I had a lamectomy surgery on my back but my symptons came back worse anyone else have this?

[painncincy]

I had back surgery on March 20 this year , I am 31yrs old , I had the lumbar lamectomy, it was all done on a out patient basis , I, after the surgery , they sent me home , I was just in pain from the cut area , but two days after my surgery , i felt a funky tingle , like after you push mow for awhile , and you let go how your hands feel , well I had that tingle from my around the appendix down to mid thigh, I called my Dr they said it was normal, I do not think it is , i still have the pain the numbness now I get charlie horses , in my back and legs , and I am goinf to the bathroom on my self without warning , is any one else having this problem?
I have had the steriod injections , myleograms, surgery , physical therapy ,
what else can I do , the pain is so bad , I haven't had a good nights sleep in eight or nine months,
I will lose balance sometimes , my leg will just go out from under me.
any one have anything like this or know what I should do ??
Thanks

[pluff]

I had the surgery four weeks ago today. I first injured my back in 1995 but didn't have surgery. I had a year of physical therapy then and it eventually got better but I had a permanent limp due to muscle atrophy. Here it is 13 years later when I started hurting again. On a scale of 1-10 mine was a 20. I am an RN and tried to tough it out for three weeks. I lost most of the feeling in my right foot. It felt like I was walking with toilet paper stuck to the bottom of my foot. The pain in my back and down the back of my leg to my ankle was horrible. My foot eventually quit hurting when I lost the feeling there. I finally went to see an orthopedic surgeon. He put me on a Medrol pack (steroids) and I got better but within a couple of days after taking the medicine it started again. I would only sleep a couple of hours a night. I had Vicodin & Percocet. Either med seemed to work best first thing in the morning but as the day progressed I got less relief. By evening the meds wouldn't work at all. He did an MRI after the first visit and it showed a bulging area at L5 S1. I told him which discs it was at the first visit since I had had this injury previously. The pain would not go away. I asked for the surgery and he did it hesitantly as a same day surgery. Prior to the surgery he said that there was no way, based on the MRI, that I could be having that amount of pain. When I woke up in the recovery room he told me that he was shocked to see the state of my nerve when he opened me up. He said the nerve was "on fire" and that he didn't understand why it was so inflamed and irritated. Almost immediately the pain started coming back. I went to see him 10 days after the surgery and he put me on a Medrol pack again. I got better but, like before, once the cycle of meds were done the pain came back. He told me it could take up to 6 weeks for this to get better. I called last week for stronger pain meds and he put me on Dilaudid (I don't know if that is spelled correctly). Anyway this med won't touch this pain. I see him next week on July 1st. Today is June 26th. I have been up most of the night with the worst pain I have had so far. It is debilitating. I need to go back to work. I am carrying COBRA insurance at a cost of over 700.00 a month for my husband and I. There is no way I can return to work with this amount of pain. I try lying down but this seems to make it worse. I have tried everything. The nerve damage in my foot is permanent since I waiting so long to first see a physician about this flare-up. I am going to make him repeat the MRI. Anyway, when I typed in the type of surgery I had this was the first site that came up. I am glad to have somewhere to put my pain into words. Whoever reads this...thank you for listening.

[worriedpatient]

My mom had "laminectomy" on 27 Aug. 2007 and after the operation she has lost both her bladder and bowel control.  
Did you mean that the operation might have CAUSED "cauda equina" that leads to loss of bladder and bowel control?  Why will that cause permanent damage to the nerves?
My mom is 70 and I am quite hesitant to have her go through another surgery for "cauda equina".   What should I do?  Consult another orthopedist, neurosurgeon, neurologist or urologist(for incontinence)??

[pofdog]

    You DEMAND another MRI ASAP.   NO, that is not normal. Granted, you must take into consideration that their might be alot of swelling, but don't let the doc. dismiss your symptoms as "normal" without another MRI.
     I have had 2 surgerys so far on the same disks. Like you, I was having uncontrolled bladder problems.  I was even told at times there was nothing wrong, etc...and all the normal BS doc.s like to give. I have had numerous back problems since surgery in 93 with my most recent one Feb. 20 2007.  I have lived with heniations since an injury in 2002 also, but after losing my insurance for years, well, we all know how that goes. After getting insurance this last year and getting hurt AGAIN, I told my doc. NO, we are skipping all the BS and going straight to the MRI. Kinda nice having insurance and being able to have input of what "I" want, instead of going just by what the docs "think" or tell me. I have been right 4 out of 5 times now with certain other back problems also.  Each time, insurance or not, having to "fight" with the docs.
      Anyway, after my last surgery I was still in pain, also "out pt" because of insurance.  They gave me 1 shot of demerol and 1 vicodin every 4 hours. It was really bearable, except that my surgeon was sending me home on 1 Vicodin every 4-6 hours max. I was upset.  How well was that going to help if I am in the hospital on demorol also, and still about a 3 in pain? Not that it was bad, but I knew 1 vic. wasn't going to cut it. Still, thats what I got.
      Within about 2-3 hours of leaving..OUCH. Had to take double vikes to tollerate. I had my surgery also for uinating on myself, but now I couldn't uinate at all. (well, took about 25 min. and never felt releived). After about 3 days of the swelling going down, I could go, only now I couldn't control it again.  Normal? HA!   I called the surgeon, said I was doing that, in alot of pain, and now I have pain down BOTH legs.
     Long story shorter than I have..lol...it took me 6 weeks of complaining and pain for my surgeon to finally order another MRI to rule out diskitus and recurrent herniation. He did it with a smirk as if to prove me wrong. We all know our bodies, especially after so many years of problems.  Sure enough, a NEW herniated disk, with "possible" compression.  Even though I have all the symptoms, the sureon wiped his hands of me, said I do NOT have another herniation, and the pain is because of DDD. It's all a longer story, but just know that just because you had the surgery, doesn't mean it worked, as your doc's will try to say. And it doesn't mean you haven't re-injured it either doing NOTHING. I didn't. And then 2 days AFTER that last MRI, I was just riding in a car that was turning and slowing down, and as I held on to offset the motion as I think most of us in pain do, felt the next 2 disks POP and pain.
     I write this so you know it could be worse, but also that no matter what your docs say, what they do, what they say "should have worked", tell them to put their book down and LISTEN. Have another MRI. The bladder thing is nothing to mess with. I feel I have damage now, quite embarrassing, and there is NOTHING more I can do. I am fighting to get mediacaid now to have the other laminectomy and 2 level fusion, but I think I might have this bladder problem now forever because no one listens and it's too late for that area.. Good luck.

[dakmba]

You should call your family doc or your surgeon immediately.  Losing bladder or bowel control is a condition called "cauda equina".  From my readings it is a condition requiring emergency surgery to avoid permanent damage to your nerves.

dakmba