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Low back pain, irritated spinal nerve root

Posted by Reneebird @reneebird, Nov 11, 2011

Hi! I had a microdiscectomy in 1998 for a herniated disc. The surgery went fine, but 3 weeks after surg, pulled muscle or ligament in low back during physical therapy. Have had chronic pain since. Have had all the tests and scans; MRI, CT scan, myleogram, nerve blocks, EMG, spinal cord stimulator trial, pain pump. Nothing worked. I've never even had a definite diagnosis. We know there is nerve involvement. My symptoms are pain right side lower back, radiating to buttocks and down leg. Burning pain. The MRI shows some scar tissue at L4 L5, but not pressing on a nerve. The EMG said suspected irritated spinal nerve root. Does anyone else have this problem? I've wondered about surgery to remove the scar tissue, but doctors have said not to ever have surgery again. They said that the scar tissue would come back. But, they don't have to live my life, which is basically lying on the couch all day, with an ice pack and Klonopin, which is the only drug that has really ever helped with my chronic pain. I've read about newer, stronger MRI's. I've always felt if they could just see whatever might be pressing on my nerve, then possibly they could fix it. Does anyone else have this problem?

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carolinec | @carolinec | Feb 14, 2022

Has anyone tried certain mats and found some better than others?

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carolinec | @carolinec | Feb 15, 2022

Thanks Bruce. Will try to followup.

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centre | @centre | Feb 16, 2022

This will sound wacky, but it worked for me- buy panty hose and 2-3 flat as you can get ice packs (kind people put in kids’ lunchboxes, but the hard plastic ones, not the squishy ones for “boo-boos”). Put the panty hose on, stuff the ice packs down over the painful areas and you’re good to go. Doing this was the only way I could continue working at a job that required a lot of up and down. The pantyhose is tight, holds the packs in no matter what you do. Wish I could help with the diagnosis but wishing you good luck.

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lioness2001 | @lioness2001 | Sep 1, 2022
In reply to @kharrisma "Same problem; HNP @ L4-L5, with radiculopathy/sciatica. Was losing strength & control of Rt leg. Microdiscectomy/laminotomy..." + (show)
@kharrisma

Same problem; HNP @ L4-L5, with radiculopathy/sciatica. Was losing strength & control of Rt leg. Microdiscectomy/laminotomy cured the sciatica and restored full function. Had a good five months or so back at work, full-duty. Gradual deterioration, at first back just achy, but better next day. Then needed whole weekend to feel better. Then had to back off on activity level to avoid pain flare-ups. Eventually had to quit working altogether, currently on disability. Constant lumbar pain (4 on 1-10 pain scale is my "baseline;" it gets worse from there.) Tried PT... immediate worsening of pain. Tried numbing injections @ facet joints (6 shots at once) which actually did help. Went back for the 'full monty' (Radiofrequency Lesioning... burn the nerve) which helped for only a short while, and not very much at that. Pain slowly worsening. Asked about spinal fusion as maybe a cure... surgeon sent me for a 'discography' to see if fusion would even help (turns out, NO.) THAT HURT!! Now looking at another numbing injection at one specific facet joint (L4-L5, Rt), as he suspects that piece of anatomy based on what he did in the O.R. and my pointing out the "core" of the pain. That's tomorrow. Meanwhile, the sciatica has returned big-time. If I get relief, we'll try a "carpet-bombing" approach to RF Lesioning; apparently, numbing is kind of a diffuse thing, covers a fair amount of real-estate, whereas the RF Lesioning is a precision, pinpoint thing... it's possible to simply "miss" the target with a single burn. If that fails, it looks like I'm on acupuncture, massage/energy workers, drugs, a TENS unit, and cautious Yoga. Scar tissue ALWAYS forms whenever there is tissue damage. Removing your existing scar tissue will only result in MORE scar tissue. It's futile. There's a possibility that the nerve root is adhesed (stuck) to the scar tissue, and that can be fixed; it's not the scar tissue itself, per se, but the affect of the scar tissue on surrounding structures (like adhesions of the bowel after abdominal surgery.)

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Did a neurosurgeon or a pain management do tor do your surgery?

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