Hi,

before I had my surgery, I searched online and read lots of stories from sufferers, mostly stories of grief, and so I wanted to come back and post a positive story.

I had bad sciatica for several months. I believe it resulted from a back injury years ago that got worse over time. The pain got to where I could do everything fine except walk, sit, stand, drive, or sleep.

Anyway, I got the mri. I definitely had a big ole chunk sticking out against the nerve, and a piece broken off.

I decided within a couple of days to skip the steroid injections. How are they gonna help with a big piece of disc pushing up against the nerve? I talked it over with the surgeon (orthepedic, not neuro,) and set up the surgery for like a week later.

I was nervous. Never had surgery before. But I tried to keep a real strong positive attitude, and I prayed.

Well, the surgery was 2.5 months ago and so far it's been great. Am I 100%? No. It's very gradual recovery in terms of strength. There is sometimes a light achiness in my "bad" leg and around the incision site.

But it is nothing, I mean nothing like how the sciatica was. I felt relief from the sciatica the day of the surgery. I was home that day. I got a month off from work on short term disability. I can drive, walk, sleep, etc etc. Hell, I am back to enjoying marital relations with my wife like a champ :-)

the future holds no guarantees, but I am very glad I got the surgery. One thing I will say, I was a good candidate for surgery cuz it was an l4-l5 herniation with 95 % of my pain in the leg. Ymmv.

Good luck to everyone. I truly know what a shock it is to be hobbled and not know what to do. I really hope you all find relief. Take care,

seth