Hi fifi,

Sorry for the late reply. To answer your question, yes the laminotomies eliminated the pain I was having on the back of my right leg and buttock. Before the surgery, I couldn't stand for more than a minute without having to sit down. I don't know why sitting down was easier.

The laminotomy surgery solved two problems - 1) it allowed the surgeon to remove the pieces of disc (S1/L5) that had ruptured and were in my lumbar spinal canal. I'm sure that was causing a lot of the nerve-compression pain I was feeling and 2) it allowed the surgeon to file down arthritic spurs/osteophytes that had formed in my spinal canal. This created more space inside my lumbar spinal canal (eased the spinal stenosis) and stopped the pressure on my sciatic nerve.

I had that surgery around 2014, so ten years ago. I've had no pain since. The first surgeon I saw would only do a fusion, probably of S1/L5/L4. I wanted to avoid fusion and found another very gifted surgeon who was ok with doing laminotomies.

To be clear, I am now 70 and ten years past the surgery. While I have a very strong core and work on that every day, my new surgeon has told me if sciatica returns, he will have to fuse those three vertebra. So I'm very motivated to do core exercises.

You mentioned you're 66, so having the problems you describe is not unusual. I was 60 when it happened to me (surgery), and my first bout with sciatica happened when I was 53. The first time the pain subsided on its own after a month or two. That was caused by a bulging disc that eventually returned to normal.

All the best to you fifi! Please let us know how you are from time to time.

Joe