I've posted several times before regarding my lower back pain that the doctors could not find out what the source was. it ended up being a condition called Spinal Lipomouse. Well the doctors had to finally operate on me since the Lipomatous was causing paralysis and a few bouts of incontanance. The plan was to give me a Laminectomy of the L3.4,5 and S1 then suck out the fatty cells causing the pressure on my spinal cord. After the Doctor got inside and removed the first laminae he saw that I had a huge crack in my L4 that none of my mri's picked up! Long story short...my spine was like a slinky these were his exact words. So no I have a fusion of the L3 through the S1 and the surgery was on the 6th it still feels like the nerves are on the top of my skin! Has anyone had a fusion of this magnatude? and how long does it take for the nerves to calm down afterward?


ANY advice would be nice to hear. I think my poor wife is tired of hearing about it.
Josh

Hi there! I am 5 months post op. I have a 2 level fusion and am still having nerve pain. My surgeon told me each individual heals at different rates and it depends on length of sciatica duration before surgery (Mine was flared for 3 plus years) and how much moving stuff around during the surgery. I think the pain you are having is probably very normal for the number of levels you had fused. Definitely run it by your physician.

I had fusion three months ago and occasionally still have leg pain and foot pain. But, we are all different. WE all heal differnt and our cases our different. Are you on nerve meds like lyrica or neurontin? These meds help with that alot. I think nerves take a logn time to regrow, and the doctor told me that it takes along time for our bodys to learn how to do things differently after fusion. I hope you get to feeling better soon.

I had a double fusion at L5/L4 on March 17 of this year. I am having terrible numbness and nerve pain down the backs of my legs and into the side of my left foot and heels. I went to my doc last week and he said it is highly unusual for someone like me to still have leg and nerve pain. He thinks the synthetic bone they inserted has grown around the nerve and is impacting it. I have a CT and EMG scheduled to see if he is right. Hopefully, he is wrong and it is just normal pain after a double fusion....it was my 4th back surgery. Hang in there, I feel your pain!

I am 21 months post-op 2 level fusion and still have nerve pain. They have now found other areas not addressed in the surgery and have stated that I need another surgery. It seems that some people have nerve pain for a few months and it deceases and goes away. I guess I wasn't that lucky. The nerves get moved during the surgery and they swell for awhile and give you this horrible nerve pain until the swelling goes down. Run it by your doctor and see what he thinks. Good Luck

You still have a long time to fully recover. I understand that we all go through this for a while, so i would not worry at this point. Just take it easy, rest and let it to heal. Do you do your PT? I had PT for 6 month after surgery, some time off and than went back for 2 month. I was lucky because they have warm water walking pool and it's really a big help with walking and making your muscles work again.
Good luck on your recovery!!!

I've posted several times before regarding my lower back pain that the doctors could not find out what the source was. it ended up being a condition called Spinal Lipomouse. Well the doctors had to finally operate on me since the Lipomatous was causing paralysis and a few bouts of incontanance. The plan was to give me a Laminectomy of the L3.4,5 and S1 then suck out the fatty cells causing the pressure on my spinal cord. After the Doctor got inside and removed the first laminae he saw that I had a huge crack in my L4 that none of my mri's picked up! Long story short...my spine was like a slinky these were his exact words. So no I have a fusion of the L3 through the S1 and the surgery was on the 6th it still feels like the nerves are on the top of my skin! Has anyone had a fusion of this magnatude? and how long does it take for the nerves to calm down afterward?


ANY advice would be nice to hear. I think my poor wife is tired of hearing about it.
Josh

Hey there, sorry to hear your still having so much pain. I had a fussion from L3down to S-1 back in July of 2004, then in February of 2005 they removed the pins and rods, screws and so on because it was pressing on some nerves going down my left leg(very painful). Anyways, after both of those surgeries I still had the nerve pain down both of my legs and more numbness then I had before, it helped my back alot but not in my legs. So I continued on my pain meds, thought I would be done with the PM thats why I had the surgery oh well, what can u say. I also had a crack on L-5 but I already knew that I did before they did the surgery. In November of 2006 I had a Spinal Cord Implant, this was my last hope for getting rid of the pain in my legs and to get off the darn Pain Meds. The Stimulator does take care of the nerve pain down my legs its wonderful, unfortunately a wire broke in March of this year and I had to go back in to have the implant revised so far so good its working again and taking care of the pain yeah!:blob_fire I'm happy to say that I'm off all Pain Meds so far, hopefully I won't run into any more problems with this SCI keeping my fingers crossed. Best of luck to u and God Bless.:) :angel: :wave: Take care, Bekah61