I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you responding back. So sorry to hear about all that you have been going through, particularly at 54. Hearing about your situation makes me realize that mine pales in comparison.

My answers to your questions are as follows:

• my symptoms prior to surgery were an advance of my peripheral neuropathy. I had extremely minor symptoms but had a gallstone attack that sent me to the hospital just over three years ago that went into acute pancreatitis/ necrosis/ sepsis. The doctors told my family that I while not make it. I was in a medically induced coma for three weeks and in the hospital for a total of nine weeks. All my muscles had atrophied so I basically had to learn to walk, stand again. My peripheral neuropathy went from minimal to full blown neuropathy in both my feet from the ankles down. I had scheduled a Laminectomy for l-4 til-5 but when I went unexpectedly into the hospital with my gallstone issues and complication, my surgery was postponed. I had fallen twice and I could tell that the nerve connectivity was not there. When people saw me walk they would ask “what is wrong with you ?” I would answer “my legs don’t work”. It looked outwardly like I had MS or something but the diagnosis was mixed. Vanderbilt said that I had peripheral neuropathy, which I did and a neurosurgeon from one of Nashville’s well respected neurology groups said that I had severe spinal stenosis. But when I went to reschedule my Laminectomy and Spinal Fusion surgery it went from l-4 and l-5 to T-10 to S-1. I remember crying at the neurosurgeon’s office as he showed my wife and I how much of my back would be cut on. Spent time praying whether or not I should even have the operation but knew that my mobility was grind worse and Vanderbilt even after a year and a half was still sending me to various other doctors associated with VUMC that I finally decided to have my surgery done by the original neurosurgeon who has performed surgery on me back in 2006 for two ruptured discs.

So in May of 2022 I had my Laminectomy and Spinal Fusion surgery. As I said in my previous post, it was brutal. Have never been in so much pain and have suffered from kidney stones for most of my life, has double knee replacement surgery in 2016 but those were no where close.

So the neurosurgeon pronounced my surgery successful as my spinal canal no longer would be pinching on any nerve which was causing my pain and mobility issues. I had my usual 3 week, 3 months, 6 months and then my 1 year follow up. For the first three appointments I was told that nerves took time to hear and that it would probably be a year before they were healed. At the year mark I was still experiencing the same symptoms. The neurosurgeon showed me the x-rays and says that the spinal canal is unobstructed. I still have an area probably from about 6” t from one side of my lower back to the other where it is still numb. This started once I got out of my back surgery in 2022.

So I decided to get a second opinion from another independent spine specialist in July of 2023. After having a CT Scan and MRI done he tells me that my back surgery did not take and that some of the screws were loose at top and at the bottom of where my surgery has been done and something else which I can’t remember. He gave me a three different things he could do surgically with the most minimally evasive being going through my belly button and the most basically going through a redo. I was stunned. I asked about whether or not he thought it would improve my mobility and pain issue and he said that it as 50 / 50 at best. This spine specialist is very conservative and apparently only operates in 10 percent of his patients.

So, I continue to rejoice in each day with the expectation that one day, I will probably be in a wheelchair and / or motorized scooter. My primary issue is that when I try to walk, besides the obvious and my mobility and pain, I get extremely fatigued to the point where I am incapacitated by my exhaustion. Have to lay in bed to recover. I don’t know if this is normal or not.

My medications were Gabapentin after my gallstone surgery up and until the beginning of last year when I got off it as I could not tell any difference in how I felt. I was on Methocarbamol 750 MG after my Laminectomy and Spinal Fusion and am down to taking one (1) tablet per day. I also was one Oxycodone with 325 MG of Tylenol took it several times a day but started stepping down from that last year and was almost completely off my pain medications around the first of October of last year. I occasionally take a half of a 5 MG tablet if I am experiencing a higher degree of pain which is usually brought on by days when I am more actively and walking longer distances or am in a car traveling for longer periods of time besides just out running errands.

Sorry, did not mean to write an epistle, but wanted to respond back to you.

Do hope and pray that your situation improves as you have certainly been dealing with chronic back and spinal chord issues.