Nerve pain after L4/5 decompression/fusion

I’m a CT Technologist and am very aware of that. Why I’ve scheduled an appointment with my surgeon. Thank you!

@kwolverton62 Surgery creates a LOT of inflammation which is necessary for healing, and that is going to affect the rest of the body, so it is possible that the inflammation might aggravate something that had been asymptomatic. It doesn't necessarily mean that something else is wrong. For example, I have thoracic outlet syndrome (compression of nerves and vessels in neck/shoulder) and I went through cervical spine surgery and those issues are very close to each other in my neck and shoulder. The pain from my TOS did increase a lot and it made me crazy, and at that time I was not authorized for PT to the area because the spine was not fused, and surgery was done without hardware. I was dependent on the neck brace and good behavior to maintain the support for what was done in surgery. You may want to ask your surgeon about this. You may have pain generated from a level different from what was operated on, and if the other lumbar levels can move and rotate, there may be a muscle spasm affecting it that could cause pain.

Usually inflammation starts to kick in at day 2-3 after surgery, and builds from there. I heard that from a surgeon.

I have most of the issues you all are discussing. Took me 20 years to find the amazing surgeon to do my lumbar surgery. My disc fell out and the vertebrate self fused together! So the orthopedic surgeon took it apart because it was crushing the major nerve root exiting L3 L4 L5. When I woke up from surgery, it felt like somebody had stuck a screwdriver through the top of my left foot. I said what is this new pain so for six years now I’ve been saying what is this new pain in my left foot? LOL and everybody ignores me because nobody knows what it is. I got my life back with the surgery, but I also got a new pain after six years. Don’t have the pain every day so that’s nice and after six years, I don’t really notice the screwdriver stuck through my foot much anymore in my 20 years of waiting to get to a good orthopedic surgeon. There were many nerves that were damaged. It can take up to 10 years to fix themselves if they’re going to fix themselves at all I think that this screwdriver threw my foot feeling was a damage nerve , that woke up after the surgery. Six years after having this lumbar surgery, the discs and vertebrae and spine surrounding where I had the fusion laminectomy at all is now collapsing in on itself. So the screwdriver threw the top of my foot feeling could also be coming from things that were repositioned around meanwhile last summer I had cervical spine surgery, but the screws moved because my bones were too soft and they had to take me back for a bigger surgery on the backside of my neck and stick a rod down my back, so I focus less on the screwdriver stuck through my foot L O L. I think you need to give yourself time to heal surgical swelling takes a good two or three months to resolve and so there’s a lot of fluids in your body that may be pressing on nerves, causing pain and you might need to give it time to all settle down .

Yes. I am in week 4. About 2 weeks ago, A deep calf and thigh pain, nerve pain started in the opposite leg. Only, when I am laying down. I'm hearing it's normal as well, but finally called my Surgeon, who ordered an X-ray, that I did this morning. Def. Get a second opinion, if your Dr is not willing to help you. Pain is not normal

I had L4-5 fusion and immediately after surgery felt pain in upper left thigh and low back. I thought it was the one size fits all back brace that was digging into my lower back. I called the rep to come verify the fit and then called the brace company to see if I could get a child size - I'm 5"3" and weigh 105 lbs. I'm now left with chronic L5 nerve damage, it wasn't the brace.

I’m seven months out from an L4-S1 laminectomy with interbody fusion. In that time, I’ve done a lot of searching for answers to my symptoms and yours is the first account that exactly mirrors mine, down to the day. Everything was good until day 10 at which time I began experiencing progressive unremitting right thigh, then left thigh, pain which was of a burning sensation. CT lumbar spine was negative. Subsequent MRI number spine about four weeks postop was negative, except for what appeared to be continued stenosis of my nerve roots (discouraging!). EMG at six weeks postop showed “radiculopathy“ of L4 and L5, which was not surprising given how close it was done to the surgery. Since then my symptoms have been progressive and variable in both legs (numbness, neuropathic pain/parasthesia, weakness). The surgeon doesn’t seem to be concerned but like you, I know something is “wrong“ and I can’t simply dismiss the symptoms as “normal”. Awaiting CT Myelogram, but I anticipate a high likelihood that it won’t give me an answer. From my own investigation, I am concerned about: continued nerve, impingement, epidural, fibrosis, and post laminectomy neuropathy. To be continued…

I had a spinal fusion at L5/S1 11 years ago. Instead of relieving the pain, it gradually got worse. Also had a laminectomy at L3 and that didn't help my spinal stenosis.
I also have degenerative disc disease in my lumbar spine. I am a healthy 73 with no underlying conditions. I just have cronic back pain. I go to a pain specialist who tried 10 different procedures that didn't relieve the pain. My pain doctor gives me Norco and Gabapentin. If I didn't get the Norco, I couldn't live alone. That's what I'm living with. Considering a Pain Pump.

Could u please update ur status now? Did it get better?