Hopefully a Hopeful Story For Others With Sciatica Posted: 06-02-05 11:05am
Hi,
before I had my surgery, I searched online
and read lots of stories from sufferers,
mostly stories of grief, and so I wanted
to come back and post a positive story.
I had bad sciatica for several months. I
believe it resulted from a back injury
years ago that got worse over time. The
pain got to where I could do everything
fine except walk, sit, stand, drive, or
sleep.
Anyway, I got the mri. I definitely had a
big ole chunk sticking out against the
nerve, and a piece broken off.
I decided within a couple of days to skip
the steroid injections. How are they
gonna help with a big piece of disc
pushing up against the nerve? I talked it
over with the surgeon (orthepedic, not
neuro,) and set up the surgery for like a
week later.
I was nervous. Never had surgery before.
But I tried to keep a real strong positive
attitude, and I prayed.
Well, the surgery was 2.5 months ago and
so far it's been great. Am I 100%? No.
It's very gradual recovery in terms of
strength. There is sometimes a light
achiness in my "bad" leg and around the
incision site.
But it is nothing, I mean nothing like how
the sciatica was. I felt relief from the
sciatica the day of the surgery. I was
home that day. I got a month off from
work on short term disability. I can
drive, walk, sleep, etc etc. Hell, I am
back to enjoying marital relations with my
wife like a champ :-)
the future holds no guarantees, but I am
very glad I got the surgery. One thing I
will say, I was a good candidate for
surgery cuz it was an l4-l5 herniation
with 95+% of my pain in the leg. Ymmv.
Good luck to everyone. I truly know what
a shock it is to be hobbled and not know
what to do. I really hope you all find
relief. Take care,
seth
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trumanpocket
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 08 Jul 2005 Posts: 9 Location: Madison
Posted: 07-11-05 13:51pm
Seth,
don't know if you are still looking at the
site, but I wanted to thank you for your
story. I have the exact problem you had
with the l4-l5 disk. Can't sleep, sit,
stand or walk without pain. And my
husband and I have not been "close" for
the past 8 week, which was when the pain
started. Have taken 3 weeks of oral
steroids and pt without success. My
doctor says I need surgery and that the
epidural shots will not help me since the
oral steroids did not do much.
Back surgery really scares me, even
thought there is a 90-95% success rate for
this type of surgery. And the only
stories I can find is the 5% failures.
I am going to try the epidural shot even
though the chances of it working are
small. I am trying to get my mind set
for the fact that I may have to have
surgery.
