discectomy

[Kinomaru]

im 31 years old and i am 2 weeks post discectomy for l 4/5 for a disc bulge .i have had 16 months of hell with right leg pain sometimes to the foot but with no back pain.does anyone know how long it takes for the sciatic pain to go after the operation .i am still experiencing the same pains as i had pre op and my leg raise is still the same on my right leg (about 10 " then pain kicks in)
the doc and physios have said to give it time but surely if the nerves have been decompressed why does my leg feel so tight to raise.

any help or advice would be much appreciated

col

 

[tatercentee]

A friend of mine had an operation to remove part of a disc that was rubbing on a nerve causing back pain. After he had the operation he was expecting to have next to no pain but he still had the same pain as before. The doc said the the nerve had been rubbed raw by the disc and that it would take time for it to heal. At least after the operation the nerve was not getting any worse but it will take time for it to recover. I hope this is of some help to you, the docs dont always explain why you have the pain very clearly. Ive had two consultants tell me what was wrong with my back but i didnt really understand it untill my gp looked at my results and showed me a model of how my dehydrated discs cause a loss of support between the discs which touchs the nerves inbetween them which causes the pain. Some of the docs seem to expect you to know what they mean when they come out with all the fancy words for your symtoms but we havent been to university for 10 years studying medicine like they have.