Hello Heather,

It REALLY HURT to read your post. I can't even imagine the pain and what you have been through.

Heather, have you seen other doctors for a second opinion? Something isn't right, and I get this very uneasy feeling that the surgeons you have had for the past surgeries are not doing something right.

Some questions - Has the same surgeon done all three surgeries? Have you obtained second and third opinions? May I ask where you live? What did the surgeons do for each surgery?

I'll await your reply.

Take care.

RichT

Hi Heather,

I'm in the UK too. I'm just having a re-occurrance of pain down the legs myself after L4/5 surgery but this time they think it's coming from L5/S1 instead. I agree with RichT, try to get another opinion. The only thing I can think of is swelling in the area causing pressure on the nerves. I sympathise with you, I really do. I've had 5 years of pain now - sometimes quite bearable but other times completely unbearable, and it does get you down. Try to keep your chin up is all I can say really! Hugs, M x

hi heather i really feel for you im having same problems i live on morhpine and tramadol seen my surgoen again yesterday and she says doing another operation will not do anything for me im just so upset im 40 and feel 80 in the last 3 weeks ive been out 3 times 2 of them where to the hospital what my surgoen is doing is sending me to pain clinic have you been to one of them if so how do things work there i do wish you luck if you ever need to talk im always on here jinnymc

Hi jinnymc,

I have been to a pain clinic in the UK but I assume they would be similar wherever you are.

Basically, they help you to find a way to manage your pain, whether it's trying new medications, physiotherapy, tens machines - whatever they think is best suited to you. It's a way of trying to help you to live with the pain you have. Before I went I was very negative about it to be honest, because to me it felt like I was having to admit that this was as good as it gets. It was hard not to see it as doctors giving up on me and being forced to try and find a way of living with the pain you have rather than trying to deal with the cause. I hope that's making sense!

My advice is to keep an open mind. People in our situation are used to dealing with the pain day in, day out and become our own experts at managing it already. However, the pain clinic may just have something that can help you out that you hadn't already thought of and anything that helps even a little bit is welcome - I'll sure you'll agree. Good luck with everything.

thanks for your reply what you have said is just how i feel i want something to work has i just want to get back to my old self im really down with this ive always been a get up and go person but i just dont seem to beable to be like this anymore some days i cant even get myself out of bed or even off the couch or even just do simple things like i said i just want to get back to normal do you think after l4/5 discetomy and decompression people get back to normal i remember when i was in hospital a guy was on his 2nd operation and he said to me its never the same once you have it done but i didnt think he meant it would be like this thank you angain jinnymc {manchester}

Hi again jinnymc,

I think it's certainly true that once you have had spinal surgery will never quite get back to 100% again. That said, when I had my surgery in 2004 I had a follow up 18 months later. I was disappointed with the progress I'd made, and I asked my surgeon if my recovery was complete, ie. is that as good it's going to get from now on. He basically said that most of the healing would have been complete by that time. I was gutted. However, I did not find that to be the case. I continued to improve month on month for about 2 and half years after the operation. Eventually I was even able to start jogging which is something I never thought I'd be able to do again. How much of this continued improvement was my mental attitude I really don't know. A couple of years ago I went through some pretty drastic changes in my personal life so it was case of having to get on with it on my own. Living alone is very hard when you have a back problem but I managed and conitinued to improve despite my problems. Up until a couple of months ago, although I still suffered from pain on a daily basis, it was certainly a level that I was able to cope with and live with successfully. Although I'm always very careful where my back is concerned, it wasn't in a state where it was stopping me from doing what I wanted to do.

I'm now finding myself trying to focus on that positive again now, as it appears I now have a prolapse in the disc beneath the one I had the surgery on. Last week I couldn't even shower or get myself dressed for 2 days because the pain was so bad and because the pain killers I'd had to take made me feel so unwell. So I can completely understand how you are feeling. It's so hard to keep going with this sometimes, but accute bouts of back pain always improve over time. It may take a really long time, but it does get better (or at least improves to a more managable level).

The correct type of exercise really helps me when able to do it so if you get the chance to have some physio have a chat with them about it. I used to see a chiropractor that had a rehab gym attached to it. I found that was very helpful at keeping the muscles surrounding the problem area and the core stability muscles nice and strong and that is such a vital part of managing a back problem.

I appear to be ranting! I hope you find my rantings helpful. Hang in there and try to stay positive - I know how stupid that sounds, but we have to.

Take care,

Spicey (Lancashire)