Hi. Best wishes on your journey, and thanks for sharing. I had lumbar spinal fusion L4-L5–S1 using ALIF procedure. This is after 20 years of lower back pain. I’m now 11 days post surgery, and I’m having periods of intense pain in the buttocks that keep me from sleeping. Last night I slept one hour. Tonight it’s 4:20 am (lol) and I had maybe 3 hours of sleep so far and my buttocks hurt so much.

Did you have any similar post op pain and loss of sleep and how long did it take before there episodes came to an end?

You also said your surgery was successful, but I don’t understand, as you’re describing so many issues a year later. How did the surgery actually help?

Thanks so much for sharing, and I’m hoping you had some pain relief and that things go well in the future.