still have pain. I see my Surgeon on Monday for a post-op check, maybe he'll have some ideas. I've never tried Lyrica - I don't know what the equivalent to it is here in Scotland.

Thanks for your reply.

Hi there. I had something similar to you with my back surgery. Before surgery my pain was in my left leg. Immediately after surgery the pain was in both legs. I asked my orthopedic surgeon about it and the first thing he said was "I monitored your nerve function during the operation and I didn't nick a nerve.". Talk about defensive. It was finally diagnosed as Peripheral Neuropathy although Failed Back Surgery Syndrome was also diagnosed.

Did you surgeon mention anything about nerve function during the operation. I don't know if that's anything that leaves a record such as a paper readout but it may be worth asking about.

Good luck with it. Hopefully your surgeon will be more helpful than mine.

Hi Greggg, Thanks for your reply. The leg pain is still there, it just won't go away. They're now sending me to Physiotherapy to see if that will help. Personally, I think there is still a little fragment of disc floating around in there somewhere and irritating the nerve. The surgery took alot longer than expected as some of the fragments were hard to find so I've been told. They had to do quite a bit of digging around. I go back to see surgeon in a few months.

Your surgeon sounds alot like mine. He didn't mention anything about nerve function during the surgery, I'll be sure to ask him when I see him next. I'm kind of disappointed with the results - I'd hoped for some kind of relief from the leg pain. Did you have further surgery to see if that would help? That's another option that's been mentioned to me, but I'm not too keen on that.

Thanks again

Hi there Miss Scottish. That back surgery is some crazy stuff. Before my surgery all I could find is people who said they had it and it worked great. Now that I've had the surgery it's hard to find anyone who says it worked! If I would have know that I wouldn't have had it. My docs never mentioned follow on back surgery but that just may be because they know I won't do it. My surgery lasted nine hours and I didn't wake up for five days. I spent those days in ICU because of a drug reaction. Those five days just never existed to me. I was told by a few nurses that they almost lost me and that's when I said no more surgeries!

My ortho doc wanted me to have cervical spine surgery a few years ago to fix my arms and neck but I ran out of the hospital when I was registering. I just said that I can't do this and had them cut the wristbands off and out the door I went.

When they took your disks out, how did they do it? I was told it's easier to remove the disc if they go in from the front so now I have a scar that's 21 staples long to the side of my stomach and 19 staples in my back.

How are your medical facilities in Scotland? I'm in the middle of nowhere in Texas and I question how up to date our doctors are down here. I really think that how the procedure was performed had something to do with the outcome. You can talk to the doctors until you're blue in the face but the ones down here don't seem to want to get up to date on current practices.

Good luck if you go with another surgery. There's not many choices though unless you want to be on those darned drugs forever.

Take care...Gregg

Hi Greggg, I know of people who've had the surgery 3 times before it worked, but others seem to have had a great result. Maybe I'm just a medical nightmare. 9 hours is a long time for surgery, and then to be ill afterwards, no wonder you don't want any more!

They did my surgery from the back, but things were a bit complicated so I've been told, so I ended up with a much bigger scar than I would normally have had. Doesn't matter to me, no one sees it anyway.

I live near a big teaching hospital and the facilities are pretty good. I wouldn't say they were bang up to date, but then Scotland never is! The USA always seems to be much further ahead in terms of treatment and knowledge. I think some doctors, especially the older ones, are a bit set in their ways and do their own thing regardless of new practices or treatments. They tend to stick to the tried and tested methods and they don't like people questioning them!

I would have thought you had it pretty good where you live. Do you have to travel far for hospital? Is there another way they could have done your surgery?

So, where does all this leave you? What happens next? Is there anything else they can do for you?

Questions, questions, questions - you'll be sorry you ever met me!!

Take care