Dear @kcooley...There is just nothing simple or 100% predictable when it comes to spinal surgeries. Every patient, every surgeon, and every injured spine is different - so it's reasonable to expect outcomes to be different.

For me, my thigh pain got significantly worse in the months immediately after L2-5 decompression/fusion. My thighs had been progressively more numb for literally decades. Post surgery the numbness became intense pain and a feeling of pressure and "fullness". The neurosurgeon explained that long pinched nerves take a long time to re-awaken and there can be associated pain.

He prescribed gabapentin which I never took as I didn't like the listed possible side effects.

The good news (for me and maybe for you as well) is, nine months post-surgery, the thigh pain is very tolerable and I feel still receding in intensity. Nerves are very slow at self-repair and I know of no way to speed their glacial pace.

Are you maintaining a diary? Nerve pain resolution was so slow for me that the diary was useful to actually track improvements that often were undetectable one day to the next.