L4 L5 Disctectomy/ Laminectamy, Pain & complications, Help?

[Sasparilla]

Hi folkes, i have just come out of hospital in walsall in the West Midlands following a 3 week stay, relating to my new complication of another prolapsed disc. Can anyone help with what i should do next, i will briefly give some history, then fill you in again on another post as not to keep boring you!!!! The question i need to know is at the end of this statement.

History:
1st Distectomy 1999 following sciatica for 6 months resulting in collapsing at work & pain killers every 4 hours to no effect, Doctor useless, paid to see specialist, was hopitalised within 2 hours, Pain controlled for 1 week till mri and then emergency disctectomy the next day. Painful, treatment and physio ok, back at work withing 6months. Brill.

Year 2000: 15 months later, following a few niggles of spasmodic pain in my left leg again, visited physio and she put me in traction. Finished it, felt worse and then the next day couldnt get up from my bed for work. This time, way more sciatic pain down my leg, back pain, and all i could do was lie on my right side in bed. I couldnt sit or stand without onset Acute pain which caused me to instantly collapse. Hospitalised to get pain undercontrol, then Mri within 3 weeks, and guess what, another distectomy with laminectomy, (removal of bone surrounding the sciatic nerve). Doc made me sign & state the risks of surgery on paper before going through with it to cover his self and the hospital, and when i came round, i was told he had slightly damaged my sciatic nerve in my left leg but i would walk, and i should have significant improvement in my life.

Following this, i was refered to the pain clinic and i was quite bluntly told i would never be able to work again and that the constant back pain and sciatica was not going away and to learn ways of how to live with the pain. As you can imagine, to a career women like me, this was devastating and i coulnt walk without the aid of a stick. These word were like a red rag to a bull to me, so i will tell you of the time inbetween the last 8 years in another post, so i can update u on the problem i have now. So watch this space..................

What people never tell you is the total affect the whole thing has on your family, life, self estime, finances, confidence and your general day to day life. Before i fell ill, i was a size 10, fit 30 year old women, with a fab full time job as a manager in a big retail store, very sucessful and most of all, fit. I managed my childcare, job, and family life, and fitted in gym time too. Following my first surgery my child who was 5 at the time, thought i was going to die, i had to reduce my position 2 sections down to take some pressure off my job, and put on weight due to lack of mobility and suffered financially due to loss of earnings whilest ill and taking a reduction in position.

My problem now:::::::::: Having had 2 distectomies and a laminectomy, 3 nerve root injections, 4 facet joint injections and 3 epidurals, ostop, ciro, physio, rekki, acupunture, and lots of homapathic stuff, ...... swimming, exercise, i am at my lowest point in years.
My hospital stay found that instead of my "Chronic pain being a flare up" It is now my right side disc and sciatica down my right leg and in my buttock, and therefore i have Acute on chronic pain and have just given me a series of all the above injections again to try and prevent the disc from being removed, it just so happens to be the disc above the origional one i had removed in the first place.

I am now home, can walk with one crutch for a short distance around the house, can't wash myself, dress myself without the aid of my unbelieveable husband. The drugs i am on zonk me iout most of the time, and i am only able to sit for 10 mins, then stand a bit, and so on for an hour, then its back to bed.

Drugs on at the moment:
Fentenol Patches 50mg change every 3 days
Tramadol 50mg every 4 hours, (previously before op 200mg every 4)
Piroxicam 20mg once a day,
Paracetomol 1000mg every 4hrs
Citalopram 20g one a day,
Diazapam 5mg twice a day,
Temazepam 10mg one a day.
Movicol Sachet as directed

So, following these injections, i am still not pain free, will still always have sciatica in my left side, but now may be facing further surgery on my right disc and posible fusion.
I am looking on google for inovative pioneering spinal operations to help repair sciatic nerves and help with disc replacement and perhaps deterieation of the discs above and below the ones i have already had removed. CAN ANYONE HELP ME WITH ANY INFORMATION ON SURGEONS, TREATMENTS, E,T,C

Also, from a financial point of view, does anyone know of any grants or where to look for grants to replace my current bed to one as in the hospital, that can go up and down and not hurt me, I paid £1500 for a matress in dreams 1year ago, part memory foam and 2000 pocket sprung and i is terrible? I also, need a chair that i can have aid to get out of, but, i am on incapacity benifit and my husband was made redundant last year so we have vertualy no money to replace vital things i need?????

Sorry if i have gone on, but i am at my end, and needed to check in with some like minded people.

My kindest regards for reading my story,
Adele Teasdale aka Deli~dot

 

[I wanna know?]

L4 L5 Disctectomy/ Laminectamy, Pain & complications, Help?

Hello, sorry to hear your sad story.

Most important is to see what is source of your pain...nerve, disc, facets, or multiple other sources. Dr. Martin Knight for Spinal Foundation specialized in FBSS (Failed Back Surgery Sydrome). It would be good idea to try with him.

 

[Happy Mommy :D]

L4 L5 Disctectomy/ Laminectamy, Pain & complications, Help?

What appears to have happened is a lot of treatments, some of them quite radical, to the specific site manifesting symptoms without any apparent attempt to get behind the problem and deal with the cause. We see this time and again.

When mechanical structures start failing, instead of asking 'what can we do for those structures' the correct approach is to ask 'what aspects of the whole system have changed that mean forces are now being directed and focussed on a small area - and why have those changes come about?'.

These are very big questions, and a few clues are in the story but I can't really evaluate this here. What I will say is that the human body doesn't fail for no reason, the spine is brilliantly constructed to dissipate forces, if it fails to do so then there is always a reason. In a nutshell, a set of finely balanced levers has gone out of balance - as you know, levers can build a pyramid or crack a nut.

Clearly you haven't found the right practitioners yet, and it doesn't really matter what profession they belong to, what matters is the vision they hold. Unfortunately this case has gone a long way down this route now with no success, and turning it around will not be an overnight matter, but there is always something that can be done to improve the situation.

I'd offer to have a look but I'm in London, besides I don't think it's appropriate to tout for business here or make recommendations and referrals. Best bet is to ask friends and colleagues who they have been to for various things and consider their thoughts carefully. Phone up the practitioner and suss them out, don't just go to the nearest person in the yellow pages.

As for the practicalities of funding, I don't know what to suggest, but it's worth starting by trying to sort out where this should be going, even if making it happen poses another practical difficulty for the time-being.

As a parting shot, I'm going to try and send you an article a colleague wrote in our newsletter about turning around a similar case. Admitedly the case was not nearly so far advanced, but I want to offer some of the thinking process involved in sorting out the mechanics, and help you understand what I believe you should be looking for.

I hope you find it helpful, and good luck with your search.

 

[IncixDit]

L4 L5 Disctectomy/ Laminectamy, Pain & complications, Help?

hiya all my sympathies go out to you . im in a similar position i had surgery 2 months ago im still recovering ,im trying my hardest to get back to normal. people dont realise what you are going thrrough ,i to lost my job and all of my confidence went with it .it effects every aspect of your life i /i walk with a stick ive gained two stone in weight and my relationship with my partner has suffered /im 38 years old i feel like im 100 i had a revision of a discectomy and im still in agony im due to see my surgeon on thurs .atthis moment in time i wish id never had it done .apologies for my bad spelling x

 

[gynqanjd]

L4 L5 Disctectomy/ Laminectamy, Pain & complications, Help?

A kind offer, kvdp, thank you. Unfortunately, however, Deli~Dot is subject to the initial restrictions which apply to all our new members:

http://www.massageplanet.net/forum/showthread.php?t=56234

so it will be a case of waiting a few more days and Deli~Dot making a few more posts before these are automatically lifted and you can PM or email her.

Holistic
Healthypages Moderator

 

[octaviax2]

L4 L5 Disctectomy/ Laminectamy, Pain & complications, Help?

Fair enough and with good reason. I won't force this, but Deli Dot is welcome to contact me if this reading would be of interest. My web address should be somewhere in the system!

 

[Cuddles]

L4 L5 Disctectomy/ Laminectamy, Pain & complications, Help?

I can offer some hope...............and I am so thankful I refused surgery myself!!!!

I have multiple spinal problems including several discs herniated, stenosis and loss of bone marrow which makes a couple of vertebrae unstable and because I refused surgery for a spinal fusion at L4/L5 no ortho was interested and I then took 5 years to get my neck diagnosis which was far worse than the lower back one when they finally condescended to do an MRI amongst other things I have spinal cord compression.

Thankfully I have a very good GP and after 2 Neurologists, 5 orthopaedic surgeons and 3 osteopaths she referred me to the creme de la creme at Queens Square in London at The hospital for Neurosurgery. I have an open appt as emergency surgery may become necessary though I may not deterioate any more until Im very old now.

I did a course in pain management and many other things and have gone from being on silly amounts of medication to very little. I go to the gym 3-4 times a week and am able to work. Yes I still live with chronic pain but it is manageable.

It is important to get to the root of the problem as not all pain is caused by structural problems. It is important to not give up though I remember those bad pain days when getting up was like climbing mount everest. There is always an answer somewhere that can help your quality of life.

Best wishes

 

[Kenneth C]

L4 L5 Disctectomy/ Laminectamy, Pain & complications, Help?

Hi Deli-Dot and all

You might find EFT useful for pain control. You can find a practitioner near you at AAMET

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