Day 7 - wow, it's been a week

At this time last week I was lying in a hospital bed, watching stupid TV and pushing the pain drug button...
Today I drove to Melrose to mail letters and go to the library. I also went into Dr Casazza's office and paid a bill and talked to the receptionist. Then I saw Theresa and drove over to her house and we walked back to Melrose square to go into a couple of cute gift shops.

My leg was pretty tired by the time I got home - I still get a pain in my lower back, the same spot as before, and when I got inside, I spilled an iced coffee all over the console table in the hall and all over the floor. I cleaned it up the best I could trying not to bend too much... what a pain!

I found this information, which I hope is true for me, as I need this numb foot thing to go away:

Results and complications of discectomy

RESULTS

If the operation is done for the right reasons (that is, if the criteria are followed), then the success rate should be at least 90%. That also means that up to 10% of people (1 in 10) will have a complication. Some people may have incomplete relief of symptoms.

Incomplete relief

It is important to remember that most people will have some leg pain after the surgery and this pain often comes and goes especially in the first six weeks. This is to be expected.

Incomplete relief refers to continuing symptoms that do not go away. The symptoms may include leg pain, numbness, pins and needles or weakness. It is often minor and no more than an inconvenience but occasionally can be severe. It happens most commonly due to nerve damage that has occurred while the disc prolapse has been pressing on the nerve. Simple removal of the pressure does not always mean the nerve functions normally straight away.

An analogy I use is dropping a brick on your foot – taking the brick off gets rid of a lot of the pain but some pain continues. If the brick has caused enough damage, some of the pain may never go away. The nerve may continue to recover after discectomy for up to two years (this especially applies to weakness in the foot) but the majority of recovery occurs within the first three months. The other reason you may have incomplete relief is that all of the pressure has not been removed. This may be because some of the disc material has been left behind, because there is some pressure due to bone overgrowth that has not been removed, or that the wrong level or side has been operated on. This is mentioned below.