pain after surgery

[babyd36]

hi everyone,, so glad i found this site,.. im from pa and im so miserable. on may 20th 2011 i had a lumbar fushion on L5-S1 surgery was only suppose to be 2 hours but ended up 6 hours. also had a bone graft taken from my right hip. the pain i had before surgery is gone but now i have powerful constant pain behind my knees and calfs and my feet asr so itchy and sore so yea i pity the person who touches me. after i came home i did what the doctor said but after 2 weeks the meds wore off and till this day im still in pain...non stop.. im taking gabapentin and pecoits and the pain just overrides it. cant bend my knees are lift my legs up without screaming.. getting out of bed is pretty bad i have to wait till the meds takes the edge off. i dread going to the bathroom cuz thats a task  since i have to wea r a bone stimulator 24/7. by the way the surgery was done in the front...my left side there is some numbness in certain area of my stomach and i have no feeling where the surgery was done plus near my private area able nd half of my private area has no feelings,,,i still use my walker just incase but i mainly ride the motorized carts if its a big store.. i dont sleep at night and cat nap during the day... i cant sit to long or stand..is anyone out there having this pain or am  i going crazy! i was a happy go lucky person full of life i work at walmart and a dept mgr of grocery...i really want my life back, im so upset and so unhappy.... im hoping someone will give me some advice or if you had the same thing and what was the outcome.....thank u miserable in pa!!!!

[babyd36]

thank you for your response... yea mine was done in the front to.. the doctor called me today and told me to take an extra gabapentin for 3 days if it doesnt let up i will be seen to do some test.. he said also he hopes the fusion is holding but also it might be another nerve pinching... i hope not they also put fiber optic patch around the plate so i dont know what that was for... but i pray he will find something cuz i would like to go shopping more than 15 mintues without having pain and my legs and feet swell up like a ballon to the point of not being able to move my toes.... im trying to think postive and i dont regret the surgery but its making me so down in the dumps... thank you again

[Kalvin]

Sorry to hear you've been going through so much. I had my L4-5 fused several years ago and I can relate to everything you said, meds, pain, everything. Although mine was a posterior approach. I know this probably isn't what you want to hear, but it's only been a month, and it's going to take a lot longer for you to recover from this.  It’s possible to recover from one of those microdisectomies or whatever their called in 4-6 weeks, but fusions take quite awhile.

One thing that's really important and I know it’s hard to do considering what you're going through, is to try and have a positive attitude. It can have an enormous effect on your recovery.

Take Care