Hi to all and how is everyone?

Has anyone ever been told this before after 2 months from a fusion surgery? I finally went to my old pain mgt doctor and he showed me on my reports and films that I have bone spur and disc bulge L4? ( I didnt have that before my surgery of l5s1) and scar tissue and effacement of space there and he said it is pressing on the nerve which is giving me the pain still down my leg. I am like what the heck is going on. He gave me a trial of Lyrica medicine and talked about doing some nerve blocks, I am so tired of the needles and I havent seen the surgeon yet so he dosent even know I seen the pain mgt and I dont think he has seen the reports yet either. I did however have the pain mgt check out my neck and I go in for another mri on the neck area. I hope to get them to look at the whole picture instead of 1/4 of it when it comes to your entire spine. I hope everyone has a Happy Easter and let me know what you think.

Love msmona :angel:

Hello mbmona-
Hi. I'm home from work today because I had a real rough time of it after en epidural shot yesterday. It was quite painful and the doc either hit or got very close to my sciatc nerve cuz I felt my leg bounce off his head! They pumped more novacaine in and I was numb in that leg for more than an hour after. It is quite a road we back people are asked to travel, no? I do not think I have a spinal headache as a side effect from the shot but I had so much pain and headache that I hardly slept a wink. So, another day of my leave time is eaten up. I doubt I'm telling you anything, right.
I too have a failed fusion at L4-5. I also now learn that my L3 has degenerated 'markedly' as a consequence. But despite several scans and repeat mri's the doc isn't so sure what the real problems are so he sent me off to have 2 epidurals. If these don't cure me he wants to go back in and will do what he needs to do. Maybe just fix one fusion and maybe do 2 seperate fusion, and maybe a decompression and .....
So, you are 2 months post op? And your pain mgt doc tells you of these new problems from an mri taken after the surgey? But your sugeon hasn't seen the mri or the report. OK I think I follow that. It is very hard to keep all these balls in the air isn't it? I recently had a short but severe bout of pain in my neck (C5-6, I think) that gave me, amongst other symptoms) weakness and numbness in my hand. My surgeon was away. My surgeon's PA treated me over the phone with meds and rest. My surgeon returned. I called to ask that he learn of the situation and waited to hear of the follow up. None. When I went to surgeon for next visit (1 week later) he still knew nothing and since it was 'getting better' he didn't even ask a single question about it.
I guess I just want to say that once you get a sugeon, surgeon or physicain's assistant, nurses, office staff, pain mgt doc, ofc staff, PT, ofc staff, your GP, GP nurse, your GP ofc staff, and staff from hospitals that do some of these diagnostic tests in your life it is a circus! I sometimes think -who doesn't know my medical history? But I do know this for sure - I like to be informed and to feel free to ask questions of all my medical help. If they can't answer or limit their answers, I respect and welcome that as well. I get wildly different opinions, too. For example, my epidural doc thinks I should try more shots beyond this 2nd one no matter what the outcome. My surgeon thinks after 2 - going for more is silly if it hasn't helped. My surgeon's position seems so reasonable until my epi doc points out that many would feel a second surgery is a drastic step when one isn't even able to say for sure what they're going to do! Good points - all of them.
Well, I'm just rambling. You're not alone. The very best of luck and I'd be happy to know what your surgeon says when you see him. Suzy-Q