Shoreline

Hi Shelly, Slow things down a bit. IT's it hasn't even bee 2 eeks since surgery, althogh you would think if stenosis was causing the hip and leg pain then the lami or would have eleviated the compression, The didn't doa foiminotomy, where they drill out the outlets ib the facets to make room? The branch block helping and minimal relief from the facet blocks, may have simply been a a poor facet injections, Not quite the right spot, whatever. The medial blocks tell them whether the pain is from the facet joints and with a positive reul;t from the medial block, It seems you should have gotten more relief from tem the facet blocks, unless they missed the actual nerve, or used a SA anesthetic rather than a LA one like marcaine that could have produced 8012 hours o relief.

Personally , I think I would step back , outside of the present group of docs and maybe try anther facet block as a test to see f you might benefit from something longer lasting before you have the SCS. The SCS is jus a tool, lik any other method to help with pain, It's not a cure all and only being 10 days post op, It is too early to worry to condemn you to a life of pain, It may take some time for the nerve to regenerate and things to settle down if you hd a major impingement that went untreated for several years or even months.

Thy have done what I would expect, but the SCS is a bit son. I also think with you being in pain, you need to focus on recover from this surgery. You can start PT right way after a lami, umlike a fusion. But knowing what could be the long term outlook, I would focus on now, what are you doing today to maske yur back better, working can't be helping, PT can be.

I understand financial problems and having children, but yo don't want to creat a lifetime proble frm not being able to saty out a few more weeks.

They do evry procedure you mentioned, other than surgery at the clinic I go to, but they also use stroonger long acting meds, But your still fresh post op and prescribing SA meds s more apropriate for post op pain. Did you know 30% of post fusion patients complain of hip pain from the bone being harvestd from the Iliac crest for the fusion. Just a thought.

There could also be muscle in such spasm or contracture they are piulling on nerves and causing the problem. Periformis syndrome is extremely painful. It's a small muscle between the glute max and glute min and the nerve passes through and if the muscle contracts, you get major leg and butt cheek pain. Acupressure helps, styretching helps and a good doc with a needle that does trigger point injections, just injecting the specific muscle with a long acting topical like Marcaine and an anti-inflamatory agent. They are also using Botox for the same reason. I would consult with another group ofn PM docs that do these interventional procedure. I have really found that any doc can learn the needle placement, but these types of injections and blocks still require a doc has that touch. Just like some Choripractors are good and some a happy to hear a crunch.

Acupuncture is the same way. Anyone can learn where to stick a needle, But to feel the muscle and understand anatomy just takes something extra. I have had great blocks and trigger point injections and useless ones. Some docs will pepper an area with multi shots and others go deep right to the source and numb it ***** can sometimes end the contracture and be currative.

I think your too soon post op and you need to focus on your recovery, not be at work in pain , unable to position or lay down and stabalize. Anyone would be miserable given the same history and time line.

Talk to your boss, do what you need to do, tell your boss and self that If I don't do right now, I could end with no options bt long acting opaites down the road.
Good luck, Dave