Why? because they aren't giving you their full attention! COVID wrecked everything. They young people aren't experienced enough. The good people make you wait 8 months to see them. Got to be creative! Ask for video visits. Ask to be on cancellation list. Call up in the morning to see if they have cancellations. Become friends with the nurse assistant to the surgeon. The surgeon just needs a simple xray he should do in his office. Or you go to a local radiology (he provides the order to where you tell him). be sure he gets the results, and ask his team to be sure he sees it.
I had the pain mgt doctor (a very very good one) say my laminectomy failed. It hadn't. The surgeon knew best. The stuff around the work is degenerating. YES, it takes time. They try to stretch it out because you will continue to degenerate. So you have to wait until something big shows up. I am there waiting now as I degenerate around the GREAT work he did. The myofascial deep tissue release should have been part of my arsenal a LONG time ago. Not the stupid chiropractics or P.T. But it is not covered. So they don't recommend it. Its considered a luxery massage. But it IS a medical necessity! I feel SO MUCH better having it every two weeks. I like the opiod for 25 years, the percocet. I always just took enough to knock off the pain in my tailbone. No one wants to work on the tailbone where I live (San Diego/UCSD) ergo, lets just rid me of the pain. I really try to do everything in order to see if it 1) diagnosis where my pain is located 2) relieves me of the pain.
Since I can no longer have RFAs in the facet joints where the surgery was done I will do the steroid injection when I get the front thigh pain. I have to have a couple over 6 months and then it is gone for a while. I have a shot of Toridoil in my butt for the sciatic pain on occasion and that has worked great as well. I stay away from trendy stuff like the stim implants but have an old Tens unit. I use a lot of topicals like Diclofec (3% not the 1%) aspricream, arnica, capsicum (be careful you don't burn your skin off!), and BioFreeze. (love that stuff. And lidocaine patches (5%) or creme. Not a day goes by without pain but I don't think about it UNLESS I can't move. Arthritis is a big problem. But with the summer weather and the AC I am pretty comfy lately. Make sure your posture is as good as you can get it and figure out how to exercise and do some cardio like walking.
The scar tissue takes time to develop so that is why its not an emergency. Find something you love to do. (I am an artist). Sometimes it is hard (like too much standing or too much sitting, too much incorrect posture.) but I lose myself in the things I love. It is best to have some of that on hand when all else fails! Complain, complain, complain... squeaky wheel gets the oil!