re: Unbelievable pain after 2 micro discectomy surgeries in last 6 weeks

I’ve had 2 micro Ds - L5 in 2007 and L4 and 5 in 2014. Walked out with immediate relief both times and I’m pretty full tilt on yard work and golf. Something definitely isn’t right. Who did the procedure?

Surgery was the mistake

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I had it in 2009 and words can’t describe that pain. Pain meds, muscle relaxers, and I think some kind of steroid helped to where I could actually lay down and sleep. After a couple days I started doing different stretches I found online which definitely helped. I still have numbness in my left thigh sometimes but thankfully not that God awful pain. Your story is why I’ll avoid back surgery as long as possible.

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I told myself that no way anyone was messing with my spine all my life.

But with the pain, and I looked at the MRI, it was obvious home remedies weren’t going to touch it. The main thing is to find the best surgeon available. Living in excruciating pain is no way to live.

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Believing this is going to resolve positively will help. I know it sounds silly and is the last thing you want to hear with a messed up back. You have stuff to do instead of being immobilized and hurting. You are more likely to have a good outcome if you believe you will have a good outcome. It’s awful. But it will resolve. Keep telling yourself this.

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I tried that for a number of years trying to work through it, tough it out, it’ll take care of itself like alot of pain I’d had before like tennis elbow and gout and other things.

But that padding between that disc bulging out there against that nerve wasn’t going back, and if it ruptured that’s a whole different story. I had a friend whose disc ruptured and he thought he had had a stroke, left side basically paralyzed.

It’s cool to think our bodies will heal themselves, I felt that way my whole life, but age takes over and pain has a different definition. Pain from exercise or excursion can be gotten over, I’ve done it, but this is a different animal..

Sweet thoughts are great, but sleeping in a chair and yelling in pain to get up and try to get to the bathroom are far removed from one another.

I never thought I’d be in that position but all we have to do is keep living. Oh, that don’t include all the knee replacement people I know, many good athletes at an older age. Our bodies wear out over time.

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Have someone pick you up some legally and take a couple of edibles.

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I have suffered from back pain for decades like many of you. It comes and goes in severity but the worst times are incapacitating. I’ve had epidurals, facet injections, nerve burns, PT, etc etc. been scheduled for surgery many times and always backed out.

I am never pain free but I’ve been managing for many years now with cannabis. I won’t say it’s a miracle but it does work and I live a normal active life. It’s been so long since I’ve been to the ortho I don’t even remember what the diagnosis was exactly…he showed me the x rays and MRI and I saw the disc issues. For those of you suffering it’s certainly an option you should consider

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Hopefully that’s the case for people but I saw firsthand what happens when neck surgery doesn’t work out for the best. A simple trip and fall at home a few years after surgery left the hardest working person I’ve ever known basically parlayed. The first surgery basically made the surgery after the accident useless. He was gone a year later.

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Was he fine after the first surgery? How old was he? Did he break his neck in the fall?

I had a L4/L5 discectomy and foraminotomy done last Thursday at the Texas Back Institute in Plano, TX. It was a minimally invasive endoscopic procedure and have been completely symptom / pain free since my surgery. My incision is the diameter of dime and i haven’t had to take any pain meds. I hope they figure out what’s ailing you, back / sciatic pain is the worst.

Ok after the first surgery, not 100% but it didn’t slow him down that much. He was in his early 60’s when it happened, it wasn’t a broken neck it was more nerve damage. I don’t know all the medical terms other than whatever the first surgery consisted of with his neck made the second surgery pretty much pointless.

Had the same. Nicked a nerve during surgery & I still have nerve damage. For me the intensity of the pain went down, but the pain has never completely gone away. Over 10 years. And the drop foot sucks.

But this

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I'm 2 weeks post surgery and I can only walk about 2 minutes before I nearly collapse

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Is not normal. Call your Dr.

I’d get a second opinion. My first Dr. said I needed a disc replacement and fusion of my L4 / L5, got a second opinion from a Dr who does ultra minimally invasive procedures who said I was a prime candidate for his type of procedure. Had the surgery last week and couldn’t be happier. MRIs interpretations are very subjective. If you went to 10 different Dr’s I’d bet you’d get 5 different opinions on how to tackle the problems.