When will I know if Lamenectomy successful ams recovery time

Richlub, it is early but I think it is time for a third opinion.
You should be able to get an anesthesia injection that would tell you if pain is coming from the labral tear. Relief would be temporary but would help determine if the labral tear is causing the pain. It can be an office procedure if your physician has ultrasound equipment.
I have a labral tear causing pain and had the in office lidocaine injection. Steroid can be used that sometimes provides a few months of pain. I had relief from the lidocaine for six hours, so my injections was purely diagnostic.
I haven't had laminectomy, so I'm not really any help.
I wish you well.

@richlub I wanted to welcome you to Connect. I'm sorry you are having so much pain and the worry that comes with wondering what your outcome from surgery will be. It takes a lot of time before you'll answer that question. I am guessing from your description that you had a lumbar surgery and the laminectomies were done to decompress the central canal stenosis? It is also possible to have pain that mimics a spine problem and that can generate similar pain. I'm sure that you did have a physical problem evidenced on your imaging that determined the need for surgery. You may have another condition in addition to the prior physical compression in your spine that is generating pain. Right now, it may not be possible to separate where the pain is coming from until you are healed from your surgery.

There is a condition called Lumbar Plexus Compression Syndrome that can generate pain similar to a lumbar spine problem. Here is a link from MSK Neurology that describes these issues.

"How to identify and treat lumbar plexus compression syndrome (LPCS)"
https://mskneurology.com/identify-treat-lumbar-plexus-compression-syndrome-lpcs/

The surgery you just had (and prior surgeries) will have also created scar tissue, and in time, that scar tissue tends to tighten up which can cause pain. A very good way to treat fascial pain and tight tissue is myofascial release therapy. I have been doing this MFR therapy for over 10 years for thoracic outlet syndrome, and during that time, I developed cervical stenosis and had a fusion at C5/C6. The treatment I was doing prior to my spine surgery helped loosen my neck so it was easier for the surgeon to retract tissue during surgery. It is too early right now to try MFR therapy because you are healing from surgery, but later it may help by releasing overly tight tissues. It helps get the body better aligned and moving better. We can get stuck by injuries, scar tissue, and posture and habits and we find we can't move properly and it may cause pain.

Here is a discussion on Myofascial release with lots of links to information.

Neuropathy - "Myofascial Release Therapy (MFR) for treating compression and pain"
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/myofascial-release-therapy-mfr-for-treating-compression-and-pain/

This would be something you could try before you consider more surgery to see how far your recovery can take you. I continue to do this type of stretching and often release the tightness in my surgical scar and I feel better for having done it. I did have good success for my fusion surgery and my plan is to maintain proper posture and movement and that by reducing the excess forces causes by tightness, I think that will help avoid putting excess forces on my remaining discs, and it may help prevent further disc degeneration. That is my hope anyway and time will tell. I'm going to try to prevent that any way that I can. Per my spine surgeon, maintaining good core strength is the best way not to need his services again.

What they told me was it takes 6 weeks for the incision to heal fully. My experience was soon after 6 weeks, it tightened up and I had some increasing pain because of it until I could stretch it out. I felt good at 6 weeks, but was always aware I had had surgery. By 3 months, I could start to forget I had surgery and was feeling more normal. Sometimes recovery to your maximum medical improvement may take a year or more. You mentioned having a lot of prior surgeries. Those incisions and scar tissue may be contributing to the pain you have now and it can kind of connect together in your body like an interconnected spider web.

Have you heard about myofascial release therapy before? Every patient is different, so my experience is probably different that yours except for the common thread of scar tissue.

Thank you for the reply. I am glad you have recovered well and appear to be healthy. I should have been more clear. This was my first back surgery (I previously underwent a successful cervical fusion). The other surgeries were not to my back, so the existence of scar tissue was not the cause of the original pain, which I have been dealing with for 30 years but became unbearable; facet and epidurals were no longer proved effective. I was diagnosed with spondylosis, five herniations, and severe stenosis (my lumbar spinal canal
is/was effectively closed). My first spinal surgeon said I likely needed a triple fusion. The doctor who ended up performing the surgery said he believed a triple fusion was not yet necessary because my problem was so acute that the collapsed discs resulted in an effective biological fusion of sorts, and he could open up the spinal canal with a multi-level laminectomy. I do appreciate the information and started reading about MRF and LPCS in the event I need it once surgery is months old - i can't even consider PT until 6 weeks post-op and I will be at week 3 Tuesday. When did you start feeling noticeable post op improvement ? How ling until your recovery plateaud? Not a very patient person by nature and the constant pain and not knowing if or when it will end it brutal. Thank you.

Thank you. I had that performed about 8 weeks before spinal surgery. It did relieve some of the exterior hip pain, but didn't benefit my upper leg/groin area. So, the thought was the groin pain was being caused by the back issues, and the exterior hip by the labrum tears. Now, it's still not clear how much is attributable to my spinal conditions and how much to the tears. Are you scheduled for surgery. I was told not too bad? 3 he outpatient, 3 weeks of crutches and 3 mos should be better. Were you told the same ? I wish you good health.

@richlub Even if you never had surgery, you may have tight fascia in your body that causes some kind of compression to tissues. It can be body wide. For example, I have tightness that extended from my neck and jaw through my rib cage and into my pelvis. It is tighter on my left side, and it tends to pull my pelvis out of alignment and pulls one of the "hip bones" forward. That gives me some low back pain only on the left side, and that is when I know to try to work that out. It has caused my jaw to be too tight, and I wore out fillings only on the left side of my jaw. It can cause the left side of my ribs to not expand as much as the right, trapping phlegm and causing a chest infection because the left lung wasn't moving enough. Many people have tight muscles in their thighs, myself included. I also had surgery for a fractured ankle 3 years ago and it was a bad fracture. The first surgery attached a metal cage to the outside of my ankle screwed into the tibia in front and the heel bone on the sides. That created scar tissue that adheres to the bone. The second surgery was fixation with titanium plates, and the third surgery a year and a half later removed that hardware. Those scars are tight and pull into the ankle and for a long time caused my ankle to suddenly weaken and collapse while I was walking. After working on that very tight scar tissue, I was able to make that better, and even though my ankle fatigues, it isn't collapsing now. You have to consider your posture, and the positions you sleep in. If that is causing a "slouch type posture" because your body isn't supported well, that can also create a pattern. I was always sleeping on my right side. I do try to alternate now, to stretch out the left side while sleeping.

For your questions on spine post op improvement, I felt pain kind of right up to 6 weeks, and then it was like you flipped a switch and I wasn't in so much pain, but it felt tight and stiff. I still had fatigue and slept a lot. At 3 months, I really felt good, but at that point I had to rehab for neck weakness. I choose not to have hardware , so I stayed in a neck brace until it fused at 3 months making my neck weak, and that tired me out a lot just holding my head up. A couple months later after therapy, that felt a lot better at the 6 month mark. It takes patience to get through all this. If you stress over it, you'll just cause more pain and it's going to take the time it takes to heal anyway.

The absolute worst pain I have endured wasn't from spine surgery. It was from an epidural injection. I got a sharp electric pain into my hand during the injection and I was starting to convulse. It was extreme pain and it was running away with me. I had worked a lot on overcoming my fears of all of this and had developed a routine of deep breathing to music, and visualization of images in my head, so I started doing that in my head, and I brought myself back from the brink. I was well on my way to passing out, but I was able to regain control, and stop that from happening. This was before my spine surgery. It was from a diagnostic injection. I think I was allergic to a component in the injections. I had to live with stabbing electric nerve pains for a couple months that were very intense and random except that if I moved, they increased in frequency. Gradually they became less, and all I could do was just lay down, prop my arm on a pillow and try not to move. Pain relievers and prednisone did nothing for this pain. Nerves take a very long time to heal from insults like this. I had cold sensitivity in my hand for a year and a half.

This was a big learning experience for me because I had always feared pain. So I learned that I could handle it. After my spine surgery, pain meds just nauseated me, so I didn't take them and I was able to handle the pain without them. It was healing pain which was "good" pain which was different from my preexisting spine generated pain, and not the pain caused by fear of the unknown, and I knew I had regained control of my situation. I think I was still improving up until a year. It takes time to overcome the fatigue when your body directs all its energy to healing, and I had to strengthen my muscles. Riding my horse at a walk helped me strengthen my core strength and all the spine muscles which helps my posture and contributed to my healing. I began that at 7 months post op with my surgeon's blessing. I know it may not seem possible to calm your mind, but you can do it if you design a routine that works for you. I know you want to get back to work and can't do that right now, and worrying about that will probably cause stress. Give yourself permission to take a break from the legal stuff and just focus on yourself right now. It's like you have a puzzle with pieces scattered around and it will take time to sort it all out and see the whole picture.

I guess what I can say for a plateau is that if I don't continue to self treat with MFR, I get more tightness and that causes arm pain because of TOS. One side of my neck is tighter and can spasm and rotate my vertebrae independently, so I have to straighten that out or it causes headaches, jaw pain and even dizziness. Stress will trigger that for me. I used to have more physical therapy on an insurance plan, but I have to be on Medicare now because my husband retired, so I can't just go to PT unless I can demonstrate a need to fix something functional because Medicare doesn't want to pay for maintenance. Since surgery my spine has been stable and I have been pretty much the same from the one year mark onward and I'm now at 7 years. I had one damaged level that was collapsed by 50% before surgery. I know you have a lot more issues with your spine and collapsing discs that are beginning to fuse themselves. Try not to think of yourself as a diagnosis of all of that. After you get through the first part of your recovery, you can figure out what your next steps will be.

I hope in all of this, there are a few pearls of wisdom that you can use. You're not alone, and I hope that these discussions can help you in some small way.

Jennifer

In January 2021 I had a triple laminectomy at Mayo Florida.
I was very surprised when the doctor, the day after the informed me that everything was good and I don't have to see him again.
Two months later I had neuropathy in my left thigh and knee.

Am am optimist by nature and always try to be ahead of the curve recovery-wise. I had a Laminectomy and Spinal Fusion surgery from S-1 to T-10 15 months ago. I wish I could tell you that my experience was positive but I am still experiencing pain and mobility issues. My neurosurgeon sold me that because of the nature of my surgery it might take up to a year, as nerves take longer to repair themselves.

Here I am 15 months out and am still in pain and have pretty significant mobility issues. I went and got another option from a spine specialist who after having me get an updated Lumbar MRI and CT Scan told me that the surgery “did not take” that I needed to have possibly a ALIB, I believe it is, to fix the screws that are loose in the lower lumbar area (S-1) and also at the T-10 vertebrae. Today he me doctor said that it was probably leas than a 50% probability that I would be any better from a pain standpoint. Recommended that I see another orthopedics spine specialist who performs procedures for spinal stimulators, which hopefully help relieve at least part of your pain.

I know that it may not be the encouragement that you would like to have, but I had been looking for some kind of forum or support group who actually has gone through their own back and spine issues. Kudos to Mayo for providing this kind of outreach. Sure beats hearing your neurosurgeon tell you at all the follow up appointments that “well you had major back surgery and it will take time”.

Hope you have a much more positive experience than I did. I have tried to use my circumstance to see the positives in life where I had been too busy to see them when I was running full board at Mach II with my hair on fire !

Onward and upward …….

Sorry to hear that. Yes, it is beyond frustrating. Did you get any relief whatsoever? How do you manage the pain? what drugs? i am taking percocet, celoxib, and merhocarbamol. They haven't done anything and I am worse than pre-op. i walk with a walker and cannot sit at all. I have an adjustable bed that i used for work but i cannot work because the compression kills so i cannot draft ( ami an attorney). This is obviously a major problem. I have had 11 surgeries - this is my first back
surgeries and i always got progressive better after a week at most, so
i have never been thru this. Unlike you i am pessimist by nature, although i believe a realist, and something just didn't feel right after the surgery. the dr originally said i should feel relief within a few days. then it was a couple of weeks, and now he said 80 percent better in 3 months. Given the moving of the goal
posts, and the lack of improvement after 4 weeks, i find hard to believe. I have read a lot of post-lamicectomy syndrome/failed back surgery syndrome, which i fear i have. has anyone mentioned that to u?

Hi Richlub. Hard to be a pessimist in the world of back surgery! I learned early in researching what to expect with my cervical (4-level ACDF) and lumbar (4-level decompression and fusion) surgeries … a very important “truth”: No two back surgeries are alike! Lumbar is a tougher road for recovery - but such variables as: different back problems + different surgeon quality + different pre-surgical physical condition (you get the point) make it near impossible to hear about what someone else experienced and extrapolate that input to create your own precise expectations.

I also learned surgeons struggle to give patients a definitive answer regarding post-surgical recovery. General answers are what you should expect. I was told: First few weeks would be tough! At three months I’d start to feel myself. Six months to really see the results. 12 months to “full” recovery. That timeline of expectation has been helpful for me. I also read about people who claimed they had “instant relief” post-surgery. Good for them! But that is not to be expected for everyone.

Be optimistic and think positive thoughts! Positive energy is MUCH more effective than negative…

I was told by my home health PT to put on my calendar I would feel 50% better. That was today, after my second lumbar fusion. I think to have a goal in focus helps so much when we’re in so much pain, it’s hard to see beyond that moment. It’s still early, but only you know, if it’s time to find another opinion.