Sciatica pain and inflammation after discectomy

[mastifflover]

My husband had a discectomy done on his L4/L5 on January 8th.  He is still having the sciatica pain running down his left leg and left hip over a month later.  At his 2 week check up the Dr. put him on the 6 day pack of Prednazone.  It has now been over a month and he is still having the same pain as before the surgery.  At his 5 week checkup the Dr. put him on Lodine which is an antiinflammatory drug.  So far, no results.  Is this normal or does it sound like the surgery just didn't work?  We are so discouraged.

[missywv]

i am 8 1/2 weeks since L4/L5 surgery and still seeing some inflammation - sciatic pain and severe numbness in my calf muscle.  My neurosurgeon said it may take several weeks for this to resolve but he's still almost positive that it is inflammation and not another disc herniation.  i am finally noticing that the numbness is decreasing a little bit this week.  He told me at my six week check-up that the disc was calcified and hard to get out of there - so it makes sense there would be inflammation.

Hope this helps.  Other than this, i'm feeling great and hopeful!!!  Hope he improves soon :)

[Constipated_Monkey]

The pain and numbness should ease up after a few months, but it may never go away.

I had an L4/L5 microdisectomy in March 2007. Before the surgery, my left foot was totally numb and I had terrible sciatica. After the surgery, it felt much better, but there was still some lingering numbness and slight muscle twitches in my calf.

I re-herniated the disc and had a 2nd surgery in July 2008. My back pain is almost totally gone, but I still have some noticeable numbness in my left calf and foot. I get tingling in my left knee and slight muscles twitches in my calf and foot (very very slight....feels like there are some ants crawling up my leg). I also get a warm sensation every now and then (feels like my foot is in a hot tub).

My surgeon and physio don't think I have herniated again and don't feel the need for another MRI yet. According to the surgeon, this is how things might be for the rest of my life....which is totally fine with me considering I was in terrible discomfort before the surgery.

I find that I have a tight glute muscles and muscle knots in my left butt cheek. When I push on the knot, it sends some tingling down my leg......so it's quite possible that tight muscles could be causing the pain/sciatica and not a disc.

[mastifflover]

Thank you for your input.  I feel a little more hopeful now.
After my husband had surgery he had some numbness in his foot but it gradually went away about 3 weeks after the surgery.  Hopefully, yours will also.