How long has it been since your surgery? Do you know if they did more than remove some of the disc and or fragments?

Did they do any surgery on the facets, the lateral recess of the vertebrae, did they widen the central foramen?

As for the nerve pain you still have, it can take quite a bit of time for the nerve pain to completely go away. Those nerves are trying to heal and regenerate from the damage they where suffering with from the irritation and compression they had on them.

Nerve pain can be relieved with some nerve pain medication, either neurontin or lyrica. You might ask your doctor about them.

Have they suggested that you start some physical therapy to teach you how to strengthen your core muscles? That is really important after spinal surgery of any kind.

One thing you really have to do is try and be patient while your body and the nerves heal.

The "if it hurts, don't do it" is true with spinal surgery. and there are times when you won't know that it will hurt until after you have done it.

It does take time, 4-6 months to fully recover from your surgery. Try and be patient. I know it's hard, and I'm not the most patient person either. But I've learned to be far more patient so that I could recover from my spine surgery.

Fran

Hi Fran,

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly I really appreciate it

I had my surgery on the 8th of September soooo around 2 months ago now..

I was told that all they did was shave the protruding disc and removed the lesion for bi-opsy.
Nothing else that you have asked was done unless they didnt tell me about it....

Originally I was on prescription meds, but have managed to take myself off those and am using ibiprofen and codine tablets now, which help a little bit but are better than prescription meds....


"Have they suggested that you start some physical therapy to teach you how to strengthen your core muscles? That is really important after spinal surgery of any kind. "

Nothing has been said to me about exercises, i asked at my last appoinment and was told that there was really nothing I could do to help my back.... Which seems very odd to me!!!
I was thinking that core strengthening exercises should be done... but got shot down when i asked about it...
Are there any other exercises i should be doing ie.. swimming, weights etc??

Can I ask you how long it took for you to go back to work and be able to complete normal duties??


PATIENCE SUCKS!!!!!!! ha ha ha

Took me about 6 months with my first surgery. I had a laminotomy done on the L4/L5/S1 for decompression and widening of the lateral recess of that vertebrae.
I started physical therapy about 3 weeks post op from the surgery and went for 10 weeks.

I was very week on the right side and dragged my right leg as if I had had a stroke. In my stubborn thought process, I had to have quite a few other opinions before I consented to surgery, and returned to my original spine surgeon for it.

I was lucky that my timing was what it was in consenting to the surgery when I did though, because the night before it, I lost total bladder control. That is an emergency situation and my surgery was done about 9 hours after it happened.

I found that the PT was essential for full recovery. The muscles had weakened considerably in about 4 months that I got worse and worse. Though I seemed to be walking normally and all post op, when I went to PT, i found how weak I really was in my right leg, low back and even the ankle and foot.

Giving you suggestions for exercises is really not a good idea, even core ones, because you need to be evaluated by a physical therapist that works with spine rehab.
Core muscle strengthening exercises are a series of exercises to do and you start out slowly with what you can do first, and then build on that till you reach the level that you can do them on your own. by that point, they are combined into a progressive combination of one for you to do as permanent exercises for the rest of your life.

I am baffled that a spine surgeon would tell you that you don't need any physical therapy after any kind of spine surgery. YOU have had muscles cut and pulled and they need to heal and PT can help prevent scar tissue building up and strengthen those cores.

Some of your pain may actually be coming from weakened muscles that are pulling on areas and keeping the nerves from fully healing.

It is also possible that there are some disc fragments that are floating around in your spine or that there wasn't enough decompression done to relieve your pain.

I do know that one of the main causes of failed spine surgery for decompression is a failure to release the nerves from the lateral recess of the vertebrae.

You are still only 2 months out from surgery, but you really should be having physical therapy and should have been going for some time now.

Is it possible for your regular doctor to write the order for you to have physical therapy? All he/she would have to do is get the info on your surgery from your spine surgeon. That should be in your medical record with your regular doctor anyways.
then your doctor can write the orders, stating what your surgery was and to "evaluate and treat" 2 -3 times a week.

Then you would have a physical therapy evaluation as to what your ability is in function and from there, the physical therapist would work with you to strengthen what areas are needed and teach you what to do.

Good luck

Fran