Hi everyone -- Need advice please -- I am 56 years old and had my surgery in two stages -- first was posterior fusion from T3-S1 back in December 2011. Had a slow but steady recovery and feeling pretty good by April, when I had 2nd surgery to bolster the fusion at the bottom: anterior fusion from L4-L5 and L5-S1 with bone morphogenetic protein (BNP). Felt fine initially, but three days post-op developed intractable left leg pain. I was put on a steroidal taper which helped a little, but pain returned. Went for a CT-myelogram which showed all was fine. Still have this sciatic-like pain down my left leg. I was told that 10-15% of patients develop this leg pain following anterior fusion surgery and that it was consistent with pain starting 3 days post-op and it should go away in 4-6 weeks. I am told it is due to an inflamed nerve and once the nerve calms down the pain will go away. I am about 5 weeks post-op now and pain is still there. I keep it under control with 1 gapapentin (300 mg) in morning and a half a Percocet at night. I am also taking herbal anti-inflammatory pills and hopefully that will help also.
Has anyone had this kind of result following surgery? Did it go away in 6 weeks? I am very frustrated because I had no pain before surgery (had the surgery because the curves were increasing, not because of pain) and feel I should have not had the 2nd surgery at all.
Thanks for any input at all!
Has anyone had this kind of result following surgery? Did it go away in 6 weeks? I am very frustrated because I had no pain before surgery (had the surgery because the curves were increasing, not because of pain) and feel I should have not had the 2nd surgery at all.
Thanks for any input at all!
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