Complication and New Symptoms after L-5/S-1 Discectomy & Laminectomy

Dear all:

I am seeking advice. I am a 37 year old male, and had an L-5/S-1 Discectomy/Laminectomy in March of 2014. Didn't feel great after, but returned to work anyway. Fast forward 6 months, I have basically the same symptoms that I had pre-surgery plus some new ones. I continue to have pain/numbness radiating down my right leg and into my foot....by 2pm each day at work my leg/foot are just about completely numb and my lower back is on fire and shooting pain like every second. My leg gave out on me a few weeks ago and I fell onto well uh, ....my butt and it felt like LIGHTNING STRUCK, a jolt of pain that went from my lower back to the top of my skull and I became very dizzy.

Went and had new x-rays done, the surgeon calls me 15 minutes later and orders a new MRI to be done THAT DAY. The MRI doctor said it appeared that my C-5 was cracked/fractured; and that I "had some other stuff going on".

My surgeon's interpretation says no vertebral fracture, but excessive compression of the C-5/L-5/S-1 Sacro joint, and L-6 is now protruding into my spinal nerve. Also excessive scarring, etc...etc...oh yeah, I was in a car accident 4 weeks post-surgery but it was only at 30mph so I never thought anything of it.

Back problems run in my family, my father having had 9 back surgeries including 2 fusions, and a brother with a fusion 15 years ago and is on permanent disability ever since; they can no longer improve his situation or his pain with any further surgery.

I'm taking around 60mg a day Oxy and it barely touches it, but I also have a high medication tolerance. My surgeon has stated that the following are my options:

A) Lysis of Adhesions - where they clean out the scar tissue I suppose and try to decompress the area, and this would be followed by a 2nd discectomy for the other ruptured disc.

B) Lumbar Spinal Fusion - From what I read, like 30% of people who get this surgery are as bad or worse off than before they got the surgery.

Considering that one source says my C-5 is snapped in half, the original surgeon says it is not. I'm wondering if the surgeon hurt me or broke my vertebrae during first surgery, or if perhaps I broke it in the car accident. Either way, I've gotten my pre/post scans back and I look rather jumbled up now and I've looked at enough of these to know when something doesn't look right....

I scream out in pain at night without realizing it until I've woken.

I can't get comfortable sitting or standing or lying down.

I drive 1.5 hours one way to work and this kills me.

By the time I get home I've worked 7-8 hours and driven 3 hours, and all I want to do is get into bed and not move, and that's basically all I CAN do....until I fall asleep and then wake up every time I switch to a position that causes enough pain to wake me.

Now when I walk sometimes I'm getting jolting shock like pain that shoots from my right foot to the top of my skull, my vision goes blurry and I get dizzy when this happens. I'm actually pretty worried about this.

My surgeon wants me to go to Pain Management now but I suspect that if he made a mistake on my other surgery or something that he wants to get me out of his hair, so to speak.

I think I need to get a 2nd opinion from another surgeon especially since this is now affecting my vision/balance/etc.....at times and at other times I just can barely move at all.

Any advice, encouragement, sharing of experiences, etc....would be GREATLY appreciated.

Hi Battman & welcome to the forum. Sorry to read what you have going on. The best I can tell from reading your post you are having issues with your neck & back.

You mentioned something about a fracture at C5, have you had prior surgery on your neck? I know you had surgery this year on your back. It sounds like perhaps the surgery done this year on your back did not alleviate your problems & they have gotten worse. You have asked the question about the dr doing something during surgery to have caused the problem at C5, in all honesty I really don't see how he could have messed up your neck when the surgery he was doing was on your back. So, I think that would be stretching it a little too far. The car accident, sure there is a real possibility that could have happened at that time. With you being 4 weeks out from your surgery there is a chance even your back was injured. Did you let the surgeon know you were in an accident?

If you want to see what went on during your surgery you can go to the medical records dept of of the hospital where you had surgery & request a copy of your operative report. You will probably have to pay a copying fee as they usually charge for copying medical records.

I would gather up all of xrays including the MRI Scans & find myself a board certified, fellowship trained neurosurgeon to consult with & get his opinion on things. The reason I say a neurosurgeon over an orthopedic, is the neuro has more training & experience dealing with the nerves in these areas than an orthopedic. The ortho's training is dealing more with the boney structure. These neuros do brain surgery on people & they just have the best hands when it comes to spine surgery.

I would not ask the new dr if he thought your surgeon did something to your neck. The reason is the dr would most likely dump you for fear of hearing the words medical malpractice. They get very nervous when hearing those words & there is a grapevine among the medical community that you just would not believe.

Most medical malpractice lawyers have the potential client gather up all of their medical records & hospital records & they will review them to see of there is a potential claim. If they think there is something to it, they hire a medical expert to review your records & write up a report stating what was done wrong. It costs several thousand dollars up front to get a report too, but without tht expert report there is no case. You might want to check with a local atty to find out what the statute of limitations are for such a claim in your state.

Keep us posted on how you are doing.

Sorry if my posting sounded harsh, so very sorry your dealing with all this, you have my many prayers and well wishes....