Two disc fusion to repair Degenertive Disc Disease

[CaliGirl]

Hi Everyone! I had my major fusion surgery to repair my curve in May 2005. Since then I have had increasing pain in my hip and left leg. I was determined that I had a herniated disc, so I had a microdiscectomy in February to relieve that pain. Well, it did not help much so I went in to have injections in my back to releive the pain. The pain management doctor was really the first one to explain it all to me even though my first surgery was by an orthopedist and my microdiscectomy was by a neurosurgeon. He showed me hoe badly degenerated my lower discs were and asked it anyone had ever told me that I might need a single disc fusion. He did not think that the injections would help me much (they didn't). So I went back to the ortho and he agreed that one or two discs were totally shot so after a painful discogram surgery was scheduled. I am 10 days post op and the pain in my hip is literally killing me. Everytime I try to stand, it feels like the hip seizes up and I can barely stand. I cannot describe the pain. Additionally, it never stops all night so sleeping is difficult. The hip which I thought would be helped by this surgery just throbs all the time. My questions are: What do you think is causing this horrible pain when I try to stand and is this going to get better with time, or did they just make it worse? On top of everthing my doctor is being less than helpful. He has not even called since surgery to see how I am doing and the only thing that he really said to me when he discharged me from the hospital is that he thought that I took too much pain medication while I was there. Never mind asking me why. Like "Are you in a lot of pain?" "Is your pain not being addressed properly?. Anything like that might have been helpful. I am currently on a Fentanyl patch (50mcg) and Norco 1 or 2 every 4-6 hours. Does anyone actually get releif from these patches? The norco is supposed to be for breakthrough pain but the pain never stops. I can't imagine that it would be even worse without the patch. Any advise or insight would be helpful. Thanks for listening to me whine and sorry for the length of the post.

[CurvySAT05]

Hi CaliGirl, I am sorry to hear that you are in so much pain. If you dont mind me asking, who did your surgery? I too live in So. Cal, but I live up near San Bernardino. I have spent the last year down at school in Orange County.
I work for a physician and am planning on going into the medical field. I think that between the Fentanyl patches and the Norco (both of them being very strong medications) your pain should be reasonably controlled. I think that if you are in as much pain as you are describing you should try to schedule an appt with the surgeon sooner rather than later to discuss pain control.
I hope that you start to feel better soon.
Mandy